I must admit I was unprepared to write this post. I had fully expected the Climate Science Special Report – Fourth National Climate Assessment to get buried. At best I was expecting it to be edited to de-fact it and bury the lede on climate change. RIS had gone as far as archiving the draft version of the report that was circulating earlier this year to post now in lieu of a final report, or to draw attention to where the science got trumped by politics and faith-based conclusions in a revised report. Just in the last couple weeks, the EPA benched its own scientists, Autumn Oczkowski, Rose Martin and Emily Schumchenia at a major workshop in Rhode Island where they were featured presenters of their own work. There really was no reason to believe the climate report would reach the daylight.
But somehow, with the White House’s (!) blessing, the unexpurgated final report is out. Such pearls called out in the Executive Summary include “The global, long-term, and unambiguous warming trend has continued during recent years. Since the last National Climate Assessment was published, 2014 became the warmest year on record globally; 2015 surpassed 2014 by a wide margin; and 2016 surpassed 2015. Sixteen of the warmest years on record for the globe occurred in the last 17 years (1998 was the exception). (Ch. 1; Fig. ES.1)”.
This report is radically contradictory to the general drumbeat on global climate change out of the Executive and Legislative branches — data-driven, scientifically grounded and decisive in its conclusions. It would be very promising if this represented a glimmer of hope from within the Administration that the threat is understood and the challenges embraced, but that chance seems remote. Perhaps once the folks in DC realize this one slipped past the goalie there will be efforts to discredit the report, amend it, or even remove it from circulation. But, this happened. The report is out, and we are posting it in its entirety as well as in executive summary form. We are not optimistic the government will continue to make the report available online so we are not including a hotlink directly to the “.gov” website.
To the agencies and scientists who did the work and assembled the report, thank you. To whatever bureaucrat said “yes, publish it”, thank you. To anyone who follows and believes the science there is nothing revelatory in these documents. That it was published as-is in the current environment is what is remarkable. Our taxpayer dollars paid for this report and so it belongs to us. Please read and share liberally.