Here in the U.S., the end of 2010 has been marked by a grim series of winter storms. On the East Coast, hundreds of cities and towns, from the coast of Virginia to the Northeastern state of Maine, have been hit by an intense blizzard that has led to the cancellation of thousands of flights and left public transportation stranded on its tracks. On the West Coast, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Southern California, as a deluge of rain flooded coastal and inland areas and mudslides destroyed dozens of properties. Quoted in Climate Progress, “Re-insurer ‘Munich Re’, whose natural catastrophe database is ‘the most comprehensive of its kind in the world,’ has said ‘The only plausible explanation for the rise in weather-related catastrophes is climate change.’

To learn more about the link between climate change and extreme weather conditions, check out this recent blog on Climate Progress with Climatologist Ben Santer.
 
As the planet continues to warm, crippling climactic events, from droughts to blizzards to floods, are only going to become more frequent and more intense. Even so, it’s unlikely that comprehensive climate legislation will be passed anytime in the near future in the United States. Many new members of Congress, backed by the oil and coal industries, are climate deniers and will do what they can to stand in the way of progress; for example, the incoming House Science Chair Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas) was quoted as saying that he saw the BP disaster as a “tremendous” display of our potential to produce energy, so we clearly have a rough road ahead of us.
 
At 350.org, we believe that mass movement building is key to solving the climate crisis, and that’s what we will continue to do with the help of our supporters all over the world. As Bill McKibben stated in a recent Yale 360 article, “There’s no question what we should have spent the last few decades doing. But there’s no point now in crying about why we didn’t: the only job is to try to get back in the game, to start catching up.” Catching up isn’t going to be easy, but it’s the only option we’ve got. It’s time to show our elected officials that their constituents are demanding real change, and the passing of comprehensive climate policies that will get us there.