Climate change has taken lives and undermined livelihoods in every region of the United States.
The U.S. National Climate Assessment, compiled by numerous federal agencies and released every few years, points to the profound threats facing humanity.
This is stated in the material of The Washington Post.
In recent years, renewable energy has become widespread and cheap, significantly reducing emissions. However, farming practices still affect soil carbon levels, which warm the planet.
In the US, coastal communities are preparing for more severe flooding by strengthening homes and natural barriers.
The US Congress has approved an unprecedented amount of spending on efforts to make America more weather-ready and accelerate its transition away from fossil fuels.
In the United States, the risks associated with climate change are becoming more visible, be it hurricanes rapidly intensifying in the Southeast, drought in the Midwest, widespread fires and dwindling water supplies in the West, or torrential downpours in the Northeast.
This year alone, America has experienced devastating wildfires on Maui (the second largest island of the Hawaiian archipelago), devastating floods in Vermont, unprecedented and deadly heat in Phoenix (Arizona – ed.) and a blanket of thick smoke in New York and other cities due to… for record wildfires in Canada.
Overall, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events have increased sharply in all parts of the country.
“The effects of human-caused climate change are worsening in every region of the United States,” the authors write, noting that climate-induced disasters are increasingly stacked on top of each other.
The “most expensive” disaster of the past five years was Hurricane Jena, which caused $113 billion in damage to the state of Florida in 2022.
Weather disasters caused $375 billion in damage to Texas from 2018 to 2022, more than any other U.S. state.
In the 1980s, weather-related disasters that caused $1 billion in inflation-adjusted damage occurred an average of three times per year in the United States.
Today, such disasters are much more common and cost the United States an average of about $150 billion annually , a figure that does not account for deaths, medical care, or damage to ecosystems.
But while every part of the United States faces threats, the assessment highlights that not everyone in the country is equally affected by natural disasters.
Thus, low-income communities often lack access to adequate flood infrastructure, green space, safe housing and other resources to protect against climate impacts, the authors write in the report.
Extreme heat can lead to higher rates of illness and death in poor areas, which tend to be hotter due to a lack of forest cover.
“We know that these impacts are exacerbating social inequalities, including racial and gender inequalities. And we now recognize that climate solutions must also be equity solutions,” said Katherine Hayhoe, one of the report's authors and chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy.
The report predicts that food will become even more expensive as rising temperatures and changes in precipitation reduce agricultural productivity and even the nutritional value of crops. Scientists foresee disproportionate harm to women, children, the elderly and poor communities.
Extreme weather will encourage migration, which could impact housing affordability. Millions of people are likely to be forced from their homes in the coming decades by wildfires, rising sea levels and even worse flooding.
Natural disasters in other countries and their economic impacts are also expected to increase immigration to the United States.
The report found that climate-related disasters, including drought, wildfires and hurricanes, increased transmission of the coronavirus during the pandemic and contributed to poor health.
Although the US is lagging behind renewable energy deployment targets, 80% of the country's new electricity generation capacity came from renewable sources in 2020, for example.
President Joe Biden's administration also projects that changes in the energy industry, while reducing employment in fossil fuel sectors, will mean more jobs working on renewable energy and low-carbon technologies such as biofuels and climate change development. change – sustainable housing and infrastructure.
“We know what we need to do to create a livable future for ourselves and our children. This will require transforming the global economy on a scale and scale never before seen in human history,” said John Podesta, Biden's senior recovery adviser. energy.
A White House official said Biden plans to announce roughly $6 billion to help make vulnerable places more resilient to climate change.
The investments will include efforts to modernize the country's aging electrical grid, support conservation programs, reduce flood risks in at-risk communities and promote environmental justice.
Recall that the island of Dominica is creating the world's first marine protected area for one of the largest animals on Earth.
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