Government Report Brings Climate Change to America's Backyard

America is already feeling the impacts of climate change across every region, and the rising temperature will increasingly impact human health, water supplies, coastal communities and agriculture, according to a 10-year report released today by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.

"This report provides the concrete scientific information that says unequivocally that climate change is happening now, and it's happening in our own backyards, and it affects the kind of things people care about,” NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco told reporters.

The report, compiled by scientists from the NOAA and other federal agencies, clearly states from its opening paragraph that the climate is changing due to human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels.

The observations are not opinions, “they are facts to be dealt with,” said author Jerry Melillo, a biologist at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.

Melillo and his co-authors compiled the data from dozens of studies conducted by the CCSP, NOAA, IPCC and other agencies. They focused on how climate change is already influencing lives in America and what those people are likely to experience in the next century if the world continues pumping out greenhouse gases as usual.

Figuring out how to stop the problem and deal with the mess, the report leaves to Congress.

After eight years of federal officials brushing aside the facts of climate change, the report puts the United States on record acknowledging the science. The study arrives just as the House is debating major action in the form of the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) bill, and just as the fossil fuels’ industry and its congressmen are attempting to derail the bill with arguments that there is no proof.

Here’s a snapshot from the report of what we're already seeing and what we can expect to experience as the climate changes. It promises uncomfortable conditions and worsening resource conflicts ahead for many regions of the country if nothing is done:

Going to Extremes

The average U.S. temperature is already rising, and it will only get worse. From the 1960s to 2000, most areas of the United States warmed 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit, and they could see an additional 11 degrees by the end of the century if no efforts are taken at mitigation.

Rainfall has increased in the Northeast and Midwest and decreased in the Southwest, with droughts becoming more severe, a trend the authors expect to continue.

Storms have become more intense, as well, with the amount of rain in the heaviest downpours increasing 20 percent on average in the past century.

The storms will only get more intense in the Northeast and Midwest – unhappy news for towns like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Iowa City, still recovering from deluges that flooded their streets a year ago this week. Storms that meteorologists today would classify as 20-year downpours will be happening every 4 to 15 years by the end of the century, and they’ll be even heavier.

Count on more unusually hot days and nights, and fewer unusually cold days and nights.

“Parts of the south that currently have about 60 days per year with temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit are projected to experience 150 or more days a year above 90 by the end of the century under a high emissions scenario.”

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