Last Saturday I posted information about the long-standing predictions for heavier rain events in the Midwest due to climate change.
As I asked at the time: is anyone listening?
I ask the question directly to State Sen. Jeff Plale, the Milwaukee-area Democrat, who went from sitting on the Governor's Task Force on Global Warming to one of the legislators who prevented the task force's work in bill form from coming to a vote as the Senate closed out its work earlier this year.
Without a concerted effort on the part of government and industry to directly address climate change - - and the US Senate's failure to do the same yesterday is even more harmful - - we will never make the kind of progress on energy policy that will get us past oil spills, fossil-fuel depletion and greenhouse gas emissions that are changing weather and climate here and elsewhere.
Remember the old concept of the 100-year storm? Now they come every year or so, and deluges can come back-to-back.
We can't keep playing catchup and pretending that business-as-usual is consequence free.
More homeowners and local governments throughout the region today know better.
Someone should also ask Jim Ott, former TV weatherman and now state rep, who continues to insist that those who want to stop global warming are trying to make Wisconsin colder, and that's a bad thing. Senate candidate Ron Johnson also has said he is glad there is global warming.
ReplyDeleteIf then-Mayor Norquist and you knew at the time that 100 yr rain storms were going to become the norm, doesn't that make the decision to build the Deep Tunnel kinda idiotic?
ReplyDeleteThe Deep Tunnel began under Mayor Meier.
ReplyDeleteAs to Ron Johnson, et al - - they should come over to Milwaukee for a little fact-finding.
Thanks, Jim. We need to call out those legislators, and would-be legislators, who are relegating our children and grandchildren to floods--of water, sewage and debt.
ReplyDeleteCarbon Free Nuclear Free Coalition Kills Global Warming Bill
ReplyDeleteThe Clean Energy Jobs Act (Senate Bill 450 / Assembly Bill 649) would have also gutted our nuclear safeguards, by removing the requirement for a radioactive waste repository and easing the financial requirements.
... the final version of CEJA was even more pro-nuclear, while its good renewable, energy efficiency and transportation provisions were watered down significantly. We reluctantly decided to oppose CEJA.
CEJA died at the end of the session, without receiving votes on the Senate or Assembly floor, due to big business opposition and internal politics.
[The bill had so many problems no one wanted to vote for it. Stop blaming one Senator. As you can see others opposed the bill in its original and final forms.]