Massive climate study shows pretty much everything Trump is saying about climate change is wrong
The wildfires and hurricanes are not a fluke, and their economic and human costs are only growing.
Human-made climate change is warping every aspect of American life and can only be mitigated by "decisions made today," the fourth National Climate Assessment, produced by the Trump administration, has found. The Friday assessment follows the United Nations' scathing September report showing the world is "nowhere near on track" to beat climate change, and seemingly reveals every anti-environmental step the Trump administration has taken will cost Americans dearly in the near future.
America's temperatures have risen by 1.8 degrees in the past 100 years, and sea levels are 9 inches higher than 50 years ago, The Washington Post reports via the assessment. Those numbers are growing exponentially, with the U.S. slated for another 2.3 degrees of temperature growth by 2050. In a worst-case scenario, this could annually cost $155 billion in lost labor due to the inability for people to work outside. There would be another $141 billion cost due to deaths per year from extreme weather, and other $118 billion in annual damage to properties on the water. The risks of these massive climate swings affect everyone, but mostly "people who are already vulnerable, including lower-income and other marginalized communities," the report states.
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The report is congressionally mandated to come out every four years. But it was released just after a record cold Thanksgiving hit the Northeast — something Trump falsely suggested disproved global warming in a Thursday tweet. It also comes on "one of the slowest news days of the year," the Post writes, frustrating scientists and potentially underscoring the administration's lack of seriousness on the issue.
Read more about the report at The Washington Post, or read the whole thing here.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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