U.S. Climate Report Warns of Damaged Environment and Shrinking Economy
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/climate/us-climate-report.html
Source: By Coral Davenport and Kendra Pierre-Louis, The New York Times.
Excerpt: WASHINGTON — A major scientific report issued by 13 federal agencies on Friday presents the starkest warnings to date of the consequences of climate change for the United States, predicting that if significant steps are not taken to rein in global warming, the damage will knock as much as 10 percent off the size of the American economy by century’s end. The report, which was mandated by Congress and made public by the White House, is notable not only for the precision of its calculations and bluntness of its conclusions, but also because its findings are directly at odds with President Trump’s agenda of environmental deregulation, which he asserts will spur economic growth. ...But in direct language, the 1,656-page assessment [https://nca2018.globalchange.gov] lays out the devastating effects of a changing climate on the economy, health and environment, including record wildfires in California, crop failures in the Midwest and crumbling infrastructure in the South. Going forward, American exports and supply chains could be disrupted, agricultural yields could fall to 1980s levels by midcentury and fire season could spread to the Southeast, the report finds. ...The report puts the most precise price tags to date on the cost to the United States economy of projected climate impacts: $141 billion from heat-related deaths, $118 billion from sea level rise and $32 billion from infrastructure damage by the end of the century, among others. The findings come a month after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations, issued its most alarming and specific report to date about the severe economic and humanitarian crises expected to hit the world by 2040.... See also Eos/AGU article What Specific Costs and Risks Do We Face from Climate Change? [https://eos.org/features/what-specific-costs-and-risks-do-we-face-from-climate-change] ...and Science magazine article Climate change poses major threat to United States, new government report concludes [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/climate-change-poses-major-threat-us-new-government-report-concludes]
Source: By Coral Davenport and Kendra Pierre-Louis, The New York Times.
Excerpt: WASHINGTON — A major scientific report issued by 13 federal agencies on Friday presents the starkest warnings to date of the consequences of climate change for the United States, predicting that if significant steps are not taken to rein in global warming, the damage will knock as much as 10 percent off the size of the American economy by century’s end. The report, which was mandated by Congress and made public by the White House, is notable not only for the precision of its calculations and bluntness of its conclusions, but also because its findings are directly at odds with President Trump’s agenda of environmental deregulation, which he asserts will spur economic growth. ...But in direct language, the 1,656-page assessment [https://nca2018.globalchange.gov] lays out the devastating effects of a changing climate on the economy, health and environment, including record wildfires in California, crop failures in the Midwest and crumbling infrastructure in the South. Going forward, American exports and supply chains could be disrupted, agricultural yields could fall to 1980s levels by midcentury and fire season could spread to the Southeast, the report finds. ...The report puts the most precise price tags to date on the cost to the United States economy of projected climate impacts: $141 billion from heat-related deaths, $118 billion from sea level rise and $32 billion from infrastructure damage by the end of the century, among others. The findings come a month after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations, issued its most alarming and specific report to date about the severe economic and humanitarian crises expected to hit the world by 2040.... See also Eos/AGU article What Specific Costs and Risks Do We Face from Climate Change? [https://eos.org/features/what-specific-costs-and-risks-do-we-face-from-climate-change] ...and Science magazine article Climate change poses major threat to United States, new government report concludes [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/climate-change-poses-major-threat-us-new-government-report-concludes]