BBC - Millions of people across the US have been warned to stay indoors as about half the country swelters under a heatwave. Heat advisories are affecting 168 million Americans in the mid-west, south-east and parts of the north-east, according to the National Weather Service (NWS)...The weather is forecast to cool on Thursday a day after storms roll through the region.
NPR - The Trump administration announced yesterday plans to overturn a key 2009 Environmental Protection Agency finding regarding climate change. The EPA finding determined that pollutants generated by the development of combustion and fossil fuels, such as methane and carbon dioxide, should be regulated because they are harmful to human health. The move to reverse this determination has huge implications for regulations that push automakers to produce cleaner cars.
The administration claims that the EPA doesn’t have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases and that there is no compelling reason to do so, says NPR’s Camila Domonoske. This conclusion is partly based on a report from five scientists who reject the scientific consensus on climate change. Automakers had warned that the current rules were not achievable. They are likely to take advantage of this change by making fewer EVs. It's unlikely they will abandon EVs altogether, however, as consumers enjoy getting good gas mileage or having the option of skipping gas. Domonoske says it's a big setback for efforts to fight climate change, as transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. health advocates tell her it could mean worse air quality, which hurts health.
Solomon Hsiang and Humans
are highly adaptable and Americans are particularly so, but the data
and evidence indicate that climate change will cause many Americans to
die earlier than they otherwise would. High temperatures will kill Americans by stressing underlying conditions, such as heart disease. We expect that intensifying hurricanes, more frequent floods and smoke from more frequent forest fires together will most likely kill millions of Americans in the coming century.
In addition to intensifying natural threats, climate change will make households and communities in America more dangerous for their inhabitants. Environmental conditions affect our bodies and minds, particularly how we make decisions and turn to violence. Higher temperatures are associated with more miscarriages and more domestic violence. While perhaps surprising, the link between rape and temperature is one of the strongest findings in our field. We fear that additional heat from climate change will lead to more suicides, murders and assaults.
Climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of acute disasters, such as the recent devastating fires in Maui, Los Angeles and Paradise, Calif.; the floods in Texas; and the hurricane damage in Puerto Rico and North Carolina. As health insurance and property insurance become more expensive or access to coverage disappears, coping with these risks will be increasingly expensive. Taxpayers will bear many additional costs when uninsured losses fall to public social safety net programs.
Farmers are expected to suffer some of the most serious losses to climate change. Annual crop losses throughout much of the Corn Belt are projected to be significant. Agricultural innovation, which we once expected to compensate for these losses, appears more sluggish than predicted. Losing access to water resources will drive up costs for farmers, and climate change will hurt the value of American farmland.
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