The sobering report, prepared with input from more than 300 scientists, is required every four years by law. But prior administrations have found ways to skirt the law. As a result, today's release is only the third such report to be issued by the White House.
The lengthy analysis says every region of the US has been adversely effected by climate change, whether the impacts have been through droughts, wildfires, unusual snowfall or stronger than normal hurricanes.
The White House also stressed that effects aren't limited to disasters, but also evident in the insurance rates people pay to the amount allergy medicine they buy.
“Americans are noticing changes all around them,” the report says.
“Summers are longer and hotter, and extended periods of unusual heat last longer than any living American has experienced. Winters are generally shorter and warmer. Rain comes in heavier downpours. People are seeing changes in the length and severity of seasonal allergies, the plant varieties that thrive in their gardens, and the kinds of birds they see in any particular month in their neighborhoods,” it continues.
"People have this perception of this being an issue that affects our kids but not us, or affects polar bears in the Arctic but not us, and what this report really brings home is the fact that climate change is affecting us right here, today,” said Katharine Hayhoe, a lead author of National Climate Assessment report.
The study includes a region-by-region breakdown of climate change effects on roads, airports, bridges, water supplies, human health, and many other aspects of American life.
As regards the future of energy, it contained five key messages:
1. Extreme weather events are affecting energy production and delivery facilities, causing supply disruptions of varying lengths and magnitudes and affecting other infrastructure that depends on energy supply. The frequency and intensity of certain types of extreme weather events are expected to change.
2. Higher summer temperatures will increase electricity use, causing higher summer peak loads, while warmer winters will decrease energy demands for heating. Net electricity use is projected to increase.
3. Changes in water availability, both episodic and long-lasting, will constrain different forms of energy production.
4. In the longer term, sea level rise, extreme storm surge events, and high tides will affect coastal facilities and infrastructure on which many energy systems, markets, and consumers depend.
5. As new investments in energy technologies occur, future energy systems will differ from today’s in uncertain ways. Depending on the character of changes in the energy mix, climate change will introduce new risks as well as opportunities.
“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” the study says.
In the face of that reality, the administration spent the day hammering home the message that reducing greenhouse gas pollution now is far cheaper than doing nothing and paying for the damage later.
After the report was released, several environmental and activist groups weighed in on its findings.
“The National Climate Assessment paints a bleak picture, but it is a picture we have seen clearly for many years, and we have to act on it now,” said Trip Van Noppen, President of Earthjustice.
“President Obama will unveil proposed safeguards on carbon pollution from existing power plants next month. These new protections are the centerpiece of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to avoid the costliest and most disastrous effects of climate change," Noppen continued. "Coal-fired power plants are the single-largest cause of our nation’s climate pollution problem. When the safeguards are finalized, communities across the nation and around the world will benefit from healthier air and a safer climate.
“The divide between the fossil-fuel industries misguided attempts to place profits above the needs of our families and communities grows as each new scientific report is released. Every time we take any action on climate change, this industry claims the sky is falling. As our communities reel from droughts, floods, forest fires, fossil fuel disasters, crop failures and more, it becomes harder for these polluters and those aligned with them to hide just how out of touch from reality they are,” Noppen added.
“The National Climate Assessment drives home both the reality of climate change science and the impacts Americans are experiencing right now," agreed Ken Berlin, President and CEO of The Climate Reality Project.
"As we pay more for groceries in the midst of record-breaking droughts, or rebuild after increasingly extreme weather events, or foot the healthcare bill for worsening air quality, it is clear that the cost of carbon pollution is real and growing," he said.
"But we are not resigned to a future the NCA warns us about – one of increasing costs and risks to our economy and ways of life," he added. "Solutions exist today that will result in cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy, while creating jobs, strengthening the economy and making the U.S. more competitive. The choice is clear: we must act now to support the communities, businesses and elected leaders implementing those solutions and putting us on the path to a healthier, more sustainable future.”
“Today's landmark report is a wake-up call that we simply cannot afford to sleep through yet again," said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune.
"American families are already paying the costs of the extreme weather and health risks fueled by the climate crisis. Now, the nation's most comprehensive study of climate threats shows the toll on our health, our communities, and our economy will only skyrocket across the country if we do not act," he said.
“We applaud the Obama Administration for listening to these alarm bells, and urge them to continue to take critical, common-sense steps, including the first-ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants," Brune continued. "We don't just have an obligation to future generations to take action now -- we will seize an enormous opportunity as we do. By leaving dirty fossil fuels in the ground and continuing the transition to clean energy solutions like wind and solar, we can create good American jobs and power homes and businesses nationwide without polluting our air, water, or climate.”
But not everyone greeted the report so positively; among them, Congressional Republicans.
"Instead of making the environment drastically better, the president's strategy will make the climate for unemployed Americans even worse," Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in a statement carried by Fox News. "The American people have made it clear that they want Washington to focus on the economy and make it easier for them to find good jobs. Once again, President Obama is completely ignoring their concerns -- and doubling down today on extreme regulations that will put more Americans out of work."
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also blasted the report, saying the cost of federal regulations that might be implemented to stem climate change will be "borne by the middle class."
In response, many pointed to a single paragraph contained in the report:
“Although some additional climate change and related impacts are now unavoidable, the amount of future climate change and its consequences will still largely be determined by our choices, now and in the near future,” the report says. “There is still time to act to limit the amount of climate change and the extent of damaging impacts we will face.”
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