Sandy, Climate Change, and the Election

By Michael Kelly, Director of Online Communications We’re less than a week from the election. Clean Water Staff across the country will be blogging about what it means nationally and locally. Check back for more. Climate change did not “cause” Sandy. Except that it did. Except that the question,  “did climate change cause Sandy?” doesn’t matter. Storms like Sandy are too complex to have one cause, though they certainly do have a (big) climate change connection. Grist explains it here. "Did climate change cause it?" is now asked after every natural disaster (which I suppose is a victory), but we never get anywhere.  That's because the question, and the debates that follow, focus on that storm and maybe the next one. It is silly and distracting (of course climate change plays a role) and allows us to avoid the real question:  How do we stop Frankenstorms from happening in 2070? We can't stop the next Sandy - it took us a century to break the climate and we can’t fix it overnight - but we might be able to make sure our kids aren’t facing Sandies every year. If we start now. So, let’s (re)start on November 6th. Let’s start by showing our would-be leaders that we’re no longer going to stand for head-in-the-sand denialism. Let’s start to rid our statehouses, Governor’s mansions, and Congress of “leaders” who reject the basic fact, and overwhelming scientific consensus, that our globe is warming and our climate is changing. Let’s start by reelecting President Obama. Sadly, climate change has been absent from this campaign. But that doesn’t mean the President has been silent on the issue. In fact, President Obama has been the most consequential environmental president in the modern era.  The Obama Administration began taking meaningful and sensible action on this issue from Day One.  It has continued to do so in the face of the inability to get comprehensive climate policy through the full U.S. Congress. In August, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a new rule that will raise the fuel standard for cars to 54.5 MPG by 2025. This will drastically reduce tailpipe emissions, save drivers trillions, and create half a million jobs. Earlier this year EPA reduced emissions from old, coal-fired plants and issued a draft rule to curb greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. This is major progress and there will be more of it in a second Obama term. You won't see a record like that from Mitt Romney. Not only does he believe that protecting the environment and economic growth are mutually exclusive (they're not), he also believes that reducing mercury pollution from power plants, to protect our health and fight climate change, is actually a part of the mythical "War on Coal". He will work to turn back our progress if elected. We can't let that happen. We also have to elect candidates like Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts and Tim Kaine in Virginia, pass landmark Proposals like Prop 3 in Michigan, and make sure hundreds of environmental leaders across the country are elected on November 6th. Dramatic action today can make sure that Sandy isn’t the new normal tomorrow. It starts with you and me. Please vote on Tuesday, bring your friends and family (never vote alone!), and vote for clean water candidates.