November 23, 2018: The U.S. Will Be Three Degrees Hotter by 2100

 

11/23/18: The Trump administration decides that the Friday after Thanksgiving is the perfect time to release a scientific report on climate change, hoping most Americans will be too busy digesting to notice. 

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Three degrees hotter by 2100.

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Three hundred scientists from thirteen government agencies have compiled 1,656 pages of what Trump and his enablers might call “Fake Research.” They outline in detail the damage that will result as climate change accelerates.

 

Let me be the first to admit, I’m not going to read that entire report anytime soon. Or ever. I’m willing to bet I’ll read more than the president. About the only chance we have of interesting Trump is if the White House staff can hire a couple of Playboy Bunnies to brief him. (See: 11/24/18.)

(In this administration, you can’t safely say they won’t.)

Our only hope to get Trump to read.

 

The findings are ominous. The U.S. can expect to see temperatures increase by 3° degrees between now and 2100, on top of an increase of 1.2° so far. Damage to the nation’s economy and environment will be extensive unless “substantial and sustained reductions” to greenhouse gas emissions begin now. Dry parts of the country will get hotter and drier. Fire season will lengthen from Colorado to Montana. Wildfires like those ravaging California will become a fact of life in Tennessee and Georgia. Droughts will become more pronounced. Ranchers in Texas and Kansas will see their livestock suffer. When it does rain, rainfall events will be more intense, washing away topsoil in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Winter wheat and soybean crops will decline. Flooding along rivers in Missouri and Iowa will be more damaging. Ticks will thrive in a warming Maine and tropical diseases will jump to Florida. Miami will have to deal with rising sea waters backing up its wastewater system. Charleston, S.C. will see 180 tidal flooding events annually in 2045 compared to 11 in 2014. 

Federal, state and local governments must prepare. There’s still hope scientists say, if we are determined to act. “Future risks from climate change depend primarily on decisions made today.” 

So, for now, we’re screwed. We’re stuck with the Science-Moron-in-Chief. (See: 11/27/18.)

Climate change in Colorado has left 834 million dead trees standing.