Local involvement builds power to help climate

The recent storms left a mark that’s hard to ignore: a tornado in Glen Ellyn, wind damage in Carol Stream and Downers Grove, and nearly 320,000 ComEd customers in the dark. Some neighborhoods are still without power. This is what a “severe weather week” looks like now in the Chicago suburbs.

Even worse, we’re in an El Niño year, which creates conditions for more volatile, extreme weather patterns — on top of the broader warming trend toward more intense storms and heavier rainfall in shorter bursts. While we might be in a record-setting year for destruction wrought by weather, the decades of greenhouse gases accumulated in our environment guarantee that “severe weather” is now our new normal.

Our municipal workers do a heroic job clearing debris, but they’re responding to a problem far downstream from the source. And individual gestures — like saving electricity by nudging the thermostat or eating less meat — while well-intentioned, won’t even make a dent. Real solutions require policy change in Washington, not just personal sacrifice.

Congress has sat on comprehensive climate and energy legislation for years, even as insurance costs climb, infrastructure ages and we continue to bear the brunt again and again. Our suburbs deserve a government that will tackle the problem. I urge readers to get involved in local political action groups that make it their mission to convince Congress to protect our environment.

Groups like the Citizens Climate Lobby and Climate Hope Affiliates have local chapters throughout the suburbs. Working with your neighbors in these groups is the best way to create political power.

They say the best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. The second-best time is today. While we have missed many past opportunities to pass climate legislation, we still have today. Let’s use it to lobby for change.

Jason Han

Darien