Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States

Obama Targets US Public With Call for Climate Action

The impact of a changing climate is already being felt across the United States, like shifting migration patterns of butterflies in the West and heavier downpours in the Midwest and East, according to a government study to be released on Tuesday.

Even if the nation takes significant steps to slow emissions of heat-trapping gases, the impact of global warming is expected to become more severe in coming years, the report says, affecting farms and forests, coastlines and floodplains, water and energy supplies, transportation and human health.

The study was prepared by the United States Global Change Research Program, a joint scientific venture of 13 federal agencies and the White House. Under a 1990 law, the group is required to report every 10 years on natural and human-caused effects on the environment. The current study, which began in the George W. Bush administration, builds on the findings of the 2000 one.

The study, overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will be posted at www.globalchange.gov/usimpacts.

“What we would want to have people take away is that climate change is happening now, and it’s actually beginning to affect our lives,” said Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a principal author of the report. “It’s not just happening in the Arctic regions, but it’s beginning to show up in our own backyards.”


download "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States"
from the U.S. Global Change Research Program:

http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts


for complete articles:

Government Study Warns of Climate Change Effects
2009-06-16
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/science/earth/16climate.html?scp=4&sq=climate%20change&st=cse

Obama targets US public with call for climate action
2009-06-16
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/16/obama-climate-change-impacts