Yes, the planet is getting warmer. But what's happening in the United States specifically and what will the impacts be? The newly released Fifth National Climate Assessment is the most comprehensive report yet on how climate change is impacting the country.

Dr. Jeremy Hoffman, the lead author of the Southeast chapter, joins the podcast this week to give an overview of the assessment. What is different about this report from previous ones? How do current and future impacts vary across different regions, industries, and social classes? Dr. Hoffman also discusses why there is reason for optimism as we move forward with tackling climate change.

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About the Across the Sky podcast

The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team:

Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Headliner and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Southeast Braces for Rising Seas

Sean Sublet welcomes climate scientist Jeremy Hoffman to Lee Enterprises Weather podcast

Sean Sublette: Hello once again, everybody. I'm, meteorologist Sean Sublette. And welcome to Across the Sky, our national Lee Enterprises Weather podcast. Lee Enterprises has print and digital news operations in more than 70 locations across the country, including in my home base in Richmond, Virginia. I'm joined by meteorologist colleagues Matt Holiner in Chicago, Joe Martucci at the New Jersey Shore, Kirsten Lang this week is on assignment. Our guest this week is climate scientist Jeremy Hoffman. Jeremy got his PhD in geology with a focus in Paleo climatology at Oregon State University. And importantly, he is the lead author of the new Southeast chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, which just came out this week. After several years here in Richmond at the Science Museum of Virginia, he is now working with Groundwork USA, a network of local organizations devoted to transforming the natural and built environment of low resource communities across the country. So we have got a lot to get to, with Jeremy in this episode. Guys, one of the things that I think was really good for us to point out was that we're hit with so many reports, right? This report comes out. This report comes out. We see this headline, that headline. This one is different. This one really focuses on specific sectors and impacts to all the regions of the United States. And Matt, you and I were talking, so many people were involved to get some good, what we call consensus opinions. Right?

Matt Holiner: Yeah. This reminds me very much, if you haven't listened to our episode with Neil deGrasse Tyson, a great listen, but we talk about this with him, or he brought it up, how you want scientific consensus, you don't want the one person who has this one, probably that's not how science works. You want something that's been worked on and been looked at by a lot of people. And a lot of people worked on this report, and some of the most respected scientists in the country worked on this report. So this wasn't a report done by one person. And it's not just a few page report. It's very detailed, lots of people working on it to reach a consensus on what's happening, a scientific consensus. This isn't just an opinion, this is based on fact, and a lot of hours and a lot of people will put effort into it.

Joe Martucci: Yeah, and you could check that out at NCA 2023. Globalchange. Gov. That's NcaTwenty. Globalchange. Gov. Yes. Usually when a number of people are saying the same thing, that is usually meaning that there is power behind this. What is in the report is factually correct, at least to the best of their abilities here. And this all goes into what I say a lot of times when it comes to climate change, let's just get the elephant out of the room. It is a big topic, that does get heated here. But the way to think about this is there are facts and forecasts about our climate changing world, and then there's what to do or not to do about it. And that's where your beliefs come in. There is a difference between what our beliefs are and then what is actually happening. So, as we learn here in the podcast, this is talking about the facts and the forecast part of it. What is actually the thoughts of the researchers in terms of what to do or not to do about it is not in this. That's for now, Congress and our elected, officials to decide on. And he talks about that in the podcast, so I'm looking forward to it.

Sean Sublette: Yeah, he gets into a lot of that. They kind of outline some policy ideas, but didn't say we need to X, Y or Z. So without further ado, let's get right to Jeremy Hoffman, who's the lead chapter offer of the Southeast chapter of the National Climate Assessment.

The fifth National Climate Assessment has been several years in the making

Sean Sublette: Jeremy, thanks for joining us. This has been a labor of love, I'm sure. the fifth national climate assessment is literally years in the making. Talk a little bit about the genesis of the NCA national climate assessment. This isn't just another report that's out there, right? I mean, this is a congressional act, right? Hundreds of scientists are working on this.

