That 2009 science-based assessment cited climate change harming air quality, food production, forests, water quality and supplies, sea level rise, energy issues, basic infrastructure, homes and wildlife.
A decade later, scientists document growing harm
Ten years later, a group of 15 scientists looked at the assessment. In a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Science they found that in nearly all those categories the scientific confidence of harm increased and more evidence was found supporting the growing danger to people. And the harms were worse than originally thought in the cases of public health, water, food and air quality.
Those scientists also added four new categories where they said the science shows harm from climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Those were in national security, economic well-being of the country, violence and oceans getting more acidic.
On national security, the science team quoted Trump’s then-defence secretary, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and a Pentagon authorisation bill that Trump signed in his first term.
It also quoted a study that said another 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) of warming in the next 75 years would effectively reduce the US gross domestic product by 3 per cent, while another study said warming would cost the American economy USD 4.7 trillion to USD 10.4 trillion by the end of the century.
“Overall, the scientific support for the endangerment finding was very strong in 2009. It is much, much stronger now,” Stanford University environment programme chief Chris Field, a co-author of the 2019 Science review, said in a Wednesday email.
“Based on overwhelming evidence from thousands of studies, the well-mixed greenhouse gases pose a danger to public health and welfare. There is no question.