- A new NCA report shows that Southwest snowpack and streamflows
have declined over this past decade. Climate models project
continued reduction in snowpack and streamflow in many of the
region's major river basins, and increased drought duration and
severity throughout the region. A new draft assessment of the
impacts of climate change on the U.S. has been released by the
Global Change Research Program in Washington, D.C., and is
available online for public comment. Hailed as the most
comprehensive and inclusive national effort to date to assess
the science of climate change and its impacts, the National
Climate Assessment, or NCA, will contribute directly to the U.S.
climate policy debate. The draft NCA report, which is required
by federal law, will be delivered to the president and Congress
once it has been fully reviewed by the National Academies of
Sciences and the public. More than 240 authors contributed
directly to this document, and more than 1,000 were engaged in
providing technical data and researc