Jeremy Hoffman: Yeah. So, first of all, thanks so much, Sean, and your team, for inviting me to be a part of the discussion today. You’re absolutely right. I mean, this has been a, ah, report that's several years in the making. First and foremost, the national climate Assessment itself is a congressionally mandated, production of the US government, of the US GCRP, or the US, Global Change Research program and the NCA Five, really began, back in the end of 2019 when the Federal Steering Committee that would be kind of running the show and pushing the report forward was established. And then by the middle part of 2020 or so, that's when the, lead authors were selected based on a public nomination process. so I was informed of my selection as the, chapter lead for the Southeast chapter, at that time, as well as, getting to know my coordinating lead author, Steve McDulty, who's the director of the Southeast, Region Forest Service. Steve, amazing career, has worked on basically every climate assessment, since they began, so he had been working on climate assessments since before I was born. So it was really great to have somebody with such experience helping me, get to know the climate assessment process. And so, by 2021, by the end of 2020, we had our chapter author team selected and established, and so then basically for the last two years, since that time, we've been doing, different drafts of the content of the fifth national climate Assessment. This has included an outline phase or the zero order draft. In early 2021, we got some, public feedback at that time, which was really great. We had, public engagement workshops that had visitors from all over the different, regions. We had, stakeholder, engagements as part of that process. And so we emerged with a really, kind, of bottom up outline of what the Southeast, the stakeholders and public and residents of the Southeast were really interested in and concerned about. SO Then there was a multiple iterative process, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th drafts, which, I believe the fourth order draft, went through, or the third order draft went through the National Academy's peer review process, as well as another public review, the Southeast chapter. We had, almost 100 public comments about our chapter draft, reflecting on the content and kind of pieces that might have been missing, as well as National Academy's review, which was three pages of a nearly line by Line review. And so, yes, this report is, the integrated effort of over 700 people, academics, professionals, climate, and resilience communicators. I mean, it is. The sheer number of people involved in the production of this from the NCA team side of things is immense. And then you think about the thousands and thousands of residents of this country that provided public review to the draft. This is not some flash in the pan kind of report. The state of climate impact and risk, science for the United States, that will be the kind of science of record that people can come back to again and again as they confront the risks of climate change in their communities, for at least the next five years, until the NCA six comes out. So, yes, it was a massive undertaking. It was such an incredible experience professionally, and I'm just so thrilled about the way that it's been rolled out to such public fanfare, around the country.

Sean Sublette: Wonderful. Before I let the other guys jump in, I want to start at the very top. I mean, from what I've been able to tell, because I haven't gone through all of it yet. It's massive. It’s kind of a reinforcement of things that we largely knew if we're paying attention. Right. but are there a couple of things that have come out in this version, NCA Five, that really stand out as bigger changes or more emphatic compared to NCA Four, whether it's in the Southeast or any part of the United States? Is there anything that really jumped out at you as a scientist?

