Report warns of worsening US disasters in wake of fires, hurricanes

WASHINGTON－As California's catastrophic wildfires recede and people rebuild after two hurricanes, a massive new federal report warns that these types of disasters are worsening in the United States because of global warming. The White House report quietly issued on Friday also frequently contradicts President Donald Trump.

The National Climate Assessment was written long before the deadly fires in California this month and before Hurricanes Florence and Michael raked the East Coast and Florida. It says warming-charged extremes "have already become more frequent, intense, widespread or of long duration". The report notes the last few years have smashed US records for damaging weather, costing nearly $400 billion since 2015.

The recent Northern California wildfires can be attributed to climate change, but there was less of a connection to those in Southern California, said co-author William Hohenstein of the US Department of Agriculture.

"A warm, dry climate has increased the areas burned over the last 20 years," he said at a news conference on Friday.

The report is mandated by law every few years and is based on more than 1,000 previous research studies. It details how global warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas is hurting each region of the United States and how it impacts different sectors of the economy, including energy and agriculture.

"Climate change is transforming where and how we live and presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy, and the natural systems that support us," the report says.

That includes worsening air pollution causing heart and lung problems, more diseases from insects, the potential for a jump in deaths during heat waves, and nastier allergies.

"Annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century more than the current gross domestic product of many US states," the report says.

It will be especially costly on the nation's coasts because of rising seas and severe storm surges, which will lower property values. And in some areas, such as parts of Alaska and Louisiana, coastal flooding will likely force people to relocate.

"We are seeing the things we said would be happening, happen now in real life," said co-author Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University. "As a climate scientist it is almost surreal."

The Lower 48 states have warmed by 1 C since 1900 with 1.2 C in the last few decades, according to the report. By the end of the century, the US will be 1.6 to 6.6 C hotter depending on how much greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, the report warns.

Trump tweeted this week about the cold weather hitting the East including: "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS－Whatever happened to Global Warming?"

Friday's report seemed to anticipate such comments, saying: "Over shorter time scales and smaller geographic regions, the influence of natural variability can be larger than the influence of human activity ... Over climate time scales of multiple decades, however, global temperature continues to steadily increase."

ASSOCIATED PRESS