Fourth National Climate Assessment

Today, the Trump Administration released the Fourth National Climate Assessment, a Congressionally-mandated report led by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which comprises 13 federal agencies. Harold P. Wimmer, National President and CEO of the American Lung Association, issued the following statement in response:

"Climate change is an urgent threat to the health of every American. The American Lung Association urges policymakers to respond to this Fourth National Climate Assessment with immediate action to reduce emissions that drive climate change in order to protect human health. 

"The USGCRP report found that reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the end of this century could save thousands of lives each year by lessening the severity of climate change. Furthermore, doing so would produce hundreds of billions of dollars in health-related economic benefits each year.

“The American Lung Association is pleased that the latest National Climate Assessment dedicates a full chapter to assessing the impacts of climate change on air quality. Unfortunately, the report shows how increasing levels of ozone pollution and degraded air quality due to more frequent and severe wildfires, driven by climate change, will enhance the risk of adverse respiratory and cardiovascular health impacts, including early death. These trends are evident in the American Lung Association’s recent ‘State of the Air’ reports, which show worsened ozone pollution and short-term particle pollution in certain areas as a result of higher temperatures and worsening wildfires.

"This report was written by more than 300 Federal and non-Federal authors representing a range of expertise, and was subject to a rigorous, multi-step review process including a public comment period and a simultaneous review by an expert panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. It is the latest in a long series of expert analyses on the adverse effects of climate change that show a critical need to act.

"With the lives and health of millions of Americans at risk from worsened hurricanes, droughts, wildfires and air pollution, we urge President Trump and his administration to heed the dire warnings in this report and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, vehicles and other sources to save American lives."