2021 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #5

A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 24, 2021 through Sat, Jan 30, 2021

Editor's Choice

Informing the New Administration: Action on Climate Change for a More Sustainable, Resilient Future

Informing the President 

As the COVID-19 pandemic quickly engulfed the nation and the world, a slower-moving crisis — but potentially even more damaging — has been unfolding for decades. The effects of climate change are already being felt by millions. In the last year alone, the western U.S. experienced the worst wildfire season on record, there was historic flooding in the Midwest, and the Atlantic had a record-breaking hurricane and tropical storm season. Given current and projected global greenhouse gas emissions, more extreme events of this kind are inevitable. And just as with the COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts of climate change are being disproportionately borne by society’s most vulnerable — racial and ethnic minorities and the poor.

President Biden has called climate change “the existential threat of our time” and has signaled his commitment to a unified, coordinated national and international response from the United States. On his first day in office, Biden signed executive orders to reenter the nation into the Paris Climate Agreement and to reestablish federal efforts to estimate the social cost of carbon — the cost of damages, in dollars, caused by each ton of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere — to be informed by recommendations in a 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Indeed, the National Academies have an extensive body of work to inform the new administration’s efforts to fight climate change, transform the economy, and build a more resilient, sustainable society.

“The effects of climate change are cascading far beyond the environment and include serious implications for the economy, human health, and national security,” said National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt. “Building on lessons learned from the pandemic, our institution is developing a coordinated, cross-cutting effort to mobilize expertise across the sciences, engineering, and medicine to address the climate crisis on multiple fronts. Our goal is to provide decision-makers at all levels with the types of actionable advice and information they need to respond.”

Click here to access the entire article as originally published on the NAS website.

Informing the New Administration: Action on Climate Change for a More Sustainable, Resilient Future, Feature Story, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Jan 22, 2021

Note: For more information on the projects, reports, and activities discussed in the article, go to the NAS Climate Resources collection.

Articles Linked to on Facebook

Sun, Jan 24, 2021

Mon, Jan 25, 2021

Tue, Jan 26, 2021

Wed, Jan 27, 2021

Thu, Jan 28, 2021

Fri, Jan 29, 2021

Sat, Jan 30, 2021

Posted by John Hartz on Saturday, 30 January, 2021

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