The Biden Administration on Tuesday released its latest National Climate Assessment. It's the fifth in a series of reports issued every four years.
Dave Reidmiller of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute led the development of the last climate assessment during the Trump administration. This time he's an author of the Northeast chapter in the report.
He says it highlights the rapid pace of the changes in recent years, especially the frequency of extreme events like coastal flooding, heavy precipitation, marine heat waves and wildfires.
"The rapidity at which of some of these impacts are manifesting themselves really is eye opening," Reidmiller says. "Even just four or five years ago we thought about certain extreme events, and in a matter of four or five years we've seen some of those things play out in real time."
Reidmiller says although the impacts are dire, the report is also chock full of hope.
"One of the things that's really encouraging is when you flip through these pages you see solution after solution after solution, and different municipalities, different businesses, and different states are trying all sorts of different things," he says.
In addition to synthesizing the latest climate research, the report also emphasizes the social inequities that can be exacerbated by climate change.
