Costs of climate change are rising: New research s... Costs of climate change are rising: New research shows how local communities could be strained in the near-term This blog post was co-authored with Nina Donaldson Much of the existing research on climate change impacts focuses on end-of-century projections across nations, but this misses the very real costs that everyday Americans are already facing daily and will continue to face in the months and years ahead. Case in point today: While most Americans believe that climate change currently affects the U.S., only about a third of the adult population believes that local effects of climate change directly impact their personal lives.