If Trump’s prior life as a business mogul has any bearing, one factor could eventually convince him to change his administration’s stance on climate change: the cost.The world is already feeling the effects of climate change, and it stands to get much worse if immediate action isn't taken to curb warming emissions, scientists warn. Projections show climate change could cause as much as $44 trillion in damage over the next five decades. And in the U.S., as many as 100 million Americans live in coastal cities and towns where rising sea levels pose a risk to residential and business properties.Read: Exxon spent millions misleading the public on climate change, study showsSome cities are taking matters into their own hands. Miami Beach, for example, launched a nearly half a billion-dollar project in 2015 to pump water off the streets, in an effort to combat the rising seas.As the costs mount, so do allegations that powerful interests in the oil and gas industry, like ExxonMobil, purposefully misled the public about climate science and delayed corrective measures.VICE News followed the money to see the true economic stakes of climate change and decades of denial.
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