America and the world have had quite an awful time the past few years with wild weather — drought, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wind, heat. Many people in our country have died in these natural disasters, and New Hampshire has had its share of trouble. While we use the word "natural," most people now believe that these disasters are a result of global warming, also called climate change. However, there are still too many climate change deniers in Congress, and this is preventing the United States from moving forward, even as time is running out to slow down climate change.



After years of arguing about whether we were experiencing climate change as a result of our human activities, the evidence is pretty convincing to most scientists at this point. Most agree it is from burning fossil fuels. Seth Borenstein, an AP science writer, reported that Richard Muller, a "prominent physicist and skeptic of global warming," conducted a two-year study to see if the earth was heating up. While he did not study the cause, his conclusion was that the earth was rapidly heating up. This was huge news in the climate skeptic industry, whose ranks grow smaller every day.



Consider the evidence for just this summer. The heat has been tormenting people. American farmers are experiencing a drought disaster. There are wild storms across the country. Greenland has just experienced a huge ice melt. Christine Roberts of The New York Daily News wrote that, "The ice sheet that blankets Greenland has melted at an astonishing rate this summer, stunning NASA scientists and leaving many wondering what will happen next. Nearly 97% of Greenland's surface ice sheet thawed during a four day period in July — more than it ever has in the last 30 years, NASA satellite data shows."



Extreme weather and climate change are tied together, and scientists have collected a lot of data to show this. Reuters environmental correspondent Alister Doyle just reported that "A study this month, for instance, showed that greenhouse gas emissions had raised the chances of the severe heat wave in Texas in 2011 and unusual heat in Britain in late 2011." Doyle says that evidence that we will continue to have severe weather where we live might help experts to plan for the costs associated with it, and to find ways to deal with climate change.



Maybe. But first, we need our policy makers-Congress-to finally acknowledge climate change and stop stalling on finding solutions. We have too many members who refuse to admit there is climate change, or that the federal government has a role to play in stopping it. For example, our Congressman in New Hampshire's First District, Frank Guinta, told the Raymond Tea Party that the federal government has no role to play in fixing global warming.



Congressman Guinta is not alone in trying to block any corrective action. The military has been very concerned about climate change and access to fuel, and is now using some biofuels. Some senators are fighting this on the grounds that it could cost more than traditional fuels. This is discouraging, because scientists tell us we need to act quickly now to change our dependence, and there is also a national security issue here. We must break our dependence on oil for environmental and security reasons, and we must do it now.



I believe there should be an Apollo-type program to address these issues, advance renewable energy, and slow down climate change. But our current Congress took 27 votes to block action to address climate change in 2011, and 94% of the Republican members voted to block any action. If Americans want to fix this climate change problem, they will first need to fix Congress in November.



Carol-Shea Porter

Rochester



Editor's note: Carol Shea-Porter, D-Rochester, is a former U.S. Representative. She will be running in the Democratic primary for the First Congressional District of New Hampshire