We’ve (almost) made it. 27 years after the first United Nations’ convention to address climate change, and 13 years after the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” detailed extensive evidence of human induced global warming, Capitol Hill has reached near-bipartisan agreement: climate change is real and humans are responsible.
“The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia.
– NASA
“This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.”
– National Research Council
However, some American politicians – including the leader of the United States – continue to demonstrate shocking ignorance around this issue.
Here’s a tweet from President Trump in regards to January’s polar vortex:
The term “global warming,” refers to the undeniable increase in the Earth’s average annual temperature since the mid-21st century, and the polar vortex was actually caused by warming in the stratosphere forcing arctic air south. 21 people died.
“Eighteen of the 19 warmest years [on record] all have occurred since 2001.”
– NASA
“Climate change” refers to the impact on weather patterns around the world due to incremental temperature increases. In the United States, the most obvious examples of climate change are the volatile weather patterns Americans’ have experienced in recent years, including extreme cold and harsh winter weather, as well as extreme heat, drought and an increase in forest fires.
So, when President Trump mocks a Democratic candidate for discussing the threat of climate change in a blizzard:
He is really like a passenger on the Titanic asking:
Many Republicans have acknowledged the threat of climate change and humanity’s role in its exacerbation.
“In Massachusetts, climate change is not a partisan issue. While we sometimes disagree on specific policies, we understand the science and know the impacts are real because we have experience them firsthand.”
– Charlie Baker, Governor MA-R
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a conservation bill to protect over one million acres of wilderness and reauthorize a federal program to fund conservation efforts. The bill passed by a vote of 92-8, which is an encouraging sign of bipartisan agreement around environmental protection, despite President Trump’s predilection for environmental neglect.
“Climate change is real and we are focused on solutions.”
– Republican Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
As Governor Baker and others have alluded, now that climate change is no longer viewed at as a hoax by his party, the debate on Capitol Hill has shifted towards solution.
“I have often spoken about clean energy innovation policies as ‘no-regret solutions. It is time to push hard to bring down the cost of clean energy technologies like renewables, advanced nuclear, next-generation energy storage and carbon capture”
Lisa Murkowski, Senator AK-R
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts outlined a radical proposal dubbed the “Green New Deal” last week. The plan calls for a 10-year economic overhaul focused on eliminating the United States dependence on fossil fuel by investing in infrastructure and adding new rungs of safety nets to the economy.
Republicans, and even some Democrats, reacted dismissively to the “Green New Deal” which suggests aggressive and expensive goals like “upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximal energy efficiency.”
“The green dream, or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it, right?”
– Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The inclusion of safety net programs in AOC’s plan has been the primary point of contention for conservatives who view it as a Trojan horse to pass other tenets of liberal agenda:
“Even though this proposal is being billed as a solution to climate change, it also includes numerous unrelated, prohibitively expensive policy goals such as government-run health care and guaranteed employment.”
– Republican Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
Ocasio-Cortez, Markey and their left-wing supporters reject this criticism and believe entitlement programs are essential to facilitate an economic pivot from reliance on fossil fuels to sustainable energy.
“[The Green New Deal] uses energy policy as a catalyst for broader social and economic change – addressing the need for job retraining and providing incentives for those most likely to be affected by climate change, such as minority, elderly and other historically economically challenged communities.”
– Joe Brettell, NBC News
For now, level-headed Americans on both sides of the aisle can claim a small, albeit overdue, victory in 2019: the climate change debate has finally shifted from “is it real?” to “what can we do?”
Green dream or not, we need a way out of this nightmare.