Jeremy Hoffman: Well, first of all, I think virtually across all of the regional chapters and even the sector specific chapters, almost without exception, virtually every way that we understand that climate change is happening has just gotten stronger, since NCA Four. Whether that be patterns, and trends in annual temperatures or our warm nights, indicators of heavy precipitation, indicators of rising sea levels. All of those things that we use as our indicators of climate change is happening now in the United States, virtually without exception, have all gotten more robust. So, as far as the framing around kind of content that's already been covered for the multiple other NCAs, this report very much focuses on, the fact that quite literally, how much more all of these things continue to intensify are entirely related to the choices that we make today. The human element about the uncertainty of what happens in the future, is really, particularly centered across all of the different chapters. So we're talking about, very much that what happens now has a direct correlation to what happens in the future. And depending on the level of global warming that we, experience and allow to happen, dictates the future intensity of the, climate indicators that we have already, seen change. Now, some of the particular things that I think, ah, are particularly noteworthy in the Southeast. I think the most alarming result is related to sea, level change. Sea level is going up, globally, because land based ice in the Polar Regions is melting and adding that water that was frozen into big, giant ice sheets that water is melting and going into the ocean. That raises, global sea levels. Also, most of the energy being trapped by the intensified greenhouse gas effect is being absorbed by the oceans. So the oceans are warming up. This is a really fascinating bit about water, is that as it warms up, it expands. You, can do this experiment at home, boiling water on your stove at home. You see that as it warms up, it's actually starting to take up a greater volume, over time. So we have those two things going on globally. But then when you look at the localized things, that can then further amplify global sea level rise that's happening throughout the Southeast, and really creating, a fairly, urgent need to confront these rising sea levels because we actually have a faster relative sea level rise throughout the Southeast. That drives our future projections to be much higher than the global average expectation. So things like excessive groundwater, know, in coastal, you know, Norfolk, Virginia has the highest rate of sealable rise on the entire east coast of North America, due to localized groundwater extraction, as well as things like the relaxation of the Earth's crust following the end of the last Ice Age. So this connects to things happening tens of thousands of years ago. But also there are localized oceanographic, changes that are ongoing that further amplify sea, level trends that we have in the Southeast. Now, what does this mean long term? By 2050, which pretty much a lot of the future climate projections that are seen in the report focus on more near term changes. So 2050 or so, sea level rise of 2ft is expected at a kind of intermediate to high range scenario, which seems to match the trends that we have detected already. So when we think about the amount of people that are moving under the coastline, the amount of things that we're building along the coast, the threats of a changing sea level, really become apparent through intensified amount of flooding related to hurricanes, to storm surges, even just sunny day or nuisance flooding going up, taking up more time, disrupting people's day to day lives on the coast. And we know that these flooding conditions disproportionately affect those without the resources in order to prepare for them. And that's what I would say is another aspect of this report that is centered throughout, the report in sectors and regional, chapters is that there is a disproportionate impact of climate change on poorer communities and communities of color that experience the challenges of climate change, first and worst, whether that's through their health impacts or to their livelihoods. This is a real theme across the report that you will see, ah, very much, highlighted across both sectors and regions. So I'd say, there are a few other things we can talk about for sure, but when it comes to the Southeast sea level rise and throughout the whole country and throughout the report, this focus on disproportionate impact, is really something that is a big change from NCA four with.

Joe Martucci: Everything you said, right? Who is actually taking this information, making actions upon it? I know you said it's congressionally mandated. I don't know if you said this during the broadcast or just before, while we were off air. But who's taking this information? And what are the actionable steps that have been done based on previous climate assessments? Like, is this something that is actually being put to use in the United States?

Jeremy Hoffman: So I find that, if you look up the citations for, the NCA, four chapters, they appear in all manner of different capacities, whether it's just public awareness. So, this kind of coverage, news coverage, making its way into the public realm, though, refining and defining new questions related to climate change impacts. So it further drives the research that is, working to illuminate more detailed, information, around climate change. But yes, we do see this making its way into decision making. And the biggest point about the national climate assessment is for it to be, policy relevant, but not policy prescriptive. So what's really great about these national climate assessments is that it is meant to just provide the information that can then shape those decision makers, plans for the future. I've seen it, make its way into, coastal resilience plans. I've seen the information and citations to previous reports, make its way into nonprofit community group kinds of presentations, whether it's, advocating for things like improved transit, or more shade in their neighborhoods. These sorts of documents, again, really find their way into a variety of different conversations, that I think just work to, establish a normalized set of data that we can use in those sorts of, discussions. And I think, it's been really amazing, the variety of different ways, that these reports have been, utilized. And I think that NCA Five, because of its real focus on finding ways to communicate with groups that maybe weren't aware that the national climate assessment exists. I am really excited to see it used, for other, endeavors, maybe more aligned with the humanities or social sciences, and understanding more about things like mental health and well-being where a hazard showed up, in the past. So, there's a variety of different things, from concrete climate related policy to, just improving the way that individuals and communities can talk about climate change in their own backyards.

Climate change is causing drought and flooding in the United States

Matt Holiner: And, Jeremy, I think one of the things that's, confusing for folks is when we're talking about climate change, we're talking about how drought is becoming more intense and occurring more often, and flooding is becoming more intense and occurring more often. And so then people are like, well, which one is going to win? Is drought going to win? Or is flooding going to win? And I think it's going to somewhat depend on where you are in the world about what is more likely. But when you're just looking at the United States, is there anything we could say by region about who is likely to suffer more from drought and who is likely to suffer more from flooding?

