US congressional task force formed to fight climate change
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E-mail Xinhua, January 25, 2013
U.S. Representative Henry Waxman and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse announced on Thursday the creation of a new bicameral task force on climate change, after President Barack Obama vowed to address the issue in his inaugural address.
The lawmakers, who will co-chair the task force, sent a letter to Obama "urging him to develop a comprehensive climate change plan as expeditiously as possible," according to a statement posted online on Thursday.
"Congress and the public need to understand that climate change impacts are turning out worse than expected and our window to act is closing," Waxman said in the statement. "This threat is not waiting until we are ready to deal with it."
Obama said on Monday in his inaugural address that the United States will respond to the threat of climate change, and that failure to do so would betray "our children and future generations. "
The president also said that the path toward sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult, but America can not resist this transition.
The year 2012 was the warmest on record for the United States and also the second most extreme ever, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said earlier this month.
In 2012 the nation suffered 11 weather disasters that each caused one billion U.S. dollars in damage or more, including hurricanes Sandy and Isaac and deadly tornado outbreaks in the Great Plains, Texas and the Ohio Valley.
Scientists have warned that such conditions are just a taste of what is to come as a result of climate change.
Obama has cited climate change as a priority since his reelection in November. He tried and failed in his first term to get a climate change bill through Congress, which has been mostly silent on climate change since efforts to pass "cap-and-trade" legislation collapsed in the Senate in mid 2010.
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