As Amherst College states in their introduction to our Climate Action Plan:
“Current students at Amherst College have been living with climate change realities—and inaction—their entire lives. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been negotiating global action since 1995, yet 2018 was the fourth warmest year on record for the globe, making the past five years the “warmest in the modern record.” Globally, we are experiencing near constant extreme weather events that, in addition to their economic costs, contribute to increased poverty, exacerbated inequality and decreased stability in regions around the world. 1 degree Celsius of global warming has already occurred, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that significant action must be taken in the next 10–12 years to keep warming to 1.5 degrees C globally.”
For additional overview, consider looking into:
- Federal Climate Adaptation Plans: ways in which different federal agencies (covering fields like agriculture, transportation, and health/human services) are vulnerable to and plan to adapt to climate change
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report on global temperatures
- For additional information, look into their monthly State of the Climate summaries, covering topics like extreme temperatures and extreme weather events
- New York Times: how climate change is impacted by the food system (specifically meat, seafood, and dairy)
- Climate change fast facts from the United Nations: a brief overview of climate-related findings in various fields, ranging from global temperatures to how climate change (and climate policy) will impact jobs and the economy
- For greater depth, visit the sources linked in each section or go to the UN’s list of climate reports
- NASA: overview of the effects of climate change, including models and predictions
- NASA also has overviews of the evidence of climate change, some of the causes, and frequently asked questions about climate change and their methodology
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report: includes both a factsheet and links to the different sections of the full report
- “The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States”: a scientific assessment from a government research program that examines the ways in which climate change can impact physical and mental health
- Each section has a summary and a list of key findings, in addition to the full chapter (which contains citations and supporting evidence). The full summary (including key diagrams) can be found here.
- Topics discussed include heat-related death and illness, air quality, disease, food and nutrition, and mental health