Here’s how climate change is already affecting the US
We often talk about climate change as a far-off problem that will affect our children and grandchildren, but climate change is already affecting Americans right now, according to a US government report published on Tuesday by The New York Times. In fact, the US is already experiencing rising temperatures, more flooding in coastal zones, and an increase in the number of extreme weather events like heat waves and heavy rain.
The report was drafted by scientists in 13 federal agencies such as NASA and NOAA as part of the National Climate Assessment, which is mandated by Congress every four years. The results are based on thousands of scientific studies documenting incidents of climate change from around the world, and are at odds with what members of the Trump administration have often said about climate change.
“Many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are primarily responsible for the observed climate changes in the industrial era, especially over the last six decades,” the report says. If we don’t heavily reduce these emissions, average global temperatures could increase by 9 degrees Fahrenheit or more by the end of the century, the report says. That would be catastrophic: most scientists see a temperature increase of just 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit as the threshold beyond which climate change is irreversible and apocalyptic.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/9/16116198/climate-change-report-extreme-weather-co2-donald-trump
