(Posted by John.)
This is interesting -- apparently, Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins requested that the GAO look in to Federal liability for damages incurred by global warming. With the poetic and beautiful title, "Financial Risks to Federal and Private Insurers in Coming Decades Are Potentially Significant", this report (PDF link) shows that the potential liabilities for two federal programs -- flood insurance and crop insurance -- are rising rapidly and already represent a $1 trillion potential loss.
This is what's so maddening about the rhetoric about "the cost of Kyoto" and other tropes. The status quo comes with enormous costs, of which this is just one example, and many of those costs are getting larger rapidly due to climate change.
Oh, and check out these maps.
