Newly released climate report that had previously been delayed by the Trump administration indicates shocking climate change impact on America.
A bombshell climate report delayed by former President Donald Trump’s administration for three years was finally released Wednesday, revealing the U.S. is experiencing the disastrous effects of climate change like never before.
For the first time since 2016, the EPA has released its Climate Change Indicators report, which sheds light on how climate change is affecting the U.S. based on data from dozens of sources, like government agencies, the academic world and nonprofit groups.
It was due to be published years earlier, but was delayed by the Trump administration, which did not release any of the reports for all four years of the former president’s term.
The long-awaited 2021 iteration shows the effects of climate change on the U.S. are reaching unprecedented levels. Heatwaves are three times as common as they were just 60 years ago, according to the EPA’s findings, a shift that has led to Americans using double the energy to cool their homes during the summer months, which continues to contribute more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere in a vicious cycle. Coastal flooding is also becoming more common along all three mainland U.S. coasts compared to 50 years ago, which is particularly concerning to officials because 40{85424e366b324f7465dc80d56c21055464082cc00b76c51558805a981c8fcd63} of Americans live near a coast, and flooding could endanger more than $1 trillion worth of property and structures there, according to the EPA.
Ocean temperatures also hit record highs last year, the EPA found, and wildfire season is starting earlier, ending later and causing increasing amounts of damage compared to the mid-1980’s.
“We know tackling the climate change crisis is the single best opportunity to strengthen our economy, to put people back to work and to build a healthier, more equitable environment for our communities in America,” EPA Administrator Micheal Regan said Wednesday, when he announced the Climate Change Indicators report would relaunch.
The first Climate Change Indicators report was released under the Obama administration in 2010, followed by three more before his presidency ended in 2016. No report was released during Trump’s time in the White House, and the EPA webpage that once showed the environmental data went with no updates until March, after President Joe Biden was sworn into office. Trump expressed skepticism regarding mankind’s role in contributing to climate change and the phenomenon’s negative effects throughout his presidency. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Accords in 2020, later saying the international pact to cut greenhouse gases had been designed to “kill the American economy.” Biden had the U.S. rejoin after he took office in January.
Original source: https://www.forbes.com