Highlights

Since 1989, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has submitted annual reports to Congress called Our Changing Planet. The reports describe the status of USGCRP research activities, provide progress updates, and document recent accomplishments.

In particular, Our Changing Planet highlights progress and accomplishments in interagency activities. These highlights represent the broad spectrum of USGCRP activities that extend from Earth system observations, modeling, and fundamental research through synthesis and assessment, decision support, education, and public engagement. Highlights describe the state of science at the time of publication of each yearly report, and may not reflect more recent advances in understanding. The date of publication of the source report is noted on each highlight page.

Interagency science informed the synthesis of actionable research to support Federal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2020, DoD began working with interagency partners to synthesize actionable research on potential environmental drivers impacting the life and spread of the COVID-19 virus. From this collective research, representatives from the Air Force Directorate of Weather worked with DoD’s operational climate services unit, the 14th Weather Squadron in Asheville, NC, to produce actionable products for senior DoD leaders on potential environmental drivers of...

A new resource ensures that Federal health and climate research is accessible to inform the Fifth National Climate Assessment.

In 2020, the CCHHG began an effort to identify and organize information on federally funded research activities on climate change and human health since 2016. This group, co-led by EPA and NASA, collated this information into a Federal climate change and health research compendium document to help inform authors of the Fifth National...

USGCRP agencies mobilized support for research on the health implications of climate change.

As part of its mandate to promote international cooperation in global change research, USGCRP engages with the Belmont Forum, an international partnership that catalyzes funding for research in support of resilience and sustainability. USGCRP member agencies (including NOAA, NSF, USDA, and the National Institutes of Health) participated in the scoping, call text writing, review, and funding of nine research proposals on climate, environment, and health supported...

A heat health forecast tool aims to help communities better prepare for and respond to extreme heat events.

The CCHHG, led by NOAA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with input from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, developed a Climate and Health Monitor and Outlook Heat Forecast Product for the continental United States based on NOAA seasonal forecasts. The heat health forecast tool displays the rate of heat-related illness by region for a given week and is designed to help communities better prepare for and...

A bar chart showing an increase in weather and climate disasters causing more than one billion U.S. dollars in direct losses from 1980 to 2020. Event types shown are drought, flooding, freeze, severe storm, tropical cyclone, wildfire, and winter storm.

Climate indicators show trends over time in key aspects of our environment, such as greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, temperatures across land and sea, and the extent of Arctic sea ice, as well as metrics of social or economic exposure to the impacts of climate variability and change. Indicators are based on long-term, consistently collected data and can be used to assess risks and vulnerabilities from a changing climate and to inform response actions. USGCRP’s Indicators Interagency Working Group (IndIWG) leverages existing agency research, data, and indicators in support of...

USGCRP’s International Activities Interagency Working Group (IAIWG) convened its first international and interagency workshop in December 2018, bringing together representatives from System for Analysis, Research and Training (START), Future Earth, and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). These three international programs receive funding through USGCRP to support their activities and to advance USGCRP’s international mandate. USGCRP was represented by ten Federal agencies as well as USGCRP staff. The workshop’s goals were to enhance awareness of mutual priorities, investments, and...

Climate-sensitive infectious diseases, including vector-borne diseases (such as dengue, West Nile Virus, and Chikungunya), waterborne diseases (such as those caused by Vibrio species), soil- and dust-borne diseases (such as Valley Fever), and zoonotic diseases (such as plague and avian influenza) pose threats to the health of Americans living at home and abroad. These threats are anticipated to change in distribution and severity as climate change progresses in the coming decades. Improving U.S. capacity to predict and communicate changes in risks of climate-sensitive diseases,...

USGCRP agencies and interagency groups played a leading role in the development of a Belmont Forum international Collaborative Research Action (CRA) launched in April 2019, focused on issues at the intersection of climate, environment, and human health.

In addition to an international scoping workshop organized by the Interagency Crosscutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health (CCHHG) and International Activities Interagency Working Group (IAIWG) in April 2018, USGCRP member agencies (including NIH, NOAA, and NSF) participated in a year-long,...

A Spanish language translation of the executive summary of USGCRP’s report The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health: a Scientific Assessment is now available.

Climate and health assessment information has been shared widely through a number of platforms and formats, including a Spanish translation of the report overview.

In April 2016, the USGCRP released The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, a groundbreaking report detailing the major risks and vulnerabilities to human health posed by...

The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the primary vector for transmission of the Zika virus.

Interagency science investigated environmental influences on Zika transmission and helped support response efforts.

In February 2016, the World Health Organization declared the Zika outbreak spreading across the Americas since 2015 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, based on Zika’s previously-unknown association with birth defects. The virus was first discovered in 1947 in Africa and had not previously been found in the Western Hemisphere. By February 2016, the outbreak had spread to 48 countries and territories in the Americas...

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Highlights

Translating research on the environmental drivers of COVID-19 to support decision-making

Developing a new resource on Federal climate change and health research

Supporting international health and climate research

Informing heat health decisions

An interagency platform highlights important indicators of change

USGCRP enhances cooperation among international global change science organizations

Interagency activities inform efforts to predict and prepare for climate-sensitive infectious diseases

Interagency efforts help lead a new international climate and health research effort

Expanding access to climate change and human health assessment information

Responding to the Zika outbreak