Climate & Weather

On August 5, an ice island four times the size of Manhattan broke off of a Greenland glacier and started floating toward the Nares Strait, the body of water that separates western Greenland from far northeastern Canada's Ellsemere Island.

Yesterday and today are code orange unhealthy air alert days in the Washington, DC, region where I live. The 95+ degree temperatures and excessive ground-level ozone create extremely unhealthy air – especially for kids, senior citizens, and people with pre-existing health conditions.

These aren't the first days this summer where we've had these warnings, and I know that the Washington, DC, region is not alone in its unhealthy air warnings.

Congress is having a hard time passing new laws to limit greenhouse gas pollution and spur clean energy innovation. Congressional legislation, however, is not the US government's only option.

The latest line from the Canadian government is that tar sands greenhouse gas emissions are going down. This is misleading to say the least. The real story, as told by the Pembina Institute in a recent briefing note, is that tar sands is a dirty business that no amount of greenwashing can make appear clean.

A minority of Senators has blocked the United States Senate from protecting our children’s and our country’s future. Because of their denial and obstructionism, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday that the Senate cannot take up comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation at this time.

This is an abject failure, one that rests in the hands of the Senate Republican Leadership and a small cluster of Democratic Senators.

Today I am speaking at an event on Capitol Hill to unveil a giant ice sculpture. The globe symbolizes our melting planet – due to man-made climate change. The words “climate deniers” are also melting away-- just like their baseless attacks on climate scientists.

The message is simple: The time for denial and delay is over. We are facing our last best chance to prevent a meltdown of the environmental systems that sustain us all.

There is a fascinating - and terrifying - race going on in China.

The government has displayed an extraordinary commitment to cutting carbon emissions and eliminating industrial waste. In the past three years, they have shut down more than 1000 inefficient coal-fired power plants. They have become the world's biggest investor in clean energy technology. And they have recently adopted world-class efficiency standards for both automobiles and lighting.

After a Senate vote on Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency has maintained the power to regulate greenhouse gas pollution.

This Thursday, lawmakers will likely vote on Senator Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to undercut the government’s authority to regulate global warming pollution.

I find it shocking that Senator Murkowski is moving forward with this resolution now - even as oil continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico seven weeks after BP’s Deepwater Horizon blowout.

After much anticipation, U.S. senators unveiled a cap-and-trade bill earlier this month to reduce greenhouse gases 17 percent by 2020 and more than 80 percent by 2050. The House of Representatives already passed a similar bill about a year ago, but many remain pessimistic that a climate bill can pass through the Senate this year, especially with midterm elections looming in November.