HYANNIS – Senator Ed Markey recently hosted a “Climate Action Conversation” at the New England Aquarium in Boston to encourage urgent action on climate change, including passing the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package in congress.
Standing near the house of Paul Revere, Markey likened the climate crisis to the invasion of the British during the revolutionary war, sounding an alarm as he cited a recent U.N. climate change report which gave a dire suggestion that humanity is in a “code red” stage of the climate crisis.
Markey, who is chair of the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety and co-author of the Green New Deal, highlighted western wildfires, southwestern droughts, and warming temperatures in the Gulf of Maine as examples of the worsening climate situation.
“This is the second fastest warming body of water on the planet,” Markey said as he stood by the Boston Harbor, which is part of the Gulf of Maine.”
“Only the Arctic is warming faster. We are there, we are part of the ‘science experiment.'”
“Last week,” he said, “Massachusetts was lucky that Tropical Storm Henri diverted course and left our Commonwealth almost completely unscathed, but we know that luck is not a climate resilience strategy.“
Markey noted that extreme weather events in 2020 had costed the U.S. over 90 billion dollars, a number he said could grow exponentially in coming years if drastic action isn’t taken.
The senator admonished those casting doubts on the need for bold climate legislation.
“Republicans, climate deniers, they question if we can afford to invest in bold climate solutions in an infrastructure package,” he said.
“The answer seems too obvious, we can’t afford not to act because the $90 billion which we just had to extend last year will be replaced by trillions of dollars of cost as the planet warms ever more dangerously.”
Markey discussed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which would include numerous measures to combat climate change, including $65 billion in funds to modernize the nation’s energy grid, and $1.5 billion for coastal resilience and flooding mitigation.
The bill would also include $7.5 billion for electric vehicles, and $21 billion for cleaning pollutants.
After highlighted the infrastructure bill, he discussed the budget plan which would make sweeping changes to primary and secondary school funding, as well as health care.
“This legislation will be our way to level the playing field across our country, expand healthcare, slash child poverty, create jobs and address the climate crisis,” he said.
Markey called on the State of Massachusetts to take a leading role in navigating the trials of climate change.
“We know that we can innovate our way out of this problem,” he said.
“We know that there are technological solutions to this problem, and we have to be the leader in proving that a pathway exists for us to do this.”
Voting on the budget and infrastructure bills is expected to continue in September.
By, Matthew Tomlinson, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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