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.

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...

Satellite observations show significant declines in Arctic sea ice cover in recent decades as the climate has warmed,^[1] with impacts on fish and wildlife habitats that are important for subsistence, recreation, and tourist activities in the region. Retreating sea ice also contributes to increased storm surge, coastal flooding, and coastal erosion.^[2] Arctic sea ice plays a key role in moderating climate within and beyond the region, and understanding sea ice change is critical to projections of future...

A national system of physical, ecological, and societal indicators is considered a foundational component of the sustained assessment process, serving to help users understand the changing environment, assess risks and vulnerabilities, and make informed decisions to build resilience to change. A 2019 Federal–academic workshop sought to advance the development of socio-environmental systems indicators of climate change to support adaptation and resilience decisions at various scales in the United States.

This work was supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (...

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,...

The U.S. Midwest is a major producer of a wide range of food and animal feed for national consumption and international trade. Higher humidity, precipitation, and temperatures associated with a changing climate increasingly impact agriculture in the region, and projected climate changes are expected to pose growing challenges to agricultural productivity in the coming decades.^{^[1]}

Weather and climate information targeted to the needs of agricultural producers can help producers increase the resilience of their...

Long-term measurements of Earth’s atmosphere show rapidly rising concentrations of greenhouse gases linked to human activities.^{^[1]} Existing observing networks provide information on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at the global scale, but this spatial scale is not sufficient to help nations, regions, and other entities quantify and manage greenhouse gas emissions. To improve the relevance of emissions information for decision-making, an international initiative is promoting scientific methods that combine...

According to independent analyses by NASA and NOAA, Earth’s average global surface temperature in 2019 was the second warmest since modern record-keeping began in 1880. Globally, 2019’s average temperature was second only to that of 2016 and continued the planet’s long-term warming trend. Rising temperatures are contributing to glacier melt, disappearing snow cover, shrinking sea ice, rising sea level, and changes in rainfall patterns.^[...

Increasing heavy rains are leading to more soil erosion and nutrient loss on midwestern cropland.

USGCRP completed the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) in November 2018 with the release of NCA4 Volume II (Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States). Building on an assessment of observed and projected changes in the physical climate system released as Volume I of NCA4 (Climate Science Special Report) in 2017, Volume II focuses on climate-related risks to systems that support our well-being and economy.

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A researcher launches a radiosonde instrument attached to a weather balloon to capture detailed atmospheric data.

The Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica is the stormiest place on Earth, marked by heavy cloud cover that helps determine how much of the sun’s energy reaches Earth’s surface. Due in part to the scarcity of field data from the region, current climate models have difficulty reproducing the behavior of clouds over the Southern Ocean, which in turn affects how well they can simulate current and future climate. Motivated by these data limitations, an international multi-agency effort collected atmospheric and oceanographic data via ship-, aircraft-, and island-based instrumentation in a...

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Highlights

An interagency platform highlights important indicators of change

USGCRP enhances cooperation among international global change science organizations

An observing network tracks changes in Arctic sea ice cover

A collaboration explores socio-environmental systems indicators for climate change adaptation and resilience

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

An ongoing partnership provides climate information to agricultural producers

An international observing system sets a global framework for measuring greenhouse gas emissions

Independent analyses provide a consistent picture of global surface temperature change

Assessment products outline climate-related risks and response actions

Unprecedented observations in the Southern Ocean help improve global climate models