Chapter 09 · Resources
Impacts of Climate Change
Sea level, extreme weather, health, extinction, security and economics — what a warming climate actually does, and how hard adaptation will be.
Evolution of our understanding
Impacts on the U.S.
Fifth National Climate Assessment
Published 2023. These reports are Congressionally-mandated assessments of the science of climate impacts, written by hundreds of scientific experts. It is our best estimate of what the U.S. faces from our changing climate.
nca2023.globalchange.gov ↗
Fourth National Climate Assessment
The previous one, published in 2018.
nca2018.globalchange.gov ↗
Shallow Waters
In 2018, the Texas Observer put out a 9-part series about water on the US-Mexico border in a warmer world. It’s well worth a read and it shows how difficult adaptation will be.
texasobserver.org ↗
Why are climate impacts escalating?
On Dessler’s substack: the non-linear nature of climate impacts.
theclimatebrink.com ↗
Sea level rise
Why the city of Miami is doomed to drown
Read this great Rolling Stone article about the challenges facing Miami when it comes to sea-level rise. Here is the 3-word summary: Miami is toast.
rollingstone.com ↗
The Siege of Miami
This New Yorker article concurs with Rolling Stone's assessment of Miami's future.
newyorker.com ↗
This is how South Florida ends
And here’s a South Florida is doomed article.
gizmodo.com ↗
Water’s Edge
A nice series of Reuters articles about the slow-motion disaster of sea level rise. It documents the schizophrenic relationship that governments have with development along the water. On the one hand, they like the development, on the other hand, these developments have a large chance of being destroyed by a severe storm, with severe costs being imposed on our economy. The third part talks about how hard it is to protect the Houston/Galveston area from severe hurricanes — both scientifically and politically.
reuters.com ↗
Hell and High Water
A slick multimedia presentation of the depressing lack of preparation of Texas for the next big hurricane.
texastribune.org ↗
Heaven or High Water
Do yourself a favor and read this hilarious article about the Miami real estate market and how they’re ignoring climate change.
popula.com ↗
Ocean acidification
Health effects
Extreme weather
Attribution of Extreme Weather Events
This NAS report concludes that scientists have reached the point where we can identify human influence on climate in weather events.
nap.edu ↗
IPCC SREX
Describes the impacts that extreme events will have on the things we care about.
ipcc.ch ↗
Mapped: how climate change affects extreme weather
The terrific website CarbonBrief has put together a summary of how climate change is changing extreme weather around the world.
carbonbrief.org ↗
Extreme Event Attribution
This article goes into detail.
cell.com ↗
Extinction risk
Economic impacts
National security
The Age of Consequences
Kurt M. Campbell et al., Center for a New American Security / CSIS, 2007.
cnas.org ↗
DoD climate reports
The U.S. Dept. of Defense is also extremely concerned about climate change; they have put out reports detailing the challenges.
defense.gov ↗
Climate Explorer
To see data on climate vulnerability, check out NOAA's climate explorer.
climate.gov ↗
Other impacts of fossil fuel combustion
The London killer smog, dramatised
Fossil fuel combustion has environmental impacts besides climate change. One of the most important is air pollution, which kills millions of people every year, including thousands in the U.S. For a dramatic interpretation of the London killer smog event, there is an episode of The Crown (Netflix) that focuses on the event.
vulture.com ↗
Raising kids in Delhi’s worsening air
Sadly, India is now experiencing some of the worst air pollution in the world.
newyorker.com ↗