The federal government on Friday released a long-awaited report with an unmistakable message: The effects of climate change, including deadly wildfires, increasingly debilitating hurricanes and heat waves, are already battering the United States, and the danger of more such catastrophes is worsening.
What does Trump say about climate change?
Climate change will cost the USA economy hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century, hitting everything from health to infrastructure, according to a government report issued on Friday that the White House called inaccurate.
The National Climate Assessment was written long before the California fires and the hurricanes.
Report co-author Katharine Hayhoe says it shows the unsafe weather that scientists said will happen in the United States is already happening.
The report was written with the help of more than a dozen USA government agencies and departments, and outlined the projected impacts of global warming in every corner of American society, in a dire warning at odds with the Trump administration's pro-fossil fuels agenda.
Some $1 trillion in coastal real estate is threatened by rising sea levels, storm surges and high-tide flooding exacerbated by climate change, according to the report. But, in a bright spot, the report also references local and global action to reduce emissions, even while acknowledging those efforts won't be enough.
The recent Northern California wildfires can be attributed to climate change, but there was less of a connection to those in Southern California, said co-author William Hohenstein of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The report is the second volume of a non-partisan work of science mandated by Congress to inform policymakers about the reality of global warming, and it represents a sweeping view of the scientific consensus.
"Earth's climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities", the report reads.
Arsenal forgot how to defend under Wenger - Emery
Even now, four months later, I still say it: "'We are in the beginning!'" We haven't changed that. A defeat will definitely make us look vulnerable to be overtaken.
But it said that projections of future catastrophe could change if society worked to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and "to adapt to the changes that will occur".
The studies clash with policy under Mr Trump, who has been rolling back Obama-era environmental and climate protections to maximise production of domestic fossil fuels, including crude oil, already the highest in the world, above Saudi Arabia and Russian Federation.
On Friday, scientists working for his administration gave Trump a stark answer: climate change is a menace that threatens the wellbeing of the United States.
Donald Trump asks "whatever happened to global warming?" as a cold front hits parts of the US.
White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the new report was "largely based on the most extreme scenario, which contradicts long-established trends by assuming that.there would be limited technology and innovation, and a rapidly expanding population".
"I can confirm it considers all scenarios, from those where we go carbon negative before end of century to those where carbon emissions continue to rise", Texas Tech University climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe responded on Twitter.
Report co-author Donald Wuebbles, a University of IL climate scientist, said things will just get worse from here.
Environmental groups said the report underlined their demands for action.
In a statement released Friday, former Vice President Al Gore criticized the timing of the report's release.
Comments