National climate assessment is not to scare people: US

The White House today said the purpose of the national climate assessment, which portrays a grim picture, is not to scare people to get the necessary policy changes, but to give them a clear assessment of the dangerous realities of climate change and its implications on common Americans.
"No", White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said when asked about the allegations that the report on climate change is a pressure building tactics to scare the people.
"The Third National Climate Assessment is to provide information in a form that is understandable and comprehensive for Americans across the country to use and review so that they can better understand the effects of a change in climate on their regions of the country and understand that the change in climate is creating impacts everywhere in the country, not in just isolated areas. It's happening now," Carney said.

"I think that is the bottom line result of this assessment or, you know, point that the assessment makes. It is really a remarkable document, produced over the course of much more comprehensive than its predecessors," the White House Press Secretary said.
"It makes clear that carbon pollution has increased dramatically in recent decades, that climate change is threatening human health and well being through more extreme weather events, changes in disease transmission and decreased air quality, that severe droughts are leading to crop losses and wildfires in the West, and the rate of sea-level rise have sped up in recent decades," he said.

"The purpose of the report is not just to inform but also to make clear that there are things we can do practically that can affect the direction of climate change and prepare us for the impacts of climate change," Carney said, adding that the US President Barack Obama issued a broad-based Climate Action Plan last June, announcing a series of executive actions to cut carbon pollution, prepare the US for the impacts of climate change and lead international efforts to address global climate change.
Obama, he said, has been moving forward on that Climate Action Plan to reduce carbon pollution for example, through the rules of power plants, and to make federal lands available for renewable energy production, to support innovative and advanced fossil energy, and to fund clean energy manufacturing.

"I mean, one of the very encouraging signs that John talked about yesterday is not only are we producing more domestic oil than we're importing for the first time in so long, but we are now the largest natural gas producer in the world. Natural gas is a bridge fuel, fossil fuel, that burns much more cleanly than traditional fossil fuels, and it allows for reduced carbon emissions in the atmosphere. It use of it increases our energy security, our national security, which is a good thing," he said.