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- The EPA published an update of indicators tracking the climate crisis on Wednesday.
- The report had long been annual, but was not published at all during the Trump administration.
- For the first time, the EPA attributed climate change to humans, a press officer told the BBC.
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For the first time, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said that the climate crisis is – at least in part – caused by human activities, the BBC reported.
The agency had never before said that human activities caused the changes in the Earth's climate, a press officer for the EPA told the BBC.
The acknowledgement came in the latest update of the EPA's Climate Change Indicators, which was published on Wednesday.
Climate Change Indicators used to come out every year, but stopped publishing in early 2017, just as President Donald Trump took office. Its work recommenced after Joe Biden took office earlier this year.
"Greenhouse gases from human activities are the most significant driver of observed climate change," the EPA said in the report.
Over the course of his presidency, Trump made conflicting statements about his position on the climate crisis. In 2020, he walked back his position that it was "hoax", but also predicted that the climate "will change back" without intervention.
The report presents "compelling and clear evidence" of a climate crisis, the EPA said in a press release.
"There is no small town, big city, or rural community that's unaffected by the climate crisis," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said on Wednesday.
Here are some findings from the report:
- Heat waves are happening more often in US cities, from two per year in the 1960s to six per year in the 2010s.
- Sea levels have risen along US coastlines since 1960, especially around the mid-Atlantic coast and parts of the Gulf Coast, where some stations measured 8 inch rises.
- The growing season in agriculture has become longer, by an extra 2 weeks on average.