From Le Grist (yes, I took it upon myself to change their name):
Discussions of how to respond to climate change often involve Very Large Numbers — the needed investments to transition to a fully renewable energy system are in the hundreds of billions. The brain sort of shuts down when it encounters numbers like that. They are too big to fathom. The one thing that does seem true about them is that nobody’s ever going to spend that kind of money on anything. Right? It seems hopeless.
So I always enjoy it when someone comes along to provide some perspective, a comparison that can give us context and help us see the numbers afresh. Today, wind analyst Paul Gipe asks, how much renewable energy could we have gotten from what we spent on the Iraq War?
The total cost of the Iraq War, including future costs to care for veterans, is $2.2 trillion. If we include the interest we have to pay on the debt we used to finance the war, that figure rises to $3.9 trillion by 2053. (See Gipe’s article for sources and details.)
Image Credit: United States Marine Corps Official Page
For David Roberts’ full piece, check out: For the price of the Iraq War, the U.S. could have gotten halfway to a renewable power system.
And also check out Paul Gipe’s piece, linked above.
Notably, we’ve published similar stories in the past. For example, see this excellent reader post from 2011: Cost of War.. Spent on Solar Power Instead.
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