Consider ...
- The planet has not seen a below-average temperature month since Ronnie Raygun's presidency
- In both extent and quantity (extent x thickness), Arctic ice has set records this year -- for lowest in recorded history.
- Weather extremes are demonstrating climate disruption around the globe -- floods, droughts, severe storms, changed rain patterns, ...
- In 2012, the United States has been hit hard by a wide range of weather disasters (major heat waves, Derecho, drought, floods, wild fires) that cannot be singularly attributed to climate disruption but cannot be seen/understood outside the context of global warming.
- For the United States, 2012 will almost certainly be the hottest year in temperature record.
- The cost of climate disruption to the global community -- in monetary, quality of life, and lives -- is mounting. Consider, alone, the $10s of billions of economic cost to the United States through drought and heat damage-driven crop losses.
- Scientific forecasts of ever mounting risks from unchecked climate change becoming truly catastrophic climate chaos.
- Climate change (science and what to do about it) is one of the starkest differences between the two political parties, with a gaping ideological divide ... and the 'undecided' voter very aligned with the Democratic Party (and rejecting the Republican Party) in this arena.
Consider ... the near silence amid the election campaign on climate change. Our present -- and our future -- is at serious risk; this is an all-pervading issue that relates to every element of society; and it is an arena of stark political difference that plays to Democratic Party advantage. And, yet ... crickets of climate silence.
Amid the silence, some politicians are actually doing what leaders should do: leading. They are speaking out on climate issues and crashing through the climate silence. Laying out climate challenges and highlighting the opportunities created by confronting these challenges. These politicians merit a simple title:
There is a chance to bring to the fore that we want -- we need -- to see more Climate Heroes in our political class. We want -- we need -- more leadership in our political elite and in political offices when it comes to climate disruption.
Learn more about Climate Heroes here.