The heat is on. July was the hottest month ever recorded on Mother Earth. August may be the same.
Ocean temperatures off south Florida reached 101 degrees. Storms including hurricanes that draw energy and moisture from warmer waters will become more numerous, powerful and deadly.
Welcome to the blast furnace that is climate change.
According to research by the Union of Concerned Scientists, beginning in the year 2036 Indian River County could suffer 58 days a year with feel-like temperatures of 105 degrees, compared to a historical average of just three (1971-2100).
The organization offers a continuously updated interactive tool that forecasts temperatures for all 3142 counties in the U.S., without drastic action to curb heat-trapping carbon emissions.(Control-Click on Killer Heat by County)
The interactive tool was first developed for its 2019 report Killer Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days.
We face a choice: Do nothing and let our children suffer the myriad consequences. Or marshal all of our resources to take the existential crisis head on.
President Biden and Democrats in Congress began the hard work through key provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. (See Democrats Battle Climate Change ).
“It’s a new day in the fight against climate change…” the Environmental Defense Fund stated: “With its $369 billion in climate and clean energy investments, the act is the largest, most ambitious climate legislation Congress has ever passed.”
Multiple independent analyses, the Fund said, show the bill will reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions some 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. It will make a difference “in people’s lives, cutting energy costs and creating high-quality jobs.”
Every Republican member of Congress voted against the legislation. Every single one. Just as with gun control and abortion, Republicans are at odds with the American public – and on the wrong side of history. And, I pray, on the wrong side of voters in 2024.
