CLIMATE change is already causing catastrophic effects in the US, the Government’s own scientists have stated, following a Trump tweet that mocked warnings about global warming.
Their new report points out that disasters are not only happening now but will cost the economy billions of dollars in the future and have an enormous impact on health if the President continues to ignore climate change.
The Fourth National Climate Assessment has been compiled with the assistance of US government departments and agencies and is completely at odds with Trump’s fossil fuel priorities and determination to relax environmental regulations in order to boost economic growth.
It was released after a cold snap in Washington this week prompted the President to tweet: “Whatever happened to global warming?”
However, despite being put together by the government’s own scientists, the White House has denounced it as inaccurate.
Environmentalists hit back, questioning the decision to release the report on one of the main holiday weekends in the US, a time traditionally used by governments to bury bad news.
Senator Bernie Sanders joined the protests, accusing the White House of seeking to “bury a new report about the devastating consequences of climate change”.
“Why?” tweeted Sanders. “Because Trump’s actions are actively making it worse.”
The report, in fact, blows a hole through Trump’s insistence that climate change is a hoax.
“The global average temperature is much higher and is rising more rapidly than anything modern civilisation has experienced, and this warming trend can only be explained by human activities,” said David Easterling director of the Technical Support Unit at the NOAA National Centre for Environmental Information.
Examples of the effect of climate change already happening in the US are given in the report and include an increase in insect borne diseases in Florida, crop failures in the drought-hit Great Plains and overwhelmed dams in the south.
If climate change continues, diseases like dengue fever, Zika and chikungunya will more than double, resulting in thousands of premature deaths. No-one’s health will be immune although the poor, communities of colour, children and the elderly will be more at risk.
Wildfires, which are already more devastating than in previous decades, could destroy up to six times more forest area annually by 2050 and safe water in the Caribbean and Hawaii could become scarce as a result of the rise in temperatures.
The report concludes that the monetary cost will be huge, with public infrastructure and $1 trillion worth of property and land at risk of storm surges, flooding and an increase in sea levels. Blackouts and power failures will cost businesses hundreds of billions of dollars and the risk can only be mitigated by “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”, according to the report.
“With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century - more than the current gross domestic product (GDP) of many US states.”
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