On the one hand, the loss of geographic and recreational heritage might seem insignificant compared to billion-dollar storms and major loss of life. is safe from the effects of climate change, the report says, and we are not cutting pollution and fossil fuel use quickly enough to stop the impacts from worsening.īut while the massive new report includes, for the first time, a standalone chapter about the climate impacts on the American economy, the authors are also careful to single out how climate change is reaching values that aren’t so easily quantified - like our connection to place.

Many of the findings are grim but ring familiar: Nowhere in the U.S. Hundreds of scientists contributed to the new report, which synthesized thousands of pages of environmental, economic, and atmospheric research published since the last climate assessment was released in 2018. The researchers found climate damages are also rending the very fabric of what makes us Americans. Climate change is not just increasing the chance of catastrophic natural disasters like heat waves and hurricanes, nor are the tolls only economic, with “billion-dollar disasters” now happening on average once every three weeks.

government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment - a congressionally mandated, roughly quinquennial summary of how climate change is affecting the country - comes a startling observation. Tucked about two-thirds of the way through the overview of the U.S.

What makes us who we are