Jeremy Hoffman: So the kind of traditional wisdom in the climate size community is that you get this pattern of the dry gets drier and the wet gets wetter. So, by. And the country itself tends to be divided about halfway between what's dry to the west and what's wet to the east. And we've seen that playing out, in the, precipitation related indicators of climate change anyway, the Southeast and the Northeast experiencing the more, robust changes to the intensity and duration and frequency of extreme precipitation. Changes to the annual amount of precipitation tends to be in those places that were already kind of wetter climates to begin with. And so when we look into the future, the more, clear patterns related to, extreme precipitation tend to fall along those same lines, where the Southeast and the Northeast continue to see this kind of increased, the duration and frequency of extreme precipitation events, overall. Now, on the flip side of that, we do see that in the Southwest, the projections of Dryness, become really, pretty substantial. The paleo, climate evidence suggests that we're already in an unprecedented amount of dryness and drought in that region and into the future. As the atmosphere becomes more thirsty, the soil is going to become more thirsty, driving these sorts of, additionally intense, trends, to, more drier and drought prone conditions. Now, when you start to zoom in on any one particular place, now we know how complicated rainfall is, we know how complicated drought is. But by and large, we can kind of think of this as being the dry parts of the country are going to continue to feel that dryness, and for every increased additional 10th of a degree from global warming, that gets more intense. And those places that see, extreme precipitation in the present and experience more annual precipitation in the present, that will continue to get, more acute, as, global warming continues as well.

Sean Sublette: Jeremy, this is all so deep. We want to do get into a few more specifics. We will do that after we take a quick break.

Every increment of global warming directly affects local impacts

Sean Sublette: You're listening to the across the sky podcast, and we're back with climate scientist Jeremy Hoffman on the across the Sky podcast. He's the lead chapter author of the Southeast chapter of, the Fifth National Climate Assessment. So many times, Jeremy, we hear about tipping points and I worry that people are going to wake know they expect something a year from now and the country looks like that movie the day after tomorrow. It's really not that way. Can you talk through how this kind of works? In, other words, how does every 10th of a degree matter kind of walk through that a little bit?

Jeremy Hoffman: Regarding impacts, first and foremost is like, while there's increasing amount of knowledge and a lot of open questions about these tipping points, it's much more, about what the long term, trajectory of our emissions pathways are and how that directly relates to the intensity of global warming. Because the intensity, the total amount of global warming that we experience then translates into how much more frequent does that, totally, unpredictable heat wave become, how much more rain is falling in that really intense rainfall event. And that's because the physical constraints of the atmosphere in many ways, and then how that cascades down into the really important impacts on people like, the design incentives that we use for stormwater or the, exposure of an outdoor worker to the extreme heat wave. So let me try and break that down a little bit. And the best example of this is the clausiest cleperon relation, the physical constraint of the atmosphere that, for every nominal increase in the temperature, there is about a seven. For every degree Celsius of warming in the atmosphere, that generally relates to about a 7% increase in the humidity content. So if you break that down into even smaller chunks, you can see how over every single increment of warming then is related to a corresponding and in Some cases accelerating amount of, additional water vapor that's in the air that then can be squeezed out like a bigger sponge over the same area that it affected before. And so what that means is for every degree of, warming, we have a corresponding increase of vapor. That means potentially a corresponding increase in rainfall, which we then have to deal with in our infrastructure, which was in many ways designed decades ago for a climate that no longer exists and will continually get further and further away as global warming continues. So we think about more rainfall affecting the storm sewers that were built in some places centuries ago. They, can't keep up with that rainfall. So that means a direct relationship between increments of warming to unprepared infrastructure and impact on humans in their day to day lives. So when we talk about this kind of like increments of global warming and how every increment matters, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about how the incremental warming relates to then the incremental, impact damage, suffering, and other outcomes that relate to human, experience of living in this country and definitely around the world. So, while again, there is an increase of knowledge and interest in these tipping points, what we have to recognize is those incremental increases in their direct relationship to the cost of our food, the amount of, infrastructure that we have to update, and the impact on our health systems when a more intense and frequent heat wave, happens. So, yeah, I appreciate that question, because I think it really is. People have to understand that link between a 10th of a degree and the hundreds of dollars that that might mean for their bottom line.

