Media touted paper that climate change will make world poorer, but kept silent as flaws are revealed
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/media-touted-study-claiming-climate-change-will-world-poorer-silentWhen a study published last year in the peer-reviewed journal Nature found that climate change would cost the globe $38 trillion per year by 2050 — ultimately reducing GDP by 19% over the next 24 years — many media outlets were quick to jump on it.
“Climate change will make you poorer,” CNN warned. The Guardian reported on the study under the headline, “Climate crisis: average world incomes to diminish by nearly a fifth by 2050.” Reuters and Forbes also carried articles on the study, and the Associated Press reported that “New study calculates climate change’s economic bite will hit about $38 trillion a year by 2049.” According to the activist publication Carbon Brief, only one other study received more mentions in the media in 2024.
However, the study — referred to as "the Potsdam study" — has since been found to have serious flaws. When these are corrected, according to the researchers who uncovered the problems, it reduces the study’s estimate of climate "damages" through 2100 by two-thirds. This means the estimates aren’t statistically different from zero.
Climate change is Earth being Earth.
