Climate change ‘escalating severe weather events in America’
WASHINGTON: As California’s catastrophic wildfires recede and Americans rebuild after two hurricanes, a massive new federal report warns that these types of disasters are worsening in the US because of global warming.
The White House report quietly issued on Friday also frequently contradicts US President Donald Trump.
The recent northern California wildfires can be attributed to climate change, but there was less of a connection to those in southern California, said co-author William Hohenstein of the US Department of Agriculture.
“A warm, dry climate has increased the areas burnt over the last 20 years,” he said at a press conference on Friday.
The report is mandated by law every few years and is based on more than 1 000 previous research studies. It details how global warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas is hurting each region of the US, and how it affects different sectors of the economy, including energy and agriculture.
“Climate change is transforming where and how we live, and presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy and the natural systems that support us,” the report says.
That includes worsening air pollution causing heart and lung problems, more diseases from insects, the potential for a jump in deaths during heatwaves, and nastier allergies.
“Annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century – more than the current gross domestic product of many US states,” the report says.
It will be especially costly on the nation’s coasts because of rising seas and severe storm surges, which will lower property values. And in some areas, such as parts of Alaska and Louisiana, coastal flooding is likely to force people to relocate.
“We are seeing the things we said would be happening happen now in real life,” said another co-author, Katharine Hayhoe, of Texas Tech University. “As a climate scientist it is almost surreal.”
And Donald Wuebbles, a co-author climate scientist from the University of Illinois, said: “We’re going to continue to see severe weather events get stronger and more intense.”
What makes the report different to others is that it focuses on the US, then goes more local and granular.
“All climate change is local,” said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Richard Alley, who wasn’t part of the report, but praised it.
While scientists talk of average global temperatures, people feel extremes more, he said. “We live in our drought, our floods and our heatwaves. That means we have to focus on us,” he said.
The lower 48 US states have warmed 1°C since 1900 with 1.2°C in the last few decades, according to the report. By the end of the century, the US will be 1.6°C to 6.6°C hotter, depending on how much greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, the report warns.
Outside scientists and officials from 13 federal agencies wrote the report, which was released last week. It was originally scheduled for December. The report often clashes with the president’s past statements and tweets on the legitimacy of climate change science, how much of it is caused by humans, how cyclical it is and what’s causing increases in recent wildfires.
Trump tweeted last week about the cold weather hitting the eastern US, including: “Brutal and extended cold blast could shatter all records – whatever happened to global warming?”
Friday’s report seemed to anticipate such comments, saying: “Over shorter time-scales and in smaller geographical regions, the influence of natural variability can be larger than the influence of human activity. Over climate timescales of multiple decades, however, global temperature continues to steadily increase.”
Releasing the report on Black Friday “is a transparent attempt by the Trump administration to bury this report and continue the campaign of not only denying, but suppressing, the best of climate science”, according to study co-author Andrew Light, an international policy expert at the World Resources Institute.
On Friday, officials behind the report repeatedly declined to answer questions about the timing of its release and why it contradicts public statements from Trump.
Report director David Reidmiller said questions about the timing were “relevant”, but what was in the report was more important.
Trump, administration officials and elected Republicans frequently say they can’t tell how much climate change is caused by humans and how much is natural.
Citing numerous studies, the report says more than 90% of the current warming is caused by humans.
Without greenhouse gases, natural forces – such as changes in energy from the sun – would be slightly cooling Earth.
“There are no credible alternative human or natural explanations supported by the observational evidence,” the report says.
African News Agency (ANA)