Bill Press: Climate change is real

The evidence is clear — just look around you. 

Temperatures are getting hotter and hotter. October 2015 was the hottest October on record, the sixth straight month to set record temperatures. Scientists say 2015 will be the hottest year ever. 

{mosads}Glaciers and polar ice caps are disappearing. Coral reefs are dying. Sea levels are rising. Coastal cities are threatened. Some, like Miami, are already experiencing flooding. Pacific islands are sinking. Extreme, destructive weather patterns are the new normal. Severe droughts persist in many parts of the globe. 

Almost unanimously, except for those few who work for the oil industry, the world’s scientists confirm what anyone with two eyes can see: Climate change is real. It’s here. It’s caused by man-made pollution from fossil fuels. It’s already causing severe environmental and economic damage worldwide. And the time for dealing with it is running out. 

Indeed, scientists at The University of Chicago this week warned that even if we were to switch to renewable sources of energy immediately, it would still take tens of thousands of years to clean up the damage we’ve done to the atmosphere.

Adding to the sense of urgency, the Pentagon warns that climate change poses an immediate risk to our national security, and the pope says it’s our moral responsibility to do something about it. 

That’s the urgent imperative behind what may be the most important world summit in history: the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. Leaders of 150 nations are gathered just outside of Paris, not to debate whether global warming exists but to recognize its existence, to adopt strict new worldwide limits on greenhouse gas emissions. 

What’s especially significant, and hopeful, is that President Obama and the heads of China and India, representing the three worst sources of greenhouse gases, are all in attendance and have all pledged to lead the way on adopting new climate change rules.

The threat to the world environment is so real, the risk to our own national security is so serious, you’d think climate change might be one issue that would be above politics. After all, who could argue against saving the planet? 

Stone-Age Republicans in Congress, that’s who, led by “Mr. Coal” himself, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has denounced Obama’s climate change initiatives as “irresponsible.”

Defying the scientific community, Republicans in Congress refuse to accept the existence of climate change, or they deny it’s the result of human activity. Either way, they oppose any efforts to deal with the problem. In fact, they’ve scheduled a vote this week to overturn the latest Environmental Protection Agency rules on new power plants — at the very time world leaders in Paris are looking to the United States for leadership.

Granted, it’s only another “meaningless show vote” — Obama will veto any such legislation — but Republican politicization of climate change and the party’s continued opposition to any efforts to deal with it are an embarrassment for the United States. 

Surely, there are some things more important than petty politics. Like saving the planet. 

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of “The Obama Hate Machine.”