Stephen Kinsella: The economics of climate change
Ophelia was just a little taste of what awaits Ireland in the future, unless we get our act together on climate change. But can preventive measures be forced through, even if it isn’t already too late?
So Ophelia has passed. Three Irish people lost their lives. The scale of the damage was extraordinary. Estimates of the repair cost range from €500 million to €1.5 billion. Flooding, electrical outages and road closures continue to hamper recovery and restoration efforts. More than 450,000 households lost power at some point during the storm. Three-quarters of these households had power 36 hours after the storm passed.
We live in a time when the state ...
