New National Academies Report Proves Climate Change is Impossible to Ignore
For Immediate Release: July 16, 2026
Contact: Gabrielle Levy, glevy@cacampaign.org, (562) 673-6974
CAC’s Margie Alt: New National Academies Report Proves Climate Change is Impossible to Ignore
Washington–Today, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a new, highly anticipated report that affirms that scientists can now precisely connect extreme weather events like heat waves, heavy rainfall, and drought directly to human-caused climate change, and to fossil fuel pollution, often within days of a disaster occurring. This landmark report, last updated in 2016, validates a decade of peer-reviewed advances in the field of extreme weather attribution. Margie Alt, Director of the Climate Action Campaign, released the following statement in response:
“Today’s National Academies report confirms what families across the country are already living and experiencing: Extreme heat, flooding, and drought aren’t random. They are caused by climate change. Moreover, many of these extreme weather events can be directly attributed to fossil fuel pollution.
This new report makes it ever more obvious that the only way to protect our families’ health and our communities is to limit the pollution causing climate change, and now we also can hold directly accountable the polluters responsible for the damage, the illnesses, the costs and more.
“Despite the legitimacy of the science, polluters and their allies in the Trump administration and Congress want to discredit research that shows they are liable for these disasters. Even as millions of Americans are under dangerous heat and air quality warnings, thanks to a record-breaking heat dome and smoke from widespread wildfires, the administration is pushing forward its Polluters First Agenda, gutting clean air standards and other pollution limits, attacking EPA’s own science, and letting polluters off the hook so that we all end up paying for the damage they’ve caused.
“Every rollback by Congress and the Trump administration means more climate change, dirtier air, more health problems, more extreme weather disasters, and higher costs for families already struggling. No matter how hard the Trump administration might try, science doesn’t care. Climate change and its devastating impacts will continue until we cut the pollution driving it. The Trump administration and GOP leaders in Congress need to stop protecting polluters at the expense of our health and our wallets.”
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About the Climate Action Campaign
Climate Action Campaign (CAC) is a vibrant coalition driving ambitious, durable, equitable federal action to tackle the climate crisis. By cutting carbon pollution and accelerating the transition to clean energy, we will improve public health and create a more resilient economy and a more sustainable future for all.
