But only “4 percent of news coverage” talks about the dangers of climate change

Hip Hop Caucus’ Mustafa Ali, formerly with the Environmental Protection Agency, talks with Charles Ellison of Reality Check about the true costs of climate change and longer, hotter summers on vulnerable communities.  

“Many folks have an impression that climate change is something that is 20, 30, 40, 50 years down the road,” explains Ali. “What’s currently going on is that it brings it front and center now. The impacts are in loss of life, loss of land and loss of resources.  Most people have no idea about the costs of what’s going on. Last year, we spent $306 billion, the most expensive year in relation to climate events. Just to give people perspective: $1.6 trillion in climate change costs over the last 30 years since we started recording this – and $306 billion of that in the last year alone.”

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