In the high-stakes fight against climate change, the United States — and the planet — are at a moment that is both hopeful and harrowing.
U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases have fallen, even as the country’s population and economy grow. Since 2018, cities in every region have ramped up their efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.
Still, the effects of climate change that are being experienced already today — more damaging storms, deadly heatwaves and floods — are “likely unprecedented over thousands of years.” They are touching everything, from economic security to human health, with underserved communities often harmed the most. And while no part of the country has been unscathed, few are as vulnerable to the worsening effects as the Southeast.
Those are among the main findings from the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), a sweeping federal report released Tuesday, that provides a comprehensive look at how the country is being affected by climate change and what it is doing to respond.
Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist and one of the authors of the assessment, said “too many people still think of climate change as an issue that’s distant from us in space or time or relevance.”
“[The report] shows us how — if we live in the U.S. — the risks matter, and so to do our choices,” Hayhoe added.
More than 500 authors and 260 contributors worked on this edition, including several from Georgia. The last report was released in 2018 during the Trump administration, but much has changed since then.
In 2021, under President Joe Biden’s administration, the U.S. re-entered the Paris Climate Agreement, the international pact that seeks to limit global warming. With the votes of Democrats in Congress, Biden also passed his signature climate and health care law — the Inflation Reduction Act —…
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