Fifth National Climate Assessment warns of extreme weather risk, far-reaching impact of a warming climate

Exacerbated by climate change, the effects of extreme weather are being felt in every corner of the nation—costing communities upwards of $150 billion annually. Those impacts are projected to worsen without dramatic intervention. 

Climate change is a “rapidly intensifying threat,” according to the congressionally mandated Fifth National Climate Assessment, which was published Tuesday. In the face of it, local and county governments “have significantly increased” their adaptation efforts. Nationally, however, the nation isn’t doing enough to stymie the worst consequences in the long term.

“This assessment shows us in clear scientific terms that climate change is impacting all regions, all sectors of the United States—not just some, all,” said Pres. Joe Biden in prepared remarks about the report Tuesday. “It shows that communities across America are taking more action than ever to reduce climate risks and warns that more action is still badly needed. We can’t be complacent.  Let me say that again: We can’t be complacent.  We have to keep going.”

Biden called climate change an “existential threat to all of us” and “the ultimate threat to humanity.”

Along with the publication of the report, the Biden Administration announced more than $6 billion in investments from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to foster climate resilience by upgrading the nation’s aging electric grid, reduce flood risk, support conservation efforts, and advance environmental justice initiatives.

Specifically, $3.9 billion will go toward the nation’s electric grid; $2 billion is being made available by the Environmental Protection Agency through its Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants; $300 million is being invested to reduce flood risk by the Fedearl Emergency Management Agency; The Department of the Interior will invest $166 million for National Park Service needs; the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will invest $140 million to support 74 new landscape-scale conveservation projects; and another $100 million will go toward water infrastruture upgrades.

Written over four years and with input from 750 authors and experts, the Fifth National Climate Assessment report is intended to provide a scientifically backed foundation for future decision-making. It outlines the challenges in detail. From heightened health risks—especially to minority and underprivileged communities—to increasingly devastating disasters and the destruction of farmland, the effects of climate change are not confined to specific regions, reads a statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

The annual temperature is rising in every community in the United States. Regions are being effected differently. The northern half of the nation is expected to see more rainfall annually, while the western half will see less. Heavy rainfall events are expected to increase in frequency everywhere—as exemplified by California’s atmospheric floods in the spring, and the catastrophic flooding that inundated many communities in Vermont earlier this fall.

With each incremental degree of warming, there’s increased risk to all facets of everyday life.

“The entire nation is vulnerable to its consequences,” the USDA statement says. “Climate-induced changes in productivity, trade infrastructure, and livelihoods affect everyone—U.S. consumers who depend on globally integrated food and forest-product supply chains, international consumers of U.S. products, and U.S. producers whose livelihoods are connected to global food and forest-product supply chains.”