I normally keep well clear of politics with my blogs on climate change – there is a surfeit of other blogs that do this – and concentrate on technical information.
However, the recent establishment of the U.S. Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, and the renewed concentration on climate change by two U.S. Congressional Committeesis such a major development I felt I had to take note.
Select Committee on the Climate Crisis
I think the name of this Committee makes it clear how important, and how immediate, climate change is seen.
The Democratic Members of the Committee are:
- Congresswoman Kathy Castor of Florida, (Chair)
- Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon
- Congresswoman Julia Brownley of California
- Congressman Sean Casten of Illinois
- Congressman Jared Huffman of California
- Congressman Mike Levin of California
- Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Lujan
- Congressman A. Donald McEachin of Virginia
- Congressman Joe Neguse of Colorado
(The Republican Members had not been named at the time of writing).
Two other committees have been active into past few days:
Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change
The Subcommittee has just had a meeting entitled Time for Action: Addressing the Environmental and Economic Effects of Climate Change and was chaired by Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. Rep. Scott Peters tweeted that this was the first time in six years the Committee had concentrated on climate change.
You can see a video of the meeting.
The following were witnesses at the meeting:
- Rick Duke – Principal of Gigaton Strategies
- Dr Brenda Ekwurzel – Director of Climate Change, Union of Concerned Scientists
- Michael Williams – Deputy Director of BlueGreen Alliance
- Rev. Leo Woodberry – Justice First Tour, Kingdom Living Temple Church
- Barry Worthington – Executive Director of U.S. Energy Association
Natural Resources Committee
The NRC just carried out the first of a month-long series of meetings on the impacts of climate change on communities. This meeting was entitled Climate Change: Impacts and the Need to Act and was chaired by Raul Grijalva. Congressman Grijalva stated this was the first hearing of this Committee that focused on climate change in 8 years.
You can see video highlights of this meeting.
The following gave testimony at the meeting:
- Charlie Baker – Governor of Massachusetts
- Dr Kim Cobb – Georgia Institute of Technology
- Roy Cooper – Governor of North Carolina
- Dr Judith Curry – President of Climate Forecast Applications Network
- Paula DiPerna – Special Advisor CDP North America
- Derrick Hollie – President of Reaching America
- Nadia Nazar – Co-Organizer of the Youth Climate March
- Elizabeth Yeampierre – Executive Director, UPROSE
- Rev. Lennox Yearwood – President of Hip Hop Caucus
I have little doubt that these three Committees will be generating and publicising a lot of information on climate change and its immediate and long term effects.