Under Pressure, White House Issues Climate Change Report
New York Times

Most of the findings, like the spread of warmth-loving pests and the inevitable loss of low-lying lands to rising seas, are not new. But the report included new projections of how the poor, elderly and communities with lagging public-health and public-works systems will face outsize health risks from warming.

Among the report’s new conclusions on health: “An increased frequency and severity of heat waves is expected, leading to more illness and death, particularly among the young, elderly, frail and poor.” It added that deaths from cold would decline, but said uncertainties on both projections made it impossible to characterize the overall risk.

It gave high odds (essentially a two out of three chance) that Lyme disease and West Nile virus would have expanded ranges because of warming. The report gave the same odds that some food- and water-borne diseases would also increase among susceptible populations, but said “major human epidemics” were unlikely as long as public-health systems remained effective.
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Climate assessment forced by court order
Reuters

The assessment was praised by environmental groups at the forefront of the lawsuit that led to the court order forcing the administration to issue the report by the end of May.

"Hats off to the federal scientists who were allowed to do their work," Kassie Siegel, climate program director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said by telephone.

But she criticized the administration for waiting until the last months of the Bush presidency to release the assessment.
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White House issues climate report 4 years late
Associated Press

While the report has no new science in it, it pulls together different U.S. studies and localizes international reports into one comprehensive document required by law. The 271-page report is notable because it is something the Bush administration has fought in the past.

the report was comprehensive and "communicates what the scientists are telling us."

That includes:

_ Increased heat deaths and deaths from climate-worsened smog.
_ Worsening water shortages for agriculture and urban users.
_ A need for billions of dollars in more power plants
_ More death and damage from wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters and extreme weather.
_ Increased insect infestations and food- and waterborne microbes and diseases.

"Finally, climate change is very likely to accentuate the disparities already evident in the American health care system," the report said. "Many of the expected health effects are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the uninsured."
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