Americans want action on climate change

There has been plenty of recent competition for our news attention between the midterm elections, the war in Ukraine, the meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the spectacular implosion of one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, and a possible Russian missile landing in Poland.

So it’s been easy to overlook the ongoing UN climate talks in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. But it also would be a mistake not to pay attention given that our warming climate is a prototypical existential crisis.

As the talks began, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari pleaded with the world’s biggest contributors to global warming to help countries like his, the smallest contributors but among those most at risk, adapt to a warming climate. Nearly 1.5 million Nigerians are displaced by flooding, one of many climate-related disasters wracking the African continent. And sure enough, negotiations over such payments have proven problematic. 

Americans certainly want action. Nearly two-thirds in recent polling say the federal government is not doing enough to fight climate change. One thing we should be doing, which might surprise Long Islanders, is electrify everything – your car, your home heating system, your kitchen, and your lawn equipment, as Maryland energy official Larissa Johnson writes. 

Locally, the editorial board encouraged Long Island voters to support New York’s $4.2 billion environmental bond act which promised funding to deal with the effects of climate change on our coastline – like stronger coastal wetlands that act as natural buffers against storms. And voters said yes, overwhelmingly. 

That’s because Long Islanders have seen the damage wrought by Superstorm Sandy and its ilk. And the threat will only worsen. Modeling from the First Street Foundation estimated that more than 130,000 properties on Long Island would be affected by a severe flooding event – and more than 140,000 in 30 years. NextLI, a project of Newsday Opinion, built a map that shows the risk faced by every community on Long Island. 

All of which means we must do a better job of preparing. And that means understanding that decisions we make today about where we live and how we build will have consequences when storms come calling, as I wrote last month. Hurricane Ian, which lacerated Florida, was only the latest example of government and personal decisions that brought heartbreak amid devastation. 

As the climate change conference grinds to a conclusion, we’ll be watching to see whether the tension between wealthy and poorer nations is resolved, and whether countries like Nigeria get help in dealing with a crisis they did not create.

- Michael Dobie