April 4, 2016

A 332-page report developed and issued today under the President’s Climate Action Plan details how climate change threatens human health and well-being in the United States. Water will become more contaminated, food more tainted, and the air dirtier. Already it affects more people in more ways than ever, including asthma attacks in children, invasions of disease-causing mosquitoes and mental health. Here’s an Executive Summary of the report.

Not only is it this calamity going to get worse, there’s an abysmal gap between the government’s rhetoric and action. Congress is unable or unwilling, or both, to act in tandem with the Obama administration to do what’s necessary to halt –and eventually reverse- climate change. The technology exists. Money abounds, especially in this environment of low interest rates when big capital is searching for profitable long term, safe returns. But the will is lacking. Perhaps it will emerge when the powers that be begin to realize that inevitably they too are going to pay the same price as the rest of us, much sooner than they are willing to admit.