21 Jan 2026
Valuing the cost to human life in climate-change, cost-benefit analysis. Throughout the history of the EPA this number has been fairly placed at around $11.7 million according to the NYTimes app.
However, Trump 2.0 has very recently settled on zero dollars mainly to shortsightedly and devastatingly to us save businesses the cost of clean-up and mitigation from climate-change.
This is a disaster for mitigating against climate-change for current and future generations. Trump 2.0 has a comprehensive pro-business narrow lens and prism to view climate-change in increasing short-term business terms at the expense of the future for the rest of us.
For example, with this policy in mind CFCs have increased by 2.4 percent in 2025 alone and the first increase in two years after steady, necessary to save our plant in our lifetime.
These declines had been in line with the critical warnings and spot-on forecasts of experts and international policy, including the UN Structure for Climate Change and the Paris Accord on Climate Change as well as growing peace of mind that when we come together we can beat climate-change and save our planet Earth.
The 2.4 percent CFC increase is a deadly number forecasting more increased in number and in frequency weather events in the coming years which will affect millions of global residents if not billions with forecasted trillions of dollars in human suffering and property damage as well.
This being said it is crystal clear that Trump 2.0 is lethal and prohibitively costly in terms of egregiously discounted human life moving forward for the vast majority of Americans and global inhabitants.
What can be done is taxing. The 1986 Tax Code needs comprehensive revision to make high-emitting polluters and businesses pay their fair share for mitigation and cleanup.
It should also provide fair, progressive discounts to those who toe the line like most of us in terms of lowering our carbon footprints with hybrid vehicles, EVs, bicycles and other forms of transportation, e.g., that lower significantly harmful and deadly emissions in our society.
Currently many states have this all backwards. Hybrids face a $75 surcharge in Wisconsin alone. This is not encouraging the critical transformation ASAP of our nation’s car fleet to non-gas-combustion engines that are the culprit of as much as 50 percent of climate change alone.
All to often those that are exponentially exposed to these emissions pay the greatest cost in sickness, disease and other illnesses, e.g.
Cutting edge research has now confirmed that human exposure to these poisonous emissions cause not only asthma, dementia, respiratory illnesses and diseases, heart and lung diseases but also most recently Alzeimers disease.
In a survey of this area, nonetheless, there have been more and more court successes. Most recently a multi-billion dollar wind farm in Virginia was allowed to move forward with construction of wind turbines for energy against the appeals of Trump 2.0.
Courts have also allowed two other similar wind-farm construction projects to resume.
Earth Justice, e.g., is also winning cases across the states in favour of environment and climate-change causes against recalcitrant business interests, including too well-lubed lobbies, with concerted, focused state and local advocacies securing funding for related projects.
Regarding bio-diversity, an international court recently ruled in a sea-change verdict to safeguard and protect marine life in international waters.