Climate impacts to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth
The French bulldog has been chosen as America’s most popular dog breed for the second year in a row, according to the data collected by the American Kennel Club. The Labrador retriever, which held the top place for 31 years before being dethroned by the French bulldog in 2022, came in at second place once again.
The French bulldog has seen a rapid rise in popularity since 2015, when it first entered the top 10 list in 100 years. The top 5 dog breeds in 2023 remained the same as 2022 with the French bulldog, Labrador retriever, golden retriever, German shepherd and the poodle in the same order.
This is in stark contrast to the most popular dog breeds in Korea.
According to the KB Financial Group Management Research Institute, the most popular dog breeds in Korea are the Maltese, the poodle, native mixed breeds, the pomeranian and the Jindo.
Graphic by Nam Kyung-don
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PARIS (AFP) — Climate change caused by carbon dioxide emissions already in the atmosphere will shrink global gross domestic product in 2050 by about $38 trillion, or almost a fifth, no matter how aggressively humanity cuts carbon pollution, researchers said Wednesday.
But slashing greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible remains crucial to avoid even more devastating economic impacts after midcentury, they reported in the journal Nature.
Economic fallout from climate change, the study shows, could increase tens of trillions of dollars per year by 2100 if the planet were to warm significantly beyond 2 degrees Celsius above mid-19th century levels.
Earth’s average surface temperature has already climbed 1.2 degrees Celsius above that benchmark, enough to amplify heat waves, droughts, flooding and tropical storms made more destructive by rising seas.
Annual investment needed to cap global warming below 2 degrees Celsius — the cornerstone goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement — is a small fraction of the damages that would be avoided, the researchers found.
Staying under the 2 degrees Celsius threshold “could limit average regional income loss to 20 percent compared to 60 percent” in a high-emissions scenario, lead author Max Kotz, an expert in complexity science at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told Agence FrancePresse.
Economists disagree on how much should be spent to avoid climate damages.
Some call for massive investment now, while others argue it would be more cost-effective to wait until societies are richer and technology more advanced.
The new research sidesteps this debate, but its eye-watering estimate of economic impacts helps make the case for ambitious nearterm action, the authors and other experts said.
“Our calculations are super relevant” to such cost-benefit analyses, said co-author Leonie Wenz, also a researcher at PIK.
They could also inform government strategies for adapting to climate impacts, risk assessments for business, and UN-led negotiations over compensation for developing nations that have barely contributed to global warming, she told AFP.
Mostly tropical nations — many with economies already shrinking due to climate damages — will be hit hardest, the study found.