The Postal Service™ is committed to ensuring we continue our long history of service to every delivery address in the United States. Fulfilling that mission going forward includes preparing for the effects of climate change. The USPS® response falls into two broad categories: mitigation and adaptation.
Climate change mitigation means to reduce the emission of heat-trapping gases and particles known as greenhouse gases. These gases have a warming effect on our planet. Thanks to our employees, from 2008 to 2015, the Postal Service reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 12.4%.
USPS employees continue to work every day to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing electricity and fuel usage. USPS Sustainability leaders, managers, and supervisors regularly share tips and information that employees can easily implement both at home and at work to reduce emissions. The tips include simple actions such as switching off unnecessary lights and unplugging equipment like cell phones, coffee pots, and fans. We ask all USPS employees to be alert for leaks and running water that need to be addressed.
The second way to confront the impact of climate change involves adaptation measures to improve the ability to cope with or avoid harmful effects and take advantage of beneficial ones. Impacts such as high temperatures, intense storms, and heavy precipitation can affect home and work. Completing an assessment of your facility and home to determine areas of risk is an important part of climate change adaptation. Examples of climate change adaptation actions include planting trees and landscaping that require less water, installing permeable pavement or rain gardens to handle increased rain, upsizing air conditioning units to increase cooling capacity, and using graywater for irrigation in drought-prone areas.
The effects of climate change can impact us all. Table 1 includes a list of regional climate change effects discussed in the National Climate Assessment: http:⁄⁄nca2014.globalchange.gov⁄.
The Postal Service is working to educate our employees on the impact of climate change. With more than 600,000 employees in communities across the United States, it’s important to understand how climate change can affect families, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Taking steps to prepare for these effects will help all of us stay safe in changing climates.
Regional Impact of Climate Change
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Northeast
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Communities are affected by heat waves, more extreme precipitation events, and coastal flooding due to sea level rise and storm surge.
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Southeast and Caribbean
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Decreased water availability, exacerbated by population growth and land-use change, causes increased competition for water. There are increased risks associated with extreme events such as hurricanes.
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Midwest
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Longer growing seasons and rising carbon dioxide levels increase yields of some crops, although these benefits have already been offset in some instances by occurrence of extreme events such as heat waves, droughts, and floods.
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Great Plains
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Rising temperatures lead to increased demand for water and energy and an increased impact on agricultural practices.
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Southwest
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Drought and increased warming foster wildfires and increased competition for scarce water resources for people and ecosystems.
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Northwest
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Changes in the timing of streamflow related to earlier snowmelt reduce the supply of water in summer, causing far-reaching ecological and socioeconomic consequences.
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Alaska
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Rapidly receding summer sea ice, shrinking glaciers, and thawing permafrost cause damage to infrastructure and major changes to ecosystems. Impacts to Alaska Native communities increase.
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Hawaii and Pacific Islands
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Increasingly constrained freshwater supplies, coupled with increased temperatures, stress both people and ecosystems and decrease food and water security.
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Coasts
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Coastal lifelines, such as water supply infrastructure and evacuation routes, are increasingly vulnerable to higher sea levels and storm surges, inland flooding, and other climate-related changes.
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Oceans
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The oceans are currently absorbing about a quarter of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere and over 90 percent of the heat associated with global warming, leading to ocean acidification and the alteration of marine ecosystems.
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— Energy Initiatives, Office of Sustainability, 9-15-16
