It took me a long time to find a report released or at least reported Friday, November 23, 2018. All the air in the room so to speak was taken up by another report, the one that the current administration released on that same day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, but that made it into the public consciousness big-time anyway. That would be the Fourth National Climate Assessment.
The other report I found was mentioned deep in one newspaper article, in the Washington Post Online. The other report was released by at about the same time as the Fourth National Climate Assessment.
The other report is The Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report. It was prepared by academics and scientists working in many agencies across the federal government. It was released by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The U.S. economy is specifically featured in it, along with ramifications for Canada and other nations in the same neighborhood as the U.S. Download U.S. Global Research Program Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report.
The result of all this work is heartening. According to the report, the U.S. economy will continue to grow when remedies are put in place against the effects of climate change. But not when the remedies are not put in place. It's that easy to understand:
The report concludes that it appears possible to for economies to grow — at least in the United States, Mexico and Canada — without increasing overall emissions of greenhouse gases. That would be an important signal for the ability of the world to slow climate change over the course of the century. However, it does not mean any lessening of climate-change impacts within the United States. As long as global emissions continue, the risk of impacts here continue, because carbon dioxide circulates around the globe.
So there you have it: Why the reliance on coal and oil, America? Relying on coal and oil doesn't help your economy or your budget. So whose budgets are helped by you and I and the rest of America relying on coal and oil, then?
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