U.S. National Climate Assessment: Dire challenges for New York, northeast

CELESTE KATZ

Shorter U.S. National Climate Assessment: We've got problems.

The study is part of President Obama's plan to cut pollution and fight global warming, and the sections on New York and the northeast say while there's been progress in promoting energy efficiency, the challenges are dire.

A few local highlights from the report, which says the U.S. average temperature has increased by 1.3°F to 1.9°F since record keeping began in 1895 -- with most of that increase just since about 1970:

* "The region depends on aging infrastructure that has already been stressed by climate hazards including heat waves and heavy downpours. The Northeast has ex­perienced a greater recent increase in extreme precipitation than any other region in the U.S.; between 1958 and 2010, the Northeast saw more than a 70% percent increase in the amount of precipitation falling in very heavy events (defined as the heaviest 1% of all daily events);


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/u-s-national-climate-assessment-dire-challenges-new-york-northeast-blog-entry-1.1781116#ixzz30wuqOReD