Four Years Late - An Inconvenient Truth From White House

By Cernig

Four years late - and even then only because a court order from environmental groups forced their hand - the White House has issued a Congressionally mandated report on climate change - and it isn't happy reading.

While the report has no new science in it, it pulls together different U.S. studies and localizes international reports into one comprehensive document required by law. The 271-page report is notable because it is something the Bush administration has fought in the past.

Andrew Weaver, a Canadian climate scientist who was not involved in the effort, called it "a litany of bad news in store for the U.S."

And biologist Thomas Lovejoy, one of the scientists who reviewed the report for the federal government, said: "It basically says the America we've known we can no longer count on. It's a pretty dramatic picture of all kinds of change rippling through natural systems across the country. And all of that has implications for people."

Part of the reason it isn't fun to read is that even the 17 page "executive summary" has been deliberately couched in dense, figure-laden language which pratically ensures only a handful of congresscritters wil read even that much, let alone the whole 271 page document (PDF).

For those who do wade through the document, they will find that it is the opinion of the combined departments of the Bush administration that manmade global warming is real, that it isn't caused by the sun warming up, and that it's a massive threat to the national interest.

� Increased heat deaths and deaths from climate-worsened smog. In Los Angeles alone yearly heat fatalities could increase by more than 1,000 by 2080, and the Midwest and Northeast are most vulnerable to increased heat deaths.

� Worsening water shortages for agriculture and urban users. From California to New York, lack of water will be an issue.

� A need for billions of dollars in more power plants (one major cause of global warming gases) to cool a hotter country. The report says summer cooling will mean Seattle's energy consumption would increase by 146 percent with the warming that could come by the end of the century.

� More death and damage from wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters and extreme weather. In the last three decades, wildfire season in the West has increased by 78 days.

� Increased insect infestations and food- and waterborne microbes and diseases. Insect and pathogen outbreaks to the forests are causing $1.5 billion in annual losses.

"Finally, climate change is very likely to accentuate the disparities already evident in the American health care system," the report said. "Many of the expected health effects are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the uninsured."

Add to those the fact that large chunks of currently densly-populated land, especially in Florida and along the Gulf Coast, are going to be underwater by the end of the century; the trillions needed to pay for infrastructure improvements to ports, levees, roads, airports and bridges; the geopolitical consequences of famines, migrations, water wars and feuds over resources.

And the Bush administration sat on this report on a clear and present danger to national interests and national security for four years while they played "American Raj" in the Middle East.

Update: Over at Climate Progress, Joseph Romm offers a comprehensive takedown of Charles Krauthammer's latest denialist column. The "executive summary" in the first paragraph is far shorter than the White House's version:

Sir Isaac Newton is one of the towering geniuses in all human history. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer � not so much.