Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: ‘Climate Change Imposes Costs on American Families Much Worse than Gasoline Prices’
Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, collapsing glaciers, rising seas all taking their toll, senator says
Although the cost of fuel at the pump certainly is affecting Americans, the effects of global climate change are costing them so much more, according to Sen Sheldon Whitehouse.
The Rhode Island Democrat took to the Senate floor Wednesday to make remarks on the subject.
“Wherever you look, you see the news of what is happening. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, collapsing glaciers, rising seas, record carbon dioxide and methane concentrations in the atmosphere,” he said. “It is a bombardment of hard evidence that the Earth is fast becoming less hospitable for human life. The costs of our political negligence are high and rising.
“My friends across the aisle like to fixate on the price of gasoline, which undeniably affects family budgets. But climate change imposes costs on American families much worse than gasoline prices,” Whitehouse added. “Climate change causes effects that raise insurance premiums, snarl supply chains, reduce crop yields, sicken people, and damage cars, homes, and businesses. And a lot of thoughtful groups have quantified this damage.”
President Biden recently signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes investment projected to bring the United States significantly closer to Biden's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
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