"The Trump administration delayed the report, which cites urban heat waves and permafrost loss as signs of global warming, for three years"
"For years, President Donald Trump and his deputies played down the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and delayed the release of an Environmental Protection Agency report detailing climate-related damage. But on Wednesday, the EPA released a detailed and disturbing account of the startling changes that Earth’s warming had on parts of the United States during Trump’s presidency.
The destruction of year-round permafrost in Alaska, loss of winter ice on the Great Lakes and spike in summer heat waves in U.S. cities all signal that climate change is intensifying, the EPA said in its report. The assessment, which languished under the Trump administration for three years, marks the first time the agency has said such changes are being driven at least in part by human-caused global warming.
As it launched an updated webpage to inform the public on how climate change is upending communities throughout the country, the Biden administration gave the agency’s imprimatur to a growing body of evidence that climate effects are happening faster and becoming more extreme than when EPA last published its “Climate Indicators” data in 2016."
Dino Grandoni and Brady Dennis report for the Washington Post May 12, 2021.
SEE ALSO:
"Climate Change Is Making Big Problems Bigger" (New York Times)
"EPA Relaunches Website Tracking Climate Change Indicators" (The Hill)
"Climate Change Indicators in the United States" (EPA)
"Revamped EPA Website Shows Increased Climate Change Risks" (AP)
