The biggest climate news over the past two weeks was the release of Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment: Impacts, Risk, and Adaptation in the United States. The homepage for the report contains links to Summary Findings, an Overview, individual Report Chapters, and downloads.
Climate Central presented a webinar on the report featuring Katharine Hayhoe and provided a recording of it.
The journal Science had three articles about the report. David Malakoff reported on its release; Jeffrey Mervis reported that President Trump’s nominee to be the chief scientist at USDA, Scott Hutchins, accepts the conclusions of the report and hopes science can help farmers adapt to some of the harmful effects already being caused by climate change; and Scott Waldman reported that the release of the report by the Trump administration on Black Friday only generated more attention than the report might have otherwise gotten.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch had a good article by John Boyer about how Virginia will feel climate change. Grist provided a region-by-region summary.
The New York Times had three articles about the report shortly after its release. One provided an overview of the major findings, another focused on what is new in it, and the third examined what prompted the White House to release it on Black Friday. It also had articles about ways the U.S. will need to adapt and how Trump’s policies will lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Politico reported that Trump said he didn’t believe the report. Inside Climate News reported that Trump and other deniers launched an all-out response to the report, as did Dino Grandoni at The Washington Post. Politico reported: “Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Wednesday accused the Obama administration of tilting last week’s federal climate change report to focus on the worst-case outcomes — and indicated that the Trump administration could seek to shape the next big study of the issue.”
The Washington Post reported that the assessment said that damage from climate change is intensifying across the country and it will be expensive. So did Inside Climate News.
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The 2018 Emissions Gap Report was issued by the UN Environment Programme on Tuesday of this week. According to the report, there is still a small window to keep global temperature increases below 2°C; the one for achieving the 1.5°C goal is even smaller. However, if the emissions gap is not closed by 2030, temperatures will likely rise more than 2°C. Inside Climate News also wrote about the report.
A report in The Lancet warned of cascading health risks from climate change.
Just in case you saw a report of a coming ice age, you can find out where it came from here.
These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley 