Huffington Magazine Issue 22 | Page 28

Voices our time. By this I refer to the silence around climate change. For the first time in 24 years, the words “climate” and “warming” were not used once in the presidential debate, while “oil” and “natural gas” were mentioned 56 times. To put that in context, the U.S. just experienced the warmest eight months on record, during which time over 60 percent of the nation experienced moderate-to-exceptional drought conditions, 44,000 wild fires burned 7.7 million acres, and U.S. corn production reached its lowest yield in 17 years. In 2011, the 14 most severe weather events in the country cost the U.S. close to $140 billion. I write this in the midst of Hurricane Sandy, which is on track to be the largest storm ever to hit the east coast. The nation is haltingly moving from one disaster to the next while the candidates bickered about who can drill for more oil and gas. To ignore the problem of greenhouse gas emissions while millions of Americans are suffering as a result is either denial to the extreme or the peak of negligence. Now, before people jump to JAMES McGARRY HUFFINGTON 11.11.12 conclusions, let’s clear up one misconception right away. Averting the worst consequences of global climate change is not about protecting the planet. It is about protecting us. As the extreme weather events of the last decade have shown us time and time again, the The planet is quite canation is pable of protecthaltingly ing