On the recordOctober 22, 2015
This morning, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that last month was the warmest September in recorded history. Our reality can no longer be ignored. Climate change is here, and communities across the country--and the world--are feeling its effects. Just take the events we have seen unfold in 2015 as an example. In April, drought-stricken California witnessed a snowpack with virtually no snow. On the other side of the country, Boston recorded its snowiest year with 110 inches between July 2014 and June 2015. Boston had so much snow, it did not melt until mid-July. 2015 also brought us the wettest months ever recorded in the U.S. within the 121 years of NOAA's recordkeeping; and this year, Tropical Storm Ana became the second-earliest tropical storm in history to make landfall in the U.S., in early May. So what does all of this mean? It means that we are no longer at a place where talking about climate change is enough. We need to act, and we need to act now. I am proud that we have a President who is taking actions like reducing dangerous greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change. Altering our current policies and enacting new ones will help reduce the impacts of climate change in the future. But mitigation is only one piece of the solution. We also need to adapt our policies to handle the effects of our already-changing climate in the present.…
