Long-Overdue Release of National Climate Assessment
After years of being suppressed by the Bush administration, an unbiased report on impacts of global climate change on the United States has finally been released. And the news is NOT good!
Globally and nationally, we are experiencing an increase in heavy downpours, hotter summers and shorter winters than even 30 years ago. The report by the U.S. Global Change Research Program concludes that the largest temperature rise has observed in the Midwest and northern Great Plains – the mercury has climbed more than 7ºF there. These changes are negatively affecting wildlife, human health, agriculture, coastal areas, transportation and water supplies. Worse, the changes are accelerating. Virtually every sector of the American economy, and certainly every geographic region of the nation, will be impacted.
The report, prepared by 13 federal agencies and several major universities and research centers as part of a 1990 law that requires the White House to produce regular status updates on climate change in the United States, was ready more than 2 years ago, but was suppressed by the Bush administration. An much-redacted and abbreviated draft was released a year ago after several environmental groups successfully sued the government in federal district court. The Obama administration released the full, un-edited report yesterday.
Additional details from the report, as well as the full 196-page document, can be found at the Global Climate Change Research Program website here.
The climate has changed dramatically! Summer has been rainy and gray! And before it was hot and sunny!