Matt Holiner: And, Jeremy, as we work through this part, I kind of want to come in and focus on agriculture, because, boy, some of the people that are most vocal, about the impacts that they're seeing from climate change already are the farmers, whether they're dealing with drought or flooding, either one, they don't want to see. And also the changing of the frost and freeze times. And when should they plant their crops and when should they harvest their crops? Are there any developments in this, assessment as far as agriculture goes and the outlook across the country?

Jeremy Hoffman: Well, absolutely. There is both an agriculture specific chapter, which I encourage people to go and read.

Joe Martucci: Ah.

Jeremy Hoffman: NCA 2023, Globalchange.gov. and there is also, agriculture finds its way into just about every regional chapter. For example, in the Southeast, we talk a lot about the unpredictability of rainfall. That tends to be the case around the country, where we have these rapidly changing conditions from very dry to very wet, or from very wet to very dry. And so what they do is to establish not only what the historical change has been, but what does that mean by the end of this century, 2070 to 2100, which I'll remind you, children born today will be alive in this time period that we tend to think about as very removed from direct human experience. My niece will be living in the Midwest as this occurs in the future. Anyway, these precipitation extreme changes become more acute the more global warming occurs. So, again, it's like, as we allow these larger increments and additional increments of global change to, occur, this directly relates to then, the unpredictability of these, precipitation events. Now, one of my favorite kinds of stories, from the Midwest and farmers, is that the majority of America's pumpkins come from the Midwest. I grew up in Illinois, in. So, you know, the pumpkin harvest in Southern Illinois, south central Illinois, is something that I got to see with my own eyes, and how, the direct relationship between precipitation extremes and the harvest of pumpkins threatens then the experience of having pumpkin pie, for Thanksgiving. So we think about, the relationship between, the importance of, having, reliable, and place based understanding of how these things will relate to, agricultural communities. Really underscores, the importance of the NCAA Five. Now for another example is, and you mentioned these changing freeze dates. You can think about the first time that a freeze occurs, which is kind of what we're waiting for, at this time of year, when will it dip below 32 or 28, for the first time, and then the last frost of the season occurring sometime between March and May, depending on where you live. And this really has a huge effect, especially in the Southeast, on fruits. So, everybody remembers the Georgia peach, and so peaches need a particular amount of frost, and cold days, in order to fruit successfully and flower successfully the following spring. And if the, freeze dates, this last freeze date tends to be moving earlier into the spring on average, that has a direct relationship then to the robustness of those flowers that then turn into the peaches should a weather event like a late season frost occur. So the, long term change of this last freeze date superimposed on still the weather events like late season frosts still occurring, put these really delicate and temperature, sensitive crops, at increasing risk. And that relates to, the agricultural community's economies. Place based and specific kinds of crop based economies are really feeling this uncertainty in both rainfall and, temperature trends overall. And when I think about, how that relates to a variety of our crops that, produce foods that I love to eat, including pumpkin pie, including peaches, it really becomes clear that climate change impacts on the US are really climate, change impacts at the grocery store.

Joe Martucci: Yeah, you're making me think of, with the freeze dates changing and the frost dates changing. I've done some stories, here in New Jersey about how farmers are a little, definitely more uneasy going into the early spring, because while on average we're getting warmer, especially with those nights, it still only takes just one late freeze to really knock things out. They might be growing earlier, but then they get knocked out because of a freeze that happens in early May, let's just say. Also, I just want to throw this out. Know, I've done a podcast before, with Gary Pavlis. He's a wine expert here in New Jersey and talking about how the winery industry has actually flourished in New Jersey. Because you're able to grow those grapes further north in the state where it was one time, just in Cape May in New Jersey. Now it's gone further to the north. So it's just interesting how you, bringing in all the agricultural stuff. We’ll get this podcast home here as a 365 view, 365 degree view of this.

The National Climate Assessment is completely free and open to the public

Joe Martucci: What are you most proud of the work that you and your team has done? And what do you hope that the American public can get out of this as we go forward into the next couple of years ahead?

