Climate Change Moves Firmly Into the Present: Blockbuster National Climate Assessment

Climate change is happening now, with impacts that are hitting American citizens in their wallets and affecting their quality of life, according to the new National Climate Assessment report released today.

The report, the third National Climate Assessment, catalogs the ways in which climate change is affecting the United States.  A leaked summary document accompanying the report focuses on the fact that climate change is not an event scheduled to take place

at some later date.  The climate is already changing. The document points out the changes that Americans are currently experiencing, like more severe weather and rising seas.

"I think some of the key take-aways from this report, especially compared to the last report, are the impacts of climate change are not just something that we can look towards the future for but they are already occurring today," said Forbes Tompkins, a research analyst at the World Resources Institute who has been tracking the report.

Climate Change Is Here, with More Severe Weather and Economic Impacts