How the climate crisis is already harming America

 

See the article for more of the impacts, and for photos.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/20/climate-crisis-environment-america

Thu 20 Aug 2020 05.15 EDT

Climate change is not an abstract future threat to the United States, but a real danger that is already harming Americans’ lives, with “substantial damages” to follow if rising temperatures are not controlled.

This was the verdict of a major US government report two years ago. The Trump administration’s attitude to climate change was perhaps illustrated in the timing of the report’s release, which was in the news dead zone a day after Thanksgiving.

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Here we look at the regions of the US where it describes various impacts, with photography from these areas showing people and places in the US where climate change is very real.

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Alaska – unpredictable weather

If there was a ground zero for the climate crisis in the US, it would probably be located in Alaska. The state, according to the national climate assessment, is “ on the front lines of climate change and is among the fastest warming regions on Earth”.

Since the early 1980s, Alaska’s sea ice extent in September, when it hits its annual minimum, has decreased by as much as 15% per decade, with sea ice-free summers likely this century. This has upended fishing routines for remote communities that rely upon caught fish for their food.

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North-east – snowstorms, drought, heatwaves and flooding

The north-east, home to a sizable chunk of the US population and marked by hot summers and cold, snowy winters, is undergoing a major climatic upheaval.

The most rapidly warming region of the contiguous United States, the north-east is set to be, on average, 2C warmer than the pre-industrial era by 2035, decades before the the global average reaches this mark.

These rising temperatures are bringing punishing heatwaves, coastal flooding and more intense rainfall. Snow storms may decrease in number but increase in intensity, while the warming oceans are already altering the composition of available seafood – lobsters, for example, are fleeing north to the cooler waters of Maine and Canada.

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Northern Great Plains – flash droughts and extreme heat

Water is the crucial issue in the northern Great Plains, a vital resource largely provided by the gradual melting of snowpack that builds up in the colder months.

Rising temperatures are set to increase the number of heatwaves and accelerate the melt of snow, leading to droughts. At the same time, rainfall intensity is growing, with downpours in winter and spring to increase by up to a third by the end of the century.

This is set to lead to a see-sawing affect where severe droughts will be interspersed by flooding, a scenario that played out in 2011, when major floods were followed by drought in 2012. This, the national assessment states, represents a “new and unprecedented variability that is likely to become more common in a warmer world”.

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Midwest – heavy rains and soil erosion

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South-east – flooding in Louisiana

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Southern Great Plains – Hurricane Harvey

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South-west – drought in the Colorado river basin reduced Lake Mead by more than half since 2000

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North-west – wildfire increases and associated smoke

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Hawaii and Pacific islands – coral bleaching

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Caribbean – hurricanes

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