Jeremy Hoffman: Well, I think some of the most important information in the NCA Five is not related to the scientific observations of a changing climate. It's actually the focus on what an opportunity we have to completely and totally transform our energy system, which has immediate health related benefits for everyone in the country, but particularly those communities that are disproportionately exposed to things like air pollution. there's also the huge offset of future costs to things like our energy grid or our transportation infrastructure if we invest in it now, which means jobs, it means vitality for our local communities, it means new industries like you just mentioned, the wine industry moving further north. I mean, the transformation that our economy could harness through preparation and mitigation of future climate change, is just huge. And so how that relates to a more just and equitable, future for our country is something that finds its way throughout, the chapters, and the report writ large. And I think the most hopeful bit, to me is that everything that we’ve just talked about, as far as what the future means, is in our hands. Everything that's in this report about the future, everything is related to how we decide to move forward. Do we drastically and dramatically reduce the amount of heat trapping gases going into the atmosphere, driving global climate change, or do we delay, and wait and see, or not transform as quickly as we could, not realize all those benefits, not realize all that economic growth, all that, transformation of how, our country works, it's entirely in our hands. And I think I actually walk away from this report being proud of how hopeful it can be interpreted to be, and just what an opportunity we have, in order to adapt, to mitigate and build resilience, equitably for the changes in the future. now, I would say that also one of the proud moments, is just the breadth of content that we've been able to produce, from the equity focused, kind of outcomes to indigenous knowledge being, incorporated throughout, our chapter, and a focus towards the near term impacts of climate change. I'm really just proud of it all and hopeful, for what's possible in the future.

Sean Sublette: Jeremy, this is so amazing. I appreciate your time, I appreciate your work. Let, people know where they can find the national climate assessment and that it's not some big document on a shelf somewhere. And where can people find out more about what you were doing right now, especially with Groundwork USA.

Jeremy Hoffman: Yeah. So thanks, Sean. First and foremost, the national climate assessment is completely free, totally open, and ready for you to go read it. It's at NCA 200:23 Globalchange. Gov. And included on that, is a really interesting, interactive, data Atlas that you can go in and explore in a web based map platform what the future holds for your community at the county level. So go and look at the future precipitation, go and look at the future hot days. And involve yourself in this report, because if it is your report, it is our, scientific knowledge. Explore it. Now. There’s also a series of webinars that will be coming up over the next few months and throughout 2024. So you can go to just globalchange.gov and look at the events page for NCA five related webinars. And lastly, my organization, the organization that I work with, Groundwork USA, Groundworkusa.org. We're an affiliated network of 21 place based environmental justice nonprofits that work to transform underutilized contaminated land in cities across the United States into green community assets that prepare our communities for the changes in climate that they're already experiencing while looking at the past and the history of those communities, to empower them to advance more equitable investments in climate resilience. So check us out. Get involved in your local community organization. And thanks again for the invitation. It's been a pleasure, Jeremy.

Sean Sublette: It's been great having you again.

Jeremy Hoffman is lead author of the Fifth National Climate Assessment

Sean Sublette: Jeremy Hoffman, our guest on the across the Sky podcast. Lead chapter or chapter Lead, Excuse me, of the Southeast chapter, of the Fifth National Climate Assessment. Stay with us. We'll be back with more on the across the Sky podcast. Guys, that is a lot to digest for sure, but I've known Jeremy for a while and he is as thorough as anybody as I have ever met on this topic. One of the things that I really like, the way he kind of lays this out, is that, the decisions we make now will impact those for generations to come, including those of us with kids and hopefully one day grandkids. So there's a lot of opportunity here there's a lot of hemming and hawing about this or that, but there is opportunity. You know, I've talked to Catherine Hayhoe, who is also a climate scientist, and it's important to, as bad as some of this information can be to take in, we already have room for some optimism. Coal is already on the decline, especially domestically. So there's a lot of room for optimism going forward and a lot of opportunity to make things better in the years to come.

