Climate Change Think Globally, Assess Regionally, Act Locally: Scientists Must Develop Regional Assessments of Climate Change That Are Essential to the Local Policymakers Who Will Have to Make the Critical Decisions About How to Respond (Climate CHANGE‪)‬

Climate change is here to stay. No matter how effectively governments and the private sector limit greenhouse gas emissions, average global temperatures will rise during the next several decades. Scientists know less well how climate change effects will be manifested regionally. And this information is critical because each region will have to decide how to adapt to change. The evidence that global warming is already here and that its effect varies by region is strikingly apparent at the poles. Average temperature in the Arctic increased at nearly twice the global rate during the past 100 years, summer sea-ice area has decreased by 7.4% since satellite observations begin in 1978, and buildings and highways are threatened as the permafrost beneath them melts. The Greenland and Antarctic land ice sheets are changing rapidly, which is contributing to sea-level rise.