Comment Climate change is unleashing “widespread and worsening” disasters in every region of the United States, and the economic and human toll will only rise if people act faster to slow global warming, according to a sweeping new federal report released Monday. “The things Americans value most are at risk,” write the authors of the National Climate Assessment, who represent a wide range of federal agencies. “Many of the harmful effects that people across the country are already experiencing will worsen as warming increases and new risks emerge.” The congressionally mandated assessment, last issued under the Trump administration in 2018, comes as world leaders gather this week in Egypt for a United Nations climate summit known as as COP27, aiming to spur nations to address the problem with more urgency. Its authors describe how climate-induced disasters are becoming costlier and more common, and how the science is clearer than ever that rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are needed to slow the profound changes underway. Humans have pushed climate into ‘unprecedented’ territory, says landmark UN report The draft report, which will likely be finalized next year after a period of public comment and peer review, finds that in a world that has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, the situation in the United States is even more extreme. “Over the past 50 years, the US has warmed 68 percent faster than the planet as a whole,” the report found, noting that the change reflects a broader global pattern in which land areas warm faster than ocean and higher latitudes warm more . quickly from lower latitudes. Since 1970, the authors report, the continental United States has warmed 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit, well above the global average. “The United States — with the exception of Alaska — is warming about two-thirds faster than the planet as a whole,” said Zeke Hausfather, a researcher at Berkeley Earth. This change means that significant parts of the country must now face increasing threats to safe drinking water, home security and infrastructure. A warmer atmosphere creates a range of health risks, makes farming and fishing more difficult and unpredictable, and endangers key ecosystems. “There is no known precedent for a species changing its own climate as rapidly as we are changing ours, and there are many uncertainties associated with a rapidly warming world,” the paper says. Scientists have documented with increasing clarity how human-made emissions are warming the planet. But Monday’s assessment underscores how these changes are deepening the impact on the health and pocketbooks of average Americans. John Podesta, President Biden’s senior adviser on climate change, said the report “highlights that Americans in every region of the country and in every sector of the economy face real and daunting climate impacts.” The study highlights how the frequency of billion-dollar disasters has now increased from once every four months in the 1980s to once every three weeks today. It finds that the United States is experiencing one of the most severe sea-level rises on the planet. ‘They’re not slowing down’: The rise of billion-dollar disasters And it describes the growing certainty that rainfall and extreme temperatures are multiplying, as are devastating fires and devastating floods. “I actually think the report does an extremely good job of connecting the dots between climate change and the things that really matter to people,” said Brown University climate scientist Kim Cobb. “The economy, jobs, justice. People need to read these things to understand how these natural effects are going to change our lives.” In the short term, the assessment finds, communities need to do more to adapt to the changes already in place — and some are doing just that. But in the long run, the only real solution is for humanity to muster the political and technological will to stop polluting the atmosphere. “We’re past the point of incremental changes,” Cobb said. “That era has passed us by, and the magnitude of the challenges we face right now going forward will require transformative change.” Below are some key takeaways from Monday’s report, including what scientists say needs to happen to help the United States shape a less costly and more sustainable future. 1

Every part of the United States is struggling with climate change — but not equally

Back to menu From sweltering heat waves in the Midwest to deadly floods in the Southeast, from warming oceans along the Northeast coast to raging wildfires in the West, “people across the country face increasing risks from climate change,” the assessment finds . Moreover, given the warming that is already inevitable, these kinds of disasters are likely to increase in the coming years even if greenhouse gas emissions are sharply reduced. But the effects of such disasters are hardly uniform. If anything, they exacerbate inequality. “The impacts of climate change are being felt most acutely by communities that are already overburdened, including Indigenous peoples, people of color, and low-income communities,” the report states. “These frontline communities experience harmful climate impacts first and worst, yet are often the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.” 2

A warming world threatens reliable water supplies

Back to menu The government’s assessment says that even amid more extreme rainfall and flooding in many areas, there will be less reliable drinking water for millions of people. That’s because saltwater is invading aquifers as seas rise, floods spread agricultural nutrients that contaminate wells and other drinking water sources, and lakes face a growing threat of harmful algae. While some areas face floods, others are affected by drought. Between 1980 and 2021, the report finds that drought and related heat waves across the country caused nearly $300 billion in damages. In recent years, droughts have caused water reserves to wither, agricultural productivity to decline, and water levels in large reservoirs to drop severely. “What the climate assessment does is it brings it home and talks about what’s already happening today and how climate change is making our food, water and infrastructure worse,” said Katharine Hayhoe, the Nature Conservancy’s chief scientist and teacher in Texas. Technological University. “Droughts are projected to increase in intensity, duration, and frequency, primarily in the Southwest, with impacts on surface and groundwater supplies,” the authors write. 3

Extreme events wreak havoc on homes and property

Back to menu As climate research has advanced, the connection between persistent warming and catastrophic real-world effects has become clearer. Monday’s report describes how a number of costly, deadly disasters are at least partially attributable to human-caused warming, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and the Pacific Northwest heatwave in June 2021 that killed 229 people. The authors also describe how the nation has experienced more frequent multibillion-dollar weather and climate disasters. In 2021, the US government tracked 20 such disasters—a collection of disasters that cost the nation about $145 billion and killed nearly 700 people. The United States has experienced an average of $7.7 billion in disasters annually over the past four decades. But over the past five years, that average has jumped to nearly 18 events each year, or about one every several weeks. These disasters also do not affect all Americans equally. Poorly insulated or inefficiently cooled homes can make it difficult for low-income residents to heat or cool their homes. Policies that have long forced minority residents into less valuable neighborhoods now mean such communities are less likely to have adequate tree cover or access to green space. These and other factors mean that a warmer climate and the extreme weather it fuels adversely affects those least able to cope. 4

The US can expect more forced migration and displacement

Back to menu Already, the authors of Monday’s report say, major storms like Hurricane Maria, as well as widespread droughts that have strained lives and livelihoods, have driven people from their homes in search of more stable places. In the warmer world ahead, they write, additional climate impacts—along with other factors such as the housing market, labor trends, and pandemics—are expected to increasingly affect migration patterns. “More severe wildfires in California, rising sea levels in Florida, and more frequent flooding in Texas are expected to displace millions of people, while climate change abroad continues to increase the rate of migration to the United States,” the report said. . Such changes are inherently complex and fraught. Several indigenous tribes in coastal areas, facing rapidly rising seas, have already sought government help to relocate, but have struggled to do so without significant obstacles. “Forced migration and displacement disrupt social networks, reduce housing security, and exacerbate grief, stress, and mental health outcomes,” the authors write. 5

Climate change is a growing threat to public health

Back to menu From vampire bats spreading more rabies in Texas and Florida, to the increasing spread of Lyme disease thanks to growing tick populations, to the greater spread of dengue, Zika and chikungunya by mosquitoes, the effects of climate of change in human health are sweeping. Monday’s report says scientists have “very high confidence” that “climate-related risks will continue to increase, increasing morbidity and mortality in all regions of the…