Collecting and
interpreting environmental indicators play a critical role in our
understanding of climate change and its causes. An indicator
represents the state of certain environmental conditions over a
given area and a specified period of time. Examples of climate
change indicators include temperature, precipitation, sea level, and
greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
EPA's Climate
Change Indicators in the United
States (PDF) (80 pp,
13.3MB) report will help readers interpret a set of
important indicators to better understand climate change. The report
presents 24 indicators, each describing trends related to the causes
and effects of climate change. It focuses primarily on the United
States, but in some cases global trends are presented to provide
context or a basis for comparison. EPA will use these indicators to
collect data and generate analyses to:
-
Monitor the
effects/impacts of climate change in the United States
-
Assist
decision–makers on how to best use policymaking and program
resources to respond to climate change
-
Assist EPA and
its constituents in evaluating the success of their climate change efforts
