Five most frightening findings of National Climate Assessment Federal Report

Center for Biological Diversity: Climate change is already affecting the United States and will threaten our future by endangering the food supply, increasing the risk of flooding and powerful hurricanes, and warming the country by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 unless we make deep cuts in carbon pollution, according to a new federal report.

The draft National Climate Assessment, released for public comment this week, explains that climate change is already delivering hotter summers, more flooding and periods of extreme heat that “last longer than any living American has ever experienced.” But the report also offers five particularly disturbing predictions about climate change, according to scientists with the Center for Biological Diversity. The Center was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that forced the federal government to release the second national climate assessment in 2008.

“This report gives Americans a disturbing preview of a harsh future ruled by climate chaos,” said Shaye Wolf, the Center's climate science director. “Our country will suffer searing heat, surging seas and terrifying storms unless we act immediately against greenhouse gas pollution. Fighting climate change should be the first thing on President Obama’s mind in the morning and his last thought before bed.”

Here are the five most disturbing findings of the draft National Climate Assessment:

• More extreme heat: America will warm by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 if carbon emissions keep rising, the report says. Greenhouse gas pollution has already roughly doubled the risk of extreme heat events (such as the scorching summer of 2011 in Texas), and major heat waves will become more intense and more common. ...
• Rising seas and more damaging extreme weather: The power of the strongest hurricanes will continue to rise, the report says, and most areas of the United States will see more frequent and more intense downpours, which can lead to harmful flooding. ...
• Endangered food supply: Food insecurity will increase in America and around the world. ...
• Biodiversity threatened: Many plants and animals and their habitats may be overwhelmed by climate change and other stressors....
• Carbon emissions rising rapidly: Carbon pollution is still increasing, with global emissions “on track to be even higher than the high emissions scenario” analyzed in the report. America’s contribution to global emissions is about 20 percent, the report notes, and our efforts to reduce pollution are too slight to comply with international agreements to avoid dangerous climate change....