- Climate change is real and its effects are creating a climate crisis.
- Weather, wildlife, food supplies and other aspects of daily life are all affected by the effects of climate change.
- As global average temperatures continue to rise around the world, the United States has experienced greater warming than many other countries.
Climate change makes headlines when protesters throw soup on priceless paintings or devastating floods sweep through communities, but the impacts of warmer temperatures are also increasingly disrupting daily life.
Take a walk or ride a bike. Book a ski trip or attend an outdoor sporting event. Visit a big city or a cottage in the countryside. No matter what choice you make, there is an increasing chance that you will feel the effects of global warming.
The appearance of autumn leaves occurs earlier. High school football teams take special precautions to keep kids cool. City centers have set up cooling zones to help protect citizens from heat waves.
How does climate change affect you?: Subscribe to the weekly Point Climat newsletter
READ MORE: Breaking news on climate change from the United States TODAY
Heat waves are becoming more intense and torrential rains are occurring more often. Here is a summary :
Climate change is real
No matter what your relatives or friends say or post on social media, experts say the mountain of scientific evidence keeps piling up.
What you need to know about climate change:What is global warming? Definitions explained.
USA TODAY Survey:How a summer of extreme weather reveals a startling change in the way rain falls in America.
“It is virtually certain that human activities have increased atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases,” concluded a national panel of experts in a draft of the 5th National Climate Assessment released in November. . They see great confidence in predictions of longer droughts, higher temperatures and increased flooding.
As global average temperatures continue to rise around the world, the United States has experienced greater warming than many other countries.
Extreme heat waves may be our new normal:Is the globe prepared?
Warming sea surface temperatures around the world are providing more fuel for tropical storms and exacerbating the melting of glaciers and ice caps.
Why is climate change important?
“Every part of the United States is feeling the effects of climate change in one way or another,” said Allison Crimmins, director of this 5th National Climate Assessment. Representing the latest climate research from a wide range of scientists, the final version of the assessment is expected in late 2023.
The east coast of the United States is feeling the combined effects of more intense storms and rising sea levels. Flooding on sunny days is reaching record levels.
Sea levels are expected to rise 10 to 12 inches by 2050. Federal agencies say this is a “clear and present risk”.
Beach houses face an increased threat of erosion and an increasing number of houses are giving way to the sea, but this is not just a coastal problem.
Disaster costs are rising and scientists warn that the window to further reduce fossil fuel emissions and limit rising temperatures is rapidly closing.
Warmer waters:Rising seas could overwhelm $34 billion in US real estate in just 30 years, analysis finds
Is there a climate crisis?
Many scientists and officials around the world agree: yes. By the end of this century, projections show that global average surface temperatures relative to pre-industrial times could rise by up to 5.4 degrees.
Merriam-Webster defines “crisis” as a period of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger. A mix of warmer temperatures, extreme rainfall and rising sea levels often aggravate natural disasters, while droughts become more intense and heat waves occur more often.
“The climate crisis is not a future threat, but something we must deal with today,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Richard Spinrad said in August 2022.
Earth sets new emissions record:Decisive step in global warming could occur within a decade, report says
The term “climate crisis” has been used to describe these worsening impacts since at least 1986. Since the establishment of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988, its reports have become increasingly disastrous.
In April, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said unfulfilled climate promises “put us firmly on the path to an unlivable world”.
The Fourth National Climate Assessment, released under the Trump administration, warned that natural, built and social systems were “increasingly vulnerable to cascading impacts that are often difficult to predict, threatening essential services”.
Climate extremes show:Global warming has ‘no signs of slowing down’
Is climate change getting better?
Experts say global warming will have increasingly severe impacts on daily life, making it moredifficult access to water and foodputtingstress on physical and mental healthand challenging transportation and infrastructure.
“Each increased warming will increase the risk of severe impacts, and so the more (rapidly) we can take aggressive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the less severe the impacts will be,” said Rachel Bezner Kerr, professor at Cornell University, after the publication of a recent IPCC report.
Heat kills more humans each year than floods or hurricanes.
Studies warn that the growth of wildfires in the West could mean an increase in dangerous levels of air quality.
Warmer climates displace animals and increase the risk of them transmitting pathogens to other animals and humans. A group of researchers from the University of Hawaii looked at how 376 human diseases and allergens such as malaria and asthma are affected by climate-related weather hazards and found that almost 60% were made worse by weather hazards. , such as heat and flooding.
Climate change is also displacing people in the United States and around the world.
How does climate change affect us?
Agriculture, sporting events and community festivals are feeling the heat.
Farmers are seeing more extreme weather and wilder swings between extreme drought and flooding.
Maple syrup producer Adam Parke has seen a 10-day shift in maple sugar season on his Vermont farm over three decades.
Beef, citrus and cotton:Agriculture sees ‘strange weather’ effects of climate change
NASA reported in 2021 that dwindling global food supplies linked to climate change could be apparent by 2030.
But agriculture can also be part of the solution to counter rising carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Billions set aside by the Cut Inflation Act are intended to help support agriculture and reduce its emissions.
Climate change :Uncertain future for maples in the Northeast, syrup season
Warmer spring temperatures forced organizers to move historic flower festivals forward.
To see other impacts, take a look at the centuries-old Olympic tradition.
Two months after the end of the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, a group of Olympians traveled to Washington to ask members of Congress to act on climate change, which they see as a threat to their sports .
The 2024 Summer Olympics are set to begin in July in France, where the country’s weather officials expect 2022 to be its hottest year since records began in 1900. Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee delayed the choice of venue for the 2030 winter games, in part over climate concerns.
Olympic Host City selection pending:Why? Maybe it’s not cold enough.
Even fly fishermen see changes all around them. “Everyone knows that if this continues, the places we can fish for trout will be limited,” said Tom Rosenbauer of Vermont, whose job title at sporting goods retailer Orvis is the most enthusiastic.
How does climate change affect animals?
Warmer temperatures are forcing some animal species to move beyond their typical home ranges, increasing the risk that the infectious viruses they carry could be transmitted to other species they have never encountered before. This poses a threat to human and animal health worldwide.
Impact of heat:Climate change could cause mass extinction of marine life in Earth’s oceans, study finds
“Climate change and pandemics are not separate things,” epidemiologist Colin Carlson told USA TODAY. “We have to take this seriously as a real-time threat.”
Invasive species are expanding their range and even native animals are changing their habits. In South America and Africa, some species of primates leave the treetops more often.
In the United States, roseate spoonbills, a brilliant pink wading bird, are moving north as temperatures warm and they are being pushed out of native coastal habitats by rising sea levels.
Digging deeper into climate change
#effects #climate #change #climate #crisis #fueling #disasters