Cascading Climate Impacts

2024 saw the largest-ever recorded increase of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, pushing the planet past the 1.5C-degree threshold established as the global warming limit goal in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, cascading impacts are a source of increasing concern. Long-acknowledged risks like extreme precipitation, drought, and sea level rise are giving rise to major secondary issues, such as threats to the transportation network, the energy grid, and wastewater systems. Significant concern is also growing over larger-scale issues such as crop loss, as disruptions to weather patterns wreak havoc in agricultural systems across the globe. Planners should be aware of emerging and innovative tools, such as foresight and exploratory scenario planning, that can help them prepare their communities for unforeseen changes, as hazard mitigation and climate mitigation, and adaptation, formerly professional specialties, increasingly become an integral part of all planners’ everyday work in communities across the country.