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Rebecca Hersher, NPR

Summary

Residences leveled by the Camp Fire line a cul-de-sac in Paradise, Calif., earlier this month. A massive federal report says climate change is contributing to larger wildfires as well as other deadly extreme weather. Photo: Noah Berger/AP

Climate change is already causing more frequent and severe weather across the U.S., and the country is poised to suffer massive damage to infrastructure, ecosystems, health and the economy if global warming is allowed to continue, according to the most comprehensive federal climate report to date.

The fourth National Climate Assessment is the culmination of years of research and analysis by hundreds of top climate scientists in the country. The massive report details the many ways in which global climate change is already affecting American communities, from hurricanes to wildfires to floods to drought.

"Climate change is already affecting every part of the United States, almost every sector of the United States, be it agriculture or forestry or energy, tourism," says George Mason University professor Andrew Light, who is one of the report's editors. "It's going to hurt cities, it's going to hurt people in the countryside, and, as the world continues to warm, things are going to get worse."

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