Draft National Climate Assessment
Released
The United States Global
Change Research Program (USGCRP) released its draft National Climate Assessment
this week, just a week after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration confirmed the United States experienced its warmest year on
record.
The report is the
flagship climate change assessment for the United States, according to the
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
"This could help
restart a national conversation about climate change," said Todd Sanford,
a UCS climate scientist. "It gives us a road map for climate change. And
the road is much bumpier if we continue along a higher emissions pathway."
While the report is in
draft form and will not be finalized for months, it integrates developments in
climate science since the agency’s last report in 2009. The impacts of climate
change — including increasingly high temperatures and rising sea levels -- are
more apparent and extreme impacts are becoming more likely as global emissions
rise.
At the same time, scientists have been able to more definitively link climate change to human activities and have found that human-induced climate change is causing some weather extremes to worsen. The draft assessment includes a number of new scenarios and maps that examine the consequences of a warming climate for various regions, including increased heat and shifting precipitation.
At the same time, scientists have been able to more definitively link climate change to human activities and have found that human-induced climate change is causing some weather extremes to worsen. The draft assessment includes a number of new scenarios and maps that examine the consequences of a warming climate for various regions, including increased heat and shifting precipitation.
Scientists continue to
study the effects of climate change on specific sectors, such as agriculture
and water management, and are producing assessments designed to help
policymakers understand their options in the context of other factors, such as
economic development and differing needs for rural and urban communities.
"Climate change is
already affecting us and there's a growing demand at the local level for
information about what it means for our present and our future," Sanford
said. "The climate conversation always starts with science. Because
policymakers have generally supported policies that increase emissions,
successfully adapting to climate change is becoming more difficult."
Read more at Union of Concerned Scientists.