New Orleans  A peer review study published in the weekly journal, Science, would give any policymaker pause about the future of huge parts of the United States by the end of this century, if they were willing to read it and heed it. One would think Republicans interested in the future of their party would be rushing to the newsstand and firing up their computers to get a look at the granular detail on their maps to plot their own district lines.

Normally, that would be the case, but the notion that this might be the biggest transfer of resources and wealth from the poor to the rich, might have them high fiving in the aisles despite the dimming prospects for much of their base and their homelands. In the words of Solomon Hsiang, the lead author from the University of California,

“If we continue the current path, our analysis indicates it may result in the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in the country’s history. Combining impacts across sectors reveals that warming causes a net transfer of value from southern, central and mid-Atlantic regions towards the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes region and New England.”

The scientists say that in some parts of the South average temperatures will be up between 6 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit per year. Crops won’t grow and money won’t flow.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune highlighted the bad news for the city as one example. They noted that the study says that by 2100 storm surges “caused by a hurricane with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any year – a so-called 100-year storm will be able to top all levees along the Mississippi River throughout the area and most of the area’s east bank hurricane levees.” The reporter quickly noted that coastal planners are already trying to raise the levees for a 500-year storm and flood and these projections are based on current levels. That was reassuring, but lawmakers are already tearing their hair at how to pay the bills for this, and Washington may not be as willing to help.

It goes on and on like this. At lot of the cost involves the fact that people will just plain die of the heat, especially the elderly, in these poorer areas, but this will be part of the 1 to 3% loss in the GNP by the end of the century. You wonder if some will be starving when the projection involves a 50% decrease in agricultural production in Louisiana for example. It just gets worse from there in places like the South with the temperature rising. Seven of ten of the hardest hit areas will be poor counties in Florida with Texas and other southern states taking the rest of the heat. Of course energy costs will be 10 to 15% higher as well. Interestingly the study argues that low-risk labor will be workers employed inside and out of the heat, but their cost will rise. High-risk labor will be workers exposed to the heat, which now is about 23% of the workforce in construction, mining and agriculture, but hours would be reduced, because the work would be unbearable. Warmer days and less winter everywhere also means that violent crime will be likely to increase. There the north finally takes a harder hit than the south with an increase of 3 to 6%.

If it weren’t for bad news though, there wouldn’t be any news in this report.