Giving Compass' Take:

• Thirteen federal agencies agree: Climate change has already wreaked havoc on the United States, and the worst is likely yet to come. The report traces the effects climate change has already wrought upon every region of the United States, from nationwide heat waves to dwindling snowpacks in the West.

• How can philanthropists, activists, donors, etc. help prioritize climate change to spark change? 

• Here's another example on what donors can do to fight against climate change.

On Friday afternoon, the U.S. government published a major and ominous climate report. Despite being released on a holiday, when it seemed the smallest number of people would be paying attention, the latest installment of the National Climate Assessment is, as told to my colleague Robinson Meyer, full of “information that every human needs.”

The document’s dire claims, backed by 13 federal agencies, come frequently into conflict with the aims of the administration that released it. Where the Trump administration has sought to loosen restrictions on car emissions, the report warns that vehicles are contributing to unhealthy ozone levels that affect nearly a third of Americans. Whereas the president has ensured that the United States will no longer meet the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement on climate change, the report says that ignoring Paris could accelerate coral bleaching in Hawaii by more than a decade.

Here are the report’s three most chilling conclusions:

  1. Extreme hot weather is getting more common, and cold weather more rare.
  2. Climate change has doubled the devastation from wildfires in the Southwest.
  3. Rising sea levels will necessitate mass migrations, and coastal cities aren’t doing enough.

Read the full article on the 2018 climate report by Rachel Gutman at The Atlantic