MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 9, 2024
For years, sensible, proven policies have languished on desks and in legislative chambers at the state and federal level. It is as if we were not in a clear state of emergency, as if addressing climate change were not the burning imperative of our time. It is the federal picture that requires the most correction. America needs national policies to arrest the descent into what the head of the U.N. calls “climate hell.” We seem eerily good at bracing for and braving the tumult that a changing climate throws our way – and less good at working to arrest the change. If we settle for political candidates who do not prioritize climate change – or for candidates who act too slowly or not at all, or who belittle or deny the climate crisis out of ignorance, convenience or a toxic mix of the two – it becomes an accurate preview of a very disturbing future.