What Is Climate Silence Costing Us?

What Is Climate Silence Costing Us?

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How is the absence of discussion about global warming going to affect our ability to do something about it? Climate change and the federal government’s role in addressing it are conspicuously missing from the presidential campaign trail and the halls of Congress. A broad range of environmental groups and other experts have called on the presidential candidates to discuss it. No matter who wins the White House, the next president will be forced to confront the global warming a few key ways, including through the international negotiation process and the looming Environmental Protection Agency rules controlling greenhouse-gas emissions that cause global warming.

What does this so-called climate silence mean for Washington’s attempts to address it in any meaningful way? What is the inaction on global warming costing us in terms of insurance for extreme weather like storms and droughts and for rising sea levels? What are other ways this inaction is costing both the country and the world?