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The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is a United States government interagency ongoing effort on climate change science conducted under the auspices of the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The NCA is a major product of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) which coordinates a team of experts and receives input from a Federal Advisory Committee. NCA research is integrated and summarized in the mandatory ongoing National Climate Assessment Reports. The reports are "extensively reviewed by the public and experts, including federal agencies and a panel of the National Academy of Sciences. For the Third National Climate Assessment, released in 2014, USGCRP coordinated hundreds of experts and received advice from a sixty-member Federal Advisory Committee. The Fourth NCA (NCA4) was released in two volumes, in October 2017 and in November 2018.
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The climate change policy of the United States has major impacts on global climate change and global climate change mitigation. This is because the United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world after China, and is among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person in the world. In total, the United States has emitted over 400 billion metric tons of greenhouse gasses, more than any country in the world.
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The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Harris defeated the incumbent Republican president Donald Trump and incumbent vice president Mike Pence. The election took place against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic and related recession. It was the first election since 1992 in which the incumbent president failed to win a second term. The election saw the highest voter turnout by percentage since 1900, with each of the two main tickets receiving more than 74 million votes, surpassing Barack Obama's record of 69.5 million votes from 2008. Biden received more than 81 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a U.S. presidential election.
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The presidential transition of Joe Biden began on November 7, 2020 and ended on January 20, 2021. Unlike previous presidential transitions, which normally take place during the roughly 10-week period between the election in the first week of November and the inauguration on January 20, Biden's presidential transition was shortened somewhat because the General Services Administration under the outgoing Trump administration did not recognize Biden as the "apparent winner" until November 23.
After Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, then-incumbent Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the election, with support and assistance from his campaign, proxies, political allies, and many of his supporters. These efforts culminated in the January 6 United States Capitol attack by Trump supporters, which was widely described as an attempted coup d'état. One week later, Trump was impeached for incitement of insurrection but was acquitted by the Democratic-controlled Senate by a vote of 57–43, 10 votes short of the 67 votes required to convict him. In June 2022, the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack said it has enough evidence to recommend that the U.S. Department of Justice indict Trump. Ten leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups were later convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Capitol attack.
Allison Crimmins is an American climate scientist and the director of the National Climate Assessment in the United States since 2021. She was appointed by President Joe Biden, and replaced Trump appointee Betsy Weatherhead.
References
- ↑ "White House taps mainstream climate scientist Betsy Weatherhead to run key report". The Washington Post. November 4, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
- ↑ Brasch, Sam. "Trump Administration Picks Colorado Scientist To Lead Its Next Climate Assessment". Colorado Public Radio.
- ↑ "Betsy Weatherhead, director of National Climate Assessment, removed by White House". The Washington Post. April 18, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
- ↑ Tollefson, Jeff (July 16, 2021). "Influential US climate report moves ahead — under new leadership". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-01969-x.
- ↑ "Republicans ask why White House removed climate scientist". AP News. May 4, 2021.
- ↑ Choi, Matthew; Adragna, Anthony (May 4, 2021). "Biofuels want in on the action". Politico.
- ↑ Lucas, Fred (May 14, 2021). "House GOP seeks answers on Biden White House's ouster of climate official". Fox News.
