New Government Report Details Impacts of Climate Change

June 17 - The Obama administration released a new report, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, which provides detailed information on current and pending impacts of global climate change in the U.S. and says it is important to act now, rather than later, to minimize those impacts.

The report, a product of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and authored by more than 30 government scientists, lists some of the impacts such as flooding due to rising sea levels; extreme weather events; a increase in heat waves; a increase in drought in the Southwest; reduced mountain snowpack affecting water supplies; and the extinction of Alaska's wild polar bears in the next 75 years.

The National Research Council has produced many reports on climate change, including the recently-released "Restructuring Federal Climate Research to Meet the Challenges of Climate Change" and "Informing Decisions in a Changing Climate". The Research Council is currently conducting a major suite of studies, collectively called "America's Climate Choices" that are designed to inform and guide responses to climate change across the nation. The Academies have developed two free educational resources for the public to explain basic facts about climate change and its impacts called "Understanding and Responding to Climate Change" (2008) and "Ecological Impacts of Climate Change" (2009).