The overall consensus of this year’s report is that almost every place in the US is feeling the effects of a rapidly warming climate. And what’s more, this is expected to get worse over the next 10 years. The use of fossil fuels is largely to blame, according to the new report from federal agencies.
The report warns that planet-warming pollution in the US is slowly decreasing, but it is not fast enough to meet the nation’s targets. We also don’t meet the UN-sanctioned goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius – That’s the threshold beyond which scientists warn can be really harmful to life on Earth.
Brenda Mallory chairs the Council of Enviornmental Quality
Brenda Mallory: And the National Climate Assessment chronicles what that looks like in every region, and it tells us what we can do in order to address these issues. It takes our understanding of these issues to a new level.
Dr Arati Prahbhaker is the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She emphasized the accessibility of the report.
Prahbhaker: So, one thing that I’m particularly excited about, and that was really the vision of this national climate assessment from the very beginning, is the fact that this is a document that’s designed for everyone to use and it’s practical and really enlightening in some terrific ways.
She highlighted that it can be especially useful for water utility managers, city planners, and hospital administrators and demonstrated how it can be used.
Prahbhaker: Well, this tool will let you go in and zoom all the way into your city, to your neighborhood, and figure out for that area how many days of what level of extreme precipitation is coming. That’s something you can plan on.
The tools can help Americans better prepare as it provides them with a better understanding of the climate in a particular moment, says Dr Prahbhaker.
Prahbhaker: This is how people across America can prepare for and take action to respond to the climate crisis.
It’s important to understand the role that environmental racism plays in the climate change discussion, says the director of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, Allison Crimmins.
Allison Crimmins: And while climate change affects all of us, it’s impacts are not felt equally. Ongoing systemic discrimination exclusion. Under-investment has left some of our communities at higher risk of harm from climate change. For example, the report finds that neighborhoods in the South that are home to racial minorities and low income families are more exposed to inland flooding. And in the future, black communities are projected to bear a disproportionate share of future flood damages nationwide. Climate change can worsen longstanding inequities and injustices, making it harder for people to be climate ready.
Crimmins highlights that the report is especially created for the American people.
Crimmins: The hundreds of experts that contributed to this assessment really work to ensure that this is not just a report written by scientists for other scientists. This is a report that was informed by users, a report that people can see themselves in. It’s a report that is useful and usable.
The accessibility of the report gives us a chance to witness climate change firsthand in our communities.
For Annenberg Media,
I’m Amrita Vora