The Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) is now available online! These reports are Congressionally-mandated and released approximately every four years by the US Global Change Research Program. The NCAs bring together teams of professionals to synthesize knowledge about current and projected trends in global climate change, including information on both environmental and social trends. As Dr. Richard Spinrad, NOAA Administrator, said on the NCA5 Rollout presentation today, the NCA5 is an “authoritative source on risks and impacts of climate change in the United States - it is the roadmap telling us the way forward for communities, including those at the greatest risk, so that they can do the things they need to do… and accelerate their resiliency.” 

The report is supplemented by a few new additions this year, including the National Climate Assessment Interactive Atlas, which is an interactive tool that can be used to help people across the country understand how changing conditions might affect their lives. And, for the first time, art and poetry have been published along with the assessment to bring together the scientific and the social aspects of climate change. 

Several people at the NC CASC contributed to the NCA5 (listed here by chapter contributions): 

• Northern Plains chapter: Aparna Bamzai-Dodson and Stefan Tangen
• Tribes and Indigenous Peoples chapter: James Rattling Leaf, Sr. 
• Water chapter: Imtiaz Rangwala

We are excited for the publication of NCA5 and are aiming to share related resources for the North Central region in the future!