*By Christian Smith*
If you didn't find this weekend's dramatic climate report unsettling, read it again.
Andrew Light, distinguished senior fellow at the World Resources Institute and co-author of the report, said on Cheddar Monday that the effects of climate change are imminent ー unless the federal government acts now.
"It is threatening almost every sector of the economy ー of course more so those sectors that are dependent on natural resources," Light said.
"We should start moving with the most effective and efficient policies that can begin switching our energy sources in earnest from fossil-fuel based to non-fossil fuel based, and also begin to lead the entire country on measures towards adaptation and resilience."
The Trump administration released its dire findings on the Friday after Thanksgiving, timing many have called suspicious ー among them, Politico reporter Matt Daily, who thinks officials meant to bury the news on a holiday weekend.
"I don't know if burying it on Black Friday was a very successful tactic," Daily told Cheddar, noting that the attempt to downplay the news only handed environmental advocates a new line of criticism against the administration.
The [National Climate Assessment](https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/), which is required by federal law to be published every four years, found that climate change will cost the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century and will endanger thousands of American lives each year. The White House issued a [statement](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/25/climate/trump-climate-report.html) saying that the report, which was instituted under the Obama administration, was "largely based on the most extreme scenario” of global warming.
Daily disagreed.
"That's a bit of a stretch, to put it mildly," Daily said. "The report offers quite a wide range of what's possibly coming our way by the end of the century."
Light noted that some states and cities were already moving in the right direction ー but he added the federal government needs to take the lead.
"The U.S. federal government is not leading even though we are seeing states and cities do quite a lot," Light said.
Lenders are raising serious concerns about the Payroll Protection Program, which was scheduled to launch Friday, citing a lack of information from the government on how and if the emergency loan program will even work and leading some to opt out of it.
President Donald Trump has announced new federal guidelines recommending that Americans wear face coverings when in public. The president immediately said he had no intention of following the advice himself.
Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore. 2nd District) supports the "basic public health protocol" is leading to drastic mitigation of the pandemic in his state of Oregon.
Stocks are falling again on Wall Street, putting the market on track for its third down week in the last four. The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq were each down more than 2.5%.
Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and ex-wife of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, said that RFK Human Rights has freed over 200 people in 10 cities over the last two and a half weeks. These people were put in jail and awaiting trial, some for as little as a $25 fine for an overdue parking ticket.
The governor said he has spoken with hospital administrators and understands the reluctance to give up essential equipment, but that he wants to avoid a situation where COVID-19 patients are dying in one part of the state while ventilators sit unused in another part of the state.
Stocks are falling in morning trading on Wall Street, putting the S&P 500 on track for its third down week in the last four. But the losses are much milder than what's rocked investors the last couple months.
The Trump administration is formalizing new guidance to recommend that many Americans wear face coverings in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, as the president is aggressively defending his response to the public health crisis.
The coronavirus outbreak has triggered a stunning collapse in the U.S. workforce, with 10 million people losing their jobs in the past two weeks. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed infections worldwide has hit 1 million, with more than 50,000 deaths, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Stock indexes turned wobbly on Wall Street Thursday, giving up most of an early gain driven by a surge in oil prices.
