Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) - Volume I"This report [also known as The Climate Science Special Report (CSSR)] is an authoritative assessment of the science of climate change, with a focus on the United States. It represents the first of two volumes of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, mandated by the Global Change Research Act of 1990."
"The Climate Science Special Report (CSSR), published in 2017, serves as the first volume of NCA4. It provides a detailed analysis of how climate change is affecting the physical earth system across the United States and provides the foundational physical science upon which much of the assessment of impacts in this report is based. The CSSR integrates and evaluates current findings on climate science and discusses the uncertainties associated with these findings. It analyzes trends in climate change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends to the end of this century. Projected changes in temperature, precipitation patterns, sea level rise, and other climate outcomes are based on a range of scenarios widely used in the climate research community, referred to as Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). As an assessment and analysis of the physical science, the CSSR provides important input to the development of other parts of NCA4 and their primary focus on the human welfare, societal, economic, and environmental elements of climate change. A summary of the CSSR is provided in Chapter 2 (Our Changing Climate) of this report; the full report can be accessed at science2017.globalchange.gov."
