Today, Volume II of the fourth National Climate Assessment report was released by the Administration. Volume I, released last year, was an authoritative assessment of the science of climate change. Volume II, Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States, provides a regional focus that details the specific impacts climate change is having and will have on different regions of the United States; adaptation and mitigation strategies; and large scale specific impacts on areas as diverse as our water and energy supply, transportation, agriculture, cities, air quality, and perhaps most importantly on human health.
The National Climate Assessment report is compiled by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), “a Federal program mandated by Congress to coordinate Federal research and investments in understanding the forces shaping the global environment, both human and natural, and their impacts on society.” The National Climate Assessment brings together the expertise of hundreds of the nation’s top scientists along with input from of the American public and concerned organizations. The Administration is congressionally-mandated to release the Assessment every four years.
Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson’s (D-TX) statement is below.
“This report provides the most comprehensive look at the effects of climate change on the United States ever, and the results, as we’ve sadly grown accustomed to, are quite terrifying – increased wildfires, more damaging storms, dramatic sea level rise, more harmful algal blooms, disease spread, dire economic impacts, the list goes on and on. That being said, all hope is not lost, but we must act now. We have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, work on adaptation and mitigation, and explore technology solutions such as geoengineering and carbon capture and sequestration. That is why I have made climate change one of my top priorities for the Committee going in to the next Congress.”
To read more on the Fourth National Climate Assessment, please visit http://www.globalchange.gov/.
