The climate changes are disrupting the normal flow of things, and businesses who depend on consistency are going to be in trouble. That means lower tax revenue for the state, and more pressure for higher business tax rates and maybe even broad base taxes on individuals. We all will pay for that.
The polar ice cap is melting and shrinking, and is possibly the cause of some weather pattern changes. Some parts of the northern hemisphere are warmer, some parts are colder. Here in NH, we seem to be getting warmer winters, longer growing seasons, and more frequent floods. Maybe warmer summers eventually, and that would help the summer economy - but that hasn't happened yet. It will take another decade to figure out if the pattern changes are a fluke or connected with the polar melt, but if the latter, then the winter economy in north country has to find something else to bring in the cash. Individually, you can't do much to change the climate. It is already past the tipping point, and it is unclear what
would bring it back. However, you should consider weather variability in investments that you make. Note how the cost of ski area season passes are way down from what they used to be. The ski area industry is a whole lot different than it was 25 years ago when climate change in NH was first being noticed. Will it even exist 25 years from now?
A good site for arctic climate information from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks can be found at: http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/index.php The information there seems to be unbiased. They provide both sides of the story (that is, what could be both good and bad). The facts are, the polar ice is changing. The old thick-pack ice is gone - washed out to sea in the 90's - and most of the polar sea ice is now "first year" ice. Our climate is partially driven by an ice-cap that is smaller than it was 50 years ago, smaller by about the size of Alaska (more than two times the size of Texas). Without some summer cold snaps to allow old-ice to rebuild, the ice will keep shrinking and we will experience what ever climate changes come with that.