Climate Impacts Threaten Nearly Every Aspect of Life in U.S., Government Report Says

Climate change is threatening nearly every aspect of life in the US, according to a draft of a federal report.

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe across the country. Warming is threatening a lot of things. Sea levels are rising at the coast.

Many of the nation's most vulnerable residents are suffering the worst effects.

Multiple climate hazard and cascading climate impacts are disrupting essential societal systems in every part of the country, according to a report.

The National Climate Assessment is a report that evaluates the effects of climate change on the United States. The previous installments were released in the last year

Sometime in 2023, the final report will be published. Dozens of scientists contributed to the draft.

The threats to U.S. society are in some of the starkest terms ever seen. Since 1970, the United States has warmed by 2.5 degrees F, while the world has warmed by 1.6 degrees. According to the report, the effects of climate change are far-reaching and worsening, and larger reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are needed immediately to avoid worse outcomes.

Extreme weather events are a serious threat to American life. They pose dangers to people's health, food and water supplies, as well as the national economy, in addition to the destruction they cause.

Extreme heat is the biggest weather-related killer in the country and is a particular threat to people who are elderly, unhoused or who have a history of health problems. Air quality is affected by wildfire smoke. The Colorado River Basin and other parts of the western United States are at risk of losing water supplies due to the current dry spell.

Low-income communities are often ill-prepared to deal with the impacts of a warming world due to decades of under investment in critical infrastructure. Climate change is making older homes less prepared to deal with higher energy prices. The report found that low-income and minority communities have less tree cover, more pavement and higher levels of air pollution, making them more vulnerable to extreme heat.

Paul Ullrich, a University of California, Davis, professor who contributed to the report, said that the focus on equity reflected a new push on the part of the climate science community to bridge physical and social sciences.

He said that while physical science is well understood, what we don't understand is how climate change is driving inequity. The decisions that have to be made are based on that understanding.

The price tag on the climate damages is put in the report. Every three weeks, the United States experiences a billion dollar weather and climate disaster. The country used to have eight billion weather events a year. It has experienced 80 in the last four years.

The United States is getting hotter. The last 50 years have seen an increase in global temperatures. The United States is warming more quickly than the rest of the world. A lot of the planet is covered by oceans.

The result has been terrible for the US. In the last 1,200 years, the West has experienced the most severe dry spell. Today's wildfires are more frequent and extreme than in the past.

According to the draft report, climate change is the main experience of many Americans. Climate change is causing many extreme weather events to become more frequent and severe.

Scientists can now quantify the impact of climate change on individual weather events with a high degree of confidence thanks to advances in scientific modeling, according to the draft report.

The heat dome that covered much of the Pacific Northwest in 2021 was pointed to by a climate scientist in the report. He said that the temperatures would have been hard to achieve in a cooler world.

He said that rising global temperatures could lead to events being more extreme than a world without climate change.

The impact of climate change will be felt in every part of the country this decade, according to the draft report. The Northeast is facing increasing risks to critical infrastructure while observing shifting species and habitats. Climate change and decreasing water supplies in the northern Great Plains are threatening livelihoods. Farming and livestock production in the Southwest are in danger of being jeopardized by the intensifying dry spell.

The report gives a preview of what the United States would look like if the temperature rose by 2 degrees. The southern Great Plains would see eight more days above 105 F each year.

The draft report found that immediate action could still stop the worst effects of a warming planet. The world is on course for less than 3 C of warming, according to recent reports. Worse outcomes can't be ruled out.

He said that we should hedge against the worst case outcomes.

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