The New (Ab)Normal

The briefing describes a 'new abnormal' characterized by continuous climate escalation, citing extreme wildfires in Colorado and the US West, as well as hurricanes on the East and Gulf Coasts. It identifies five primary challenges: mass migration, health threats from air pollution and 'threat multipliers', financial instability due to asset loss and insurance costs, the need for resilient urban rebuilding, and the requirement to update the electric grid with localized resources and microgrids. The author calls for a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050 to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

• The United States is experiencing a pattern of extreme weather, including 'gigafires' in Northern California that burn over 1 million continuous acres and a high volume of hurricanes on the East and Gulf Coasts.
• Climate change is expected to cause significant population displacement; in the US, approximately 162 million people (nearly half the population) are likely to see a decline in environmental quality, with 93 million facing particularly severe changes in heat and water availability.
• The climate crisis acts as a 'threat multiplier' for health, where hazardous air quality from forest fire smoke (PM2.5) can increase mortality from respiratory issues such as COVID-19.
• Climate-driven shocks threaten the stability of the financial system, increasing the cost of federal disaster response and making insurance for high-risk properties more expensive or impossible to obtain.
• To increase resilience, the author advocates for rebuilding denser, mixed-use urban communities away from the wildland-urban interface and transitioning the electric grid from centralized generation to localized resources and renewable-powered microgrids.
• To limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, global emissions must be reduced by 50 percent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

APA

RMI (2020). The New (Ab)Normal. https://rmi.org/resources/the-new-abnormal/

Chicago

RMI. The New (Ab)Normal. 2020. https://rmi.org/resources/the-new-abnormal/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=The New (Ab)Normal |date=23 October 2020 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/the-new-abnormal/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2020new, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{The New (Ab)Normal}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2020}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/the-new-abnormal/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }