Amidst a conference focused heavily on the IPCC’s 1.5 degree Celsius report, today I learned that the US has released a similarly intensive report on Climate Change and its impacts on the United States. Through a presentation given in the US Climate Action Hub, we learned of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released November 23rd, 2018. That’s right, this report was released on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
Surprisingly, it didn’t get lost in the hustle of consumerism. Over 140 news outlets across the country featured it on the front page. But don’t feel bad if you didn’t know about it, you’re not the only one.
The NCA4 is an almost 1600 page assessment that looks at the effects of climate change, both on specific issues and on regions of the United States. The report covers 16 different issues, from Water to Forests, from Agriculture to Human Health. The report then splits the country and its territories into ten regions, giving a detailed look at how these issues affect each region in specific ways. It is also the first report that split the Caribbean Islands into its own region. What the report does very well though is depicting how all of these issues are interconnected. For example, the rise in climate causes more powerful storm events, which cause flooding and damage to homes, hospitals, power grids, water and waste management systems.
Sound familiar? It should; these are all some of the effects of 2017’s Hurricane Harvey.
As one of four major hurricanes from 2017, Hurricane Harvey features heavily in this report. When discussing the devastating effects of Harvey, some of it is attributed to climate change. “Much of the record-breaking rainfall totals associated with Hurricane Harvey were due to its slow-moving, anomalous track and its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, which provided a continuous source of moisture. No studies have specifically examined whether the likelihood of hurricanes stalling near land is affected by climate change, and more general research on weather patterns and climate change suggests the possibility of competing influences. However, Harvey’s total rainfall was likely compounded by warmer surface water temperatures feeding the direct deep tropical trajectories historically associated with extreme precipitation in Texas, and these warmer temperatures are partly attributed to human-induced climate change (Box 2.5: The 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season, page 95 of NCA4).”
For Texans, this means that we can expect future storms of similar magnitude and destruction, unless we act now. Texas, the United States, and the world need both serious climate mitigation efforts and governmental policy to protect from rising costs and damages caused by rising temperatures. As we have already seen, these systems are connected to each other in a way that causes chains of effect. “These interconnected infrastructure systems operate within the context of non-climate influences, including social institutions and policy environments. For example, in the area affected by Hurricane Harvey, regional land management practices over the last several decades have reduced the area covered by wetlands, forests, and prairies, which historically absorbed storm water runoff. .These natural environments have been increasingly replaced with impermeable surfaces, decreasing Houston’s resilience to flooding (Box 17.1: Hurricane Harvey: Cascading Failures and Lessons from Emerging Management Approaches, page 644).”
The report gives more detail, both about the causes and effects of Hurricane Harvey to the effect that climate change will have on Texas. You can also continue to follow the Texas Interfaith Center’s work at the COP and our work with Faith Based Disaster Response and Hurricane Harvey Talanoa Dialogue. We need people to advocate for climate change and climate policy in Texas and the United States and we need it now.
To download the report, the report in brief, or the summary findings, go here: https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/downloads/