Strengthened scientific support for the Endangerment Finding for atmospheric greenhouse gases

Philip B Duffy; Christopher B Field; Noah S Diffenbaugh; Scott C Doney; Zoe Dutton; Sherri Goodman; Lisa Heinzerling; Solomon Hsiang; David B Lobell; Loretta J Mickley; Samuel Myers; Susan M Natali; Camille Parmesan; Susan Tierney; A Park Williams

doi:10.1126/science.aat5982

Strengthened scientific support for the Endangerment Finding for atmospheric greenhouse gases

Science. 2019 Feb 8;363(6427):eaat5982. doi: 10.1126/science.aat5982. Epub 2018 Dec 13.

Authors

Philip B Duffy^#¹, Christopher B Field^#^{2

3}, Noah S Diffenbaugh^#^{2

3}, Scott C Doney⁴, Zoe Dutton⁵, Sherri Goodman⁵, Lisa Heinzerling⁶, Solomon Hsiang^{7

8}, David B Lobell^{2

3}, Loretta J Mickley⁹, Samuel Myers^{10

11}, Susan M Natali¹², Camille Parmesan^{13

14

15}, Susan Tierney¹⁶, A Park Williams¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA 02540, USA. pduffy@whrc.org.
² Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
³ Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
⁴ Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA.
⁵ Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC 20004, USA.
⁶ Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC 20001, USA.
⁷ Global Policy Laboratory, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁸ National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
⁹ John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
¹⁰ Harvard University Center for the Environment, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
¹¹ Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
¹² Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA 02540, USA.
¹³ SETE, CNRS, and University P-Sabatier, Moulis 09200, France.
¹⁴ School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, UK.
¹⁵ Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
¹⁶ Analysis Group, Denver, CO 80202, USA.
¹⁷ Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 30545843
DOI: 10.1126/science.aat5982

Abstract

We assess scientific evidence that has emerged since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 Endangerment Finding for six well-mixed greenhouse gases and find that this new evidence lends increased support to the conclusion that these gases pose a danger to public health and welfare. Newly available evidence about a wide range of observed and projected impacts strengthens the association between the risk of some of these impacts and anthropogenic climate change, indicates that some impacts or combinations of impacts have the potential to be more severe than previously understood, and identifies substantial risk of additional impacts through processes and pathways not considered in the Endangerment Finding.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Agriculture
Air Pollution / adverse effects
Air Pollution / legislation & jurisprudence*
Climate Change*
Disasters
Greenhouse Gases*
Humans
Public Health*
Risk Assessment
United States
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Weather

Substances

Greenhouse Gases