The general picture painted in the report is of a country with a tradition of wilderness and wide open spaces placing its natural heritage under increasing pressure. The spectre of the Great Lakes beginning to dry out, trout and salmon disappearing as rivers warm and alpine meadows and snow fields under threat is balanced by greater agricultural productivity in the warmer north and increased tree growth. But it is the 95,000 miles of coastline and the 3.4m sq miles of ocean inside US territorial waters where the news is most alarming. Coastal land levels are falling because of the way silt from floods is prevented from reaching the coast by river management. The report will make daunting reading in particular for Florida, the state whose controversial voting system put Mr Bush in the White House.
Most erosion is caused suddenly during storms.
The slope of areas like Florida is so gentle that a small rise in sea level produces a large inland shift of the shoreline. When buildings, roads, sea walls block this natural shift, the beaches and shorelines erode, especially during storm events. Intensive residential and commercial development in such regions put life and property at risk. Other heavily populated regions away from the coasts also have bad news. The extra heat trapped and retained by cities, particularly at night, make many old, ill and poor people vulnerable to heatstroke and related illnesses.