The United States has said that not only is climate change a very real problem for the country, it is already dictating how Americans behave and where they live.
Devastating droughts in the Southwest, ruinous floods in New York City, deadly wildfires in Colorado, intense heat waves in the Plains are the some of the disasters that are being exacerbated by global warming according to a new government report.
According to the massive National Climate Assessment (NCA) report released today at the White House in Washington all these problems will continue to worsen in the decades to come.
The NCA report is the largest, most comprehensive US-focused climate change report ever produced.
Climate change is affecting where and how Americans live and work as well as their health, and evidence is mounting that burning fossil fuels has made extreme weather such as heat waves and heavy precipitation much more likely in the USA, according to the report.
US media reports that as the report was being released President Barack Obama met with meteorologists from national and local television outlets to spread the word about the importance of the document.
“This is not some distant problem of the future,” he told Today show meteorologist Al Roker.
“This is a problem that is affecting Americans right now.
“Whether it means increased flooding, greater vulnerability to drought, more severe wildfires, all these things are having an impact on Americans as we speak.”
Meteorologist Marshall Shepherd of the University of Georgia echoed President Obama” “If people took the time to read the report, they would see that it is not necessarily about polar bears, whales or butterflies,”.
“I care about all of those, but the NCA is about our kids, dinner table issues, and our well being.”
“Climate change is here and now, and not in some distant time or place,” agreed Texas Tech University climate scientist Dr Katharine Hayhoe, one of the authors of the 800-page report.
“The choices we’re making today will have a significant impact on our future.”
The assessment was prepared by hundreds of the USA’s top scientists and it largely agrees with a recent report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that found the planet is warming, mostly because of human activity.
The assessment provides “the loudest and clearest alarm bell to date” for immediate and aggressive climate action, John Holdren, who is President Obama’s science adviser, said at a press conference.
“All Americans will find things that matter to them in this report,” added Jerry Melillo, chair of the National Climate Assessment Development Advisory Committee.
“Corn producers in Iowa, oyster growers in Washington State and maple syrup producers in Vermont are all observing climate-related changes that are outside of recent experience,” the US report stated.
“So, too, are coastal planners in Florida, water managers in the arid Southwest, city dwellers from Phoenix to New York and native peoples on tribal lands from Louisiana to Alaska.”
While scientists continue to refine their projections, observations unequivocally show that the climate is changing and that the warming of the past 50 years is primarily due to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. These emissions come mainly from the burning of coal, oil and gas, the report states.
“We’re already seeing extreme weather, and it’s happening now,” said study co-author Donald Wuebbles, a climate scientist at the University of Illinois.
Specifically, the report warns that the three most significant threats from climate change in the US are rising sea levels along the coasts; droughts and fires in the Southwest; and extreme precipitation across the country.
Three hundred scientists and other experts from academia; local, state and federal governments; the private sector; private citizens; and the non-profit sector wrote the assessment.
Some in the US Congress and industry groups quickly labelled the report as “alarmist”.
However, representatives from oil companies such as ConocoPhillips and Chevron and environmental groups such as the Nature Conservancy endorsed the assessment’s findings.
“Chevron recognises and shares the concerns of governments and the public about climate change,” said Chevron spokesman Justin Higgs.
President Obama’s administration is expanding its climate initiative, launched last year, with rules to limit carbon emissions from power plants.
In June, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to finalise limits, proposed last year, on new plants.
The agency also plans to set standards for existing ones, which could prompt the closure of some coal-fired facilities. Several GOP members of Congress have tried to block the rules, describing them as weapons in Obama’s “war on coal.”
A vast majority of climate scientists, generally pegged at 97 per cent, and practically all published studies concur with the basics of the science behind climate change, though some still disagree over details.
However, the voices of doubters were few and far between as the report was released.
“Climate change poses a direct and immediate threat to our health, our economic stability and global competitiveness, our natural resource and energy supplies, and ultimately, the very security of our nation,” said American Geophysical Union executive director Christine McEntee.
“From drought and flooding risks, to food insecurity and increased risk of disease, small towns and large states, the agricultural and energy sectors, and businesses from Wall Street to Main Street are feeling the consequences today.”
The assessment is a federally mandated report prepared by the nation’s top scientists every four years for the president and Congress to review, and is the third such report.
