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The effects of rapid climate warming are being felt in every corner of the United States and will worsen over the next 10 years as the use of fossil fuels continues, according to a stark new report from federal agencies.
The Fifth National Climate Assessment, a report issued by Congress approximately every five years, warns that although global-warming pollution in the United States is declining slowly, it is not happening fast enough to meet the country's goals, nor is it happening. In line with the UN goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius – a threshold that scientists warn life on Earth will find difficult to overcome.
This year's assessment reflects the fact that Americans can increasingly see and feel the impacts of climate in their communities, said Katherine Hayhoe, a distinguished climate scientist at Texas Tech University and a contributor to the report.
“Climate change affects every aspect of our lives,” Hayhoe told CNN.
Some of the report's sweeping conclusions remain painfully familiar: No part of the United States is truly safe from climate disasters; Reducing the use of fossil fuels is crucial to reducing the consequences, but we are not doing it fast enough; Every fraction of a degree of temperature leads to more severe effects.
But there are some important new additions: Scientists can now say… More confidence when the climate crisis happened Rainstorms, hurricanes, and wildfires are stronger or more frequent, and droughts are prolonged More intense and more deadly heat.
Brian Anselm/New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship/Redux
The remains of a car in a burned neighborhood after the Lahaina wildfires on Maui, Hawaii, on August 18.
This summer alone, the Phoenix area had a record 31 straight days above 110 degrees, a horrific heatwave that was partly responsible for more than 500 heat-related deaths in Maricopa County in 2023 — the deadliest heat year on record.
In July, a heavy rainstorm inundated parts of Vermont with deadly floodwaters. Then in August, Maui was devastated by a fast-moving wildfire, and Florida's Gulf Coast was hit by its second major hurricane in two years.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a speech on Tuesday, and is expected to unveil more than $6 billion in funding to boost climate resilience “by strengthening America’s electric grid, investing in modernizing water infrastructure, and reducing flood risks on land.” communities, and promoting environmental justice for all.” An administration official said.
John Podesta, the White House's senior climate adviser, told reporters that the United States needs “a transformation of the global economy on a scale and scope never before seen in human history” in order to “create a livable future for ourselves and our children.”
Here are five important takeaways from the federal government's comprehensive climate report.
The latest report contains important advances in so-called “attribution science” – scientists can show more specifically how climate change affects extreme events, such as heatwaves, droughts, hurricanes and intense rainstorms.
Climate change doesn't cause things like hurricanes or wildfires, but it can make them more severe or more frequent.
For example, warmer ocean and air temperatures mean that hurricanes strengthen faster and dump more rain when they hit shore. Hotter and drier conditions caused by climate change can help plants and trees become powder boxes, turning wildfires into massive blazes that spiral out of control.
“Now thanks to the attribution field, we can make specific statements,” Hayhoe said, saying that attribution can help identify specific areas of the city that are now more vulnerable to flooding due to the effects of climate change. “The field of attribution has evolved dramatically over the past five years, and this really helps people connect the dots.”
04:18- Source: CNN
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Biden administration officials and the report's scientists emphasized that no place is immune to climate change, and this summer's extreme weather served as a deadly reminder.
Some states – including California, Florida, Louisiana and Texas – are facing larger storms and extreme precipitation fluctuations.
Landlocked states will not have to adapt to sea level rise, although some — including Appalachian states like Kentucky and West Virginia — have seen devastating flooding from rainstorms.
Watch this interactive content on CNN.com
States in the North are facing an increase in tick-borne diseases, less snow, and stronger rainstorms.
“There is no place that is not at risk, but there are some places that are more or less at risk,” Hayhoe told CNN. “This is a factor in the increasingly frequent and extreme weather and climate events we are exposed to, as well as how prepared (cities and states) are.”
The report said that climate shocks to the economy occur frequently, and this is evident in the new record this year for the number of severe weather disasters that cost at least one billion dollars. Disaster experts have spent the past year warning that the United States is only beginning to see the economic fallout of the climate crisis.
Watch this interactive content on CNN.com
Climate risks are hitting the housing market in the form of soaring homeowners insurance rates. Some insurers have withdrawn from high-risk states altogether.
Strong storms that wipe out certain crops or extreme heat that kills livestock can lead to higher food prices. In the Southwest, researchers in the report found that future hotter temperatures could lead to a 25 percent loss of agricultural workers' physical work capacity from July to September.
Unlike the world's two major polluters – China and India – global warming pollution in the United States is declining. But the report makes clear that this is not happening fast enough to stabilize global warming or meet US international climate commitments.
The country's annual greenhouse gas emissions fell by 12% between 2005 and 2019, driven largely by the electricity sector's shift away from coal and toward renewable energy and methane. Methane remains a fossil fuel with a significant impact on global warming. .
This decline is good news for the climate crisis, but look at the finer details and you'll notice the picture is mixed.
The report concludes that greenhouse gas emissions in the United States “remain significant” and must fall sharply by 6% per year on average to match the international target of 1.5 degrees. To put this reduction into perspective, US emissions fell by less than 1% per year between 2005 and 2019 — a small annual decline.
03:13- Source: CNN
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Water – too much and not enough – is a huge problem for the United States
One of the most important points addressed in the report focuses on the precarious future of water in the United States, and how parts of the country face a future characterized by either severe drought and water insecurity, or more flooding and sea level rise.
Drought and low snowpack pose significant threats to southwestern communities in particular. The southwest chapter of the report, led by Arizona State University climate scientist Dave White, found that the region was significantly drier from 1991 to 2020 than in the previous three decades.
That's an ominous sign as the planet continues to warm, White said, with major snow threats in California's Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains — both of which provide vital fresh water in the West.
White added that the region's freshwater shortage also has significant economic and agricultural impacts, supporting cities, farms and Native American tribes.
“The mountains are our natural reservoirs in the region,” White told CNN. “Climate impacts on that mountain snowpack have really big negative impacts on the way our infrastructure works. It's critical for us to protect those resources.”
CNN's Donald Judd contributed to this report.
