University of Michigan to host town hall on climate change

The experts are expected to discuss a recently released draft of the an assessment of the nation's climate, which looks at the key impacts of climate change on every region of the country and analyzes its likely effects on human health, water, energy, transportation, agriculture, forest, ecosystems and biodiversity.

The recent assessment asserts that, in the Midwest, climate change will lead to intense heat waves while degrading air and water quality and threatening public health. It also predicts that intense rainstorms and floods will become more common in the region, and current problems in the Great Lakes — such as invasive species and "dead zones" — will be exacerbated, according to a U-M news release.

The meeting will be held Tuesday at Palmer Commons. It is sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is one of a series of town halls being held across the country.

Registration for the event is closed, but it will be streamed live online.

"By the end of this century, parts of the Midwest could have a month or more of temperatures over 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Summers here will feel much more like present-day Arkansas," Rosina Bierbaum, U-M professor of natural resources and environment and environmental health sciences, said in a release, encouraging people to watch the town hall online. Bierbaum was a lead convening author of the adaptation chapter.

• Download the assessment.