Climate Change Moves Firmly Into the Present: Blockbuster National Climate Assessment

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2675

By: Dr. Jeff Masters, 2:02 PM GMT on May 06, 2014

Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” begins a new 1,000+ page report on U.S. climate released May 6. The National Climate Assessment, issued every four years by NOAA, is an effort by more than 300 U.S. scientists to assess how the climate is changing in the U.S. The report was supervised and approved by a 60-member committee representing a cross section of American society, including representatives of two oil companies. “Summers are longer and hotter, and extended periods of unusual heat last longer than any living American has ever experienced,” the report continues. “Winters are generally shorter and warmer. Rain comes in heavier downpours. People are seeing changes in the length and severity of seasonal allergies, the plant varieties that thrive in their gardens, and the kinds of birds they see in any particular month in their neighborhoods.”

....If you want a thorough understanding of how climate change is affecting and will affect the U.S., this highly readable document is a great one to read, and I plan to frequently reference it in the coming years . http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/highlights/overview/overview

Wet areas will get wetter, and dry areas will get drier. To me, this is the key finding of the NCA. As shown in Figure 1 below, the water-rich will get richer, and the water-poor will get poorer. This pattern will increase the costs of both droughts and floods, and make it harder to grow crops, on average, when the nation-wide impact is considered.


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