Matt Holiner: Yeah, I did like how he used the word that he's hopeful for this because it's easy, and I've mentioned this multiple times when we've discussed climate change, it's easy to just focus on the negative and how bad things are and how we're just a mess and we're not getting anything accomplished. But this, assessment, this report is an accomplishment. We're coming out every five years. In the last five years, we've seen already what's happening because of climate change, the increasing number of billion dollar weather disasters. So we're already getting a clearer picture of what impact climate change is having. We're seeing it already, so it becomes easier to get a clearer picture of how things are going to progress in the future. We're getting a better understanding, starting to notices some differences, even region by region, in the US. So we're getting a better and better understanding of the science and what the impacts will be and the climate models are improving. And so we have a clear picture of what's going to happen and the impacts that are going to happen. And so because of that, we're getting, I think, more motivation. When you have more details and you have more information on this subject, more people can act on it. And that's still the missing part. We're making progress. Our amount of carbon dioxide emissions is dropping in the US. It just needs to drop faster if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. And we're starting to get a clearer picture of what those worst impacts are. And I think this assessment, with so many people working on it, is a good resource for people who are still unsure exactly how is this going to play out. Just go to this report, it'll answer your questions and give you some ideas of what we really need to do to take action. That's the thing. Like take this report seriously and let's start making more progress. We're making progress, but let's make more progress. And this is a good starting point.

Joe Martucci: And you know what, too, when it comes to a lot of the projections with climate change the next couple of decades are already baked in, everything between now and about 2050 or so. It's pretty much going to happen, here. So as he said during the podcast, our grandkids, our kids, I hope I'm alive in 2100. We're going to see. I would be 109 by then. I got a shot. But it's really that 2050 to 2100 time frame where these projections, are in a position where they can be altered depending on what kind of action or inaction we take, as a society.

Sean Sublette: Yeah, so a lot of deep stuff to get into this week. But having said that, we should dial it back a little bit. Right, Joe? Let's do some stuff that's fun in the next couple of podcasts. Let's get on that. Talk to me, buddy. You got a palace Jersey that we need to talk to.

Joe Martucci: Totally. Well, we're going to talk to somebody who's not far away from me in New Jersey. He is in Connecticut. We're talking with Joe Moravsky. Now, if that name sounds familiar to you, that's because he's on American Ninja Warrior. He's been on American Ninja Warrior for a long time on the hit NBC show. But he is also a meteorologist. That is why they call him the Weatherman. It's not just because they said, oh, that's a cool nickname. It's because he actually is a meteorologist. So we're having him on talk about, his love for weather and his time on the show here. That’s going to be coming up on the 27 November here. And then on December the fourth, we're going to have one of my old Rutgers professors. So we have a lot of, we'll say mid Atlantic flair. The next couple of weeks. We have Dr. Alan Robock. He is professor, at Rutgers University, has produced a lot about climate, by the way, I should add. But he's going to talk to us about Bob Dylan in the weather because believe it or not, you can do a PhD thesis on Bob Dylan in the weather. And he did just that. So we're going to have, him to talk about that. Then as we get closer, to the end of the New Year, we have an episode, for you on December 18, ten things to know about winter. If you recall, our ten things to know about fall got a little contentious. We'll see what happens for the winter one. And then we're going to have our annual year in review that will come out sometime between Christmas and New Year's here. That's what we have going on, on the across the Sky podcast. If you want to chime in, you certainly can. We've got a couple of emails. We even got one phone call. But you can email us at podcast@lee.net that's podcast@lee.net and then in terms of giving us a call, if you really want to talk with us here, you can call us at 609-272-7099 yes, we.

Sean Sublette: Used to call those voicemails back in the day, didn't we?

Joe Martucci: yes, we did. Yes, voicemails. And also, when the hashtag was the pound sign.

Sean Sublette: Oh, yes. Hashtag was the pound sign. The good old days. All right. With that, we will wrap it up for this week. Thank you so much, for joining us on the across the Sky Podcast. Have a great Thanksgiving. If you're listening to this before. Yeah, absolutely. So for Matt Holiner in Chicago, Joe Martucci at the Jersey Shore, Kirsten Lang on assignment this week. I'm, meteorologist Sean Sublette in Richmond. Thanks again for joining us, and we will talk with you next time.