Food, Climate Safety Is Safety, Right?

Today’s Washington Post reports Senate passage of the food safety bill. It passed 73 to 25, despite the putative rise of anti-regulatory sentiment, because a raft of stories about food poisoning made American families anxious about food safety. On climate safety, however, Congress remains paralyzed despite clear evidence that extreme weather is hitting American families harder every year . And the impact is even more devastating for poor families in developing countries (see here, here and here). As a thought exercise, here’s a fictionalized adaptation of a portion of the Post article that simply substitutes climate for food. Painful but plausible, eh?What happened today for food safety will happen tomorrow for climate safety, if carbon emissions remain unchecked. American (and global) climate casualties will continue mounting inexorably, and public outrage will ultimately force a draconian response. Wouldn’t it be far better to act now, with sensible carbon pricing, rather than waiting until the roof falls in and survival repairs become ruinously expensive?You can see the latest version of the Washington Post article here. Mouse over the green links in the fictionalized adaptation below to see the original article text.