As California’s catastrophic wildfires recede and people rebuild after two hurricanes on the US East Coast, a new federal report warned that these types of disasters are worsening in the US because of global warming.
The White House report quietly issued on Friday also frequently contradicts US President Donald Trump.
The National Climate Assessment was written long before the deadly fires in California this month and before Hurricanes Florence and Michael raked the East Coast and Florida.
Photo: AFP
It says warming-charged extremes “have already become more frequent, intense, widespread or of long duration.”
The report notes that the past few years have smashed US records for damaging weather, costing nearly US$400 billion since 2015.
The latest Northern California wildfires can be attributed to climate change, but there was less of a connection to those in Southern California, said coauthor William Hohenstein of the US Department of Agriculture.
“A warm, dry climate has increased the areas burned over the last 20 years,” he told a news conference on Friday.
The report is mandated by law every few years and is based on more than 1,000 previous research studies.
It details how global warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas is hurting each region of the US and how it impacts different sectors of the economy, including energy and agriculture.
“Climate change is transforming where and how we live and presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy and the natural systems that support us,” the report says.
That includes worsening air pollution causing heart and lung problems, more diseases from insects, the potential for a jump in deaths during heat waves and nastier allergies.
“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 of many US states,” the report says.
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