Mr. Netanyahu, Please Speak to Congress About Climate Change

“The threat of climate change is no less menacing than the security threats that we face.”- Benjamin NetanyahuIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak to a joint session of Congress on Monday, at the invitation of House speaker John Boehner.  In his invitation, the speaker said, “America and Israel are the closest of friends and allies, and we look forward to hearing the prime minister’s views on how we can continue working together for peace, freedom and stability.”That’s an excellent suggestion, particularly since Mr. Netanyahu has been unequivocal in identifying climate change as a huge threat to peace, freedom and stability.  Last December, Israel faced the most devastating wildfire in its history, one that had long been predicted by Israeli experts on climate change.  At the time, Guy Pe’er, a co-author of Israel’s National Report on Climate Change, said, "The fire disaster in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa is a taste of the future.”Just before the fire broke out, the Prime Minister led his cabinet in approving a national plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:"The recent dry months, including the driest November in the history of the state, are a warning light to us all that the threat of climate change is no less menacing than the security threats that we face. I intend to act determinedly in this field. In a country that suffers from a severe water shortage, this is an existential struggle."As I have noted in a recent research paper and  blogs (here,  here and here) , the same thing is true of the US:  We face skyrocketing victimization by climate-related extreme events like wild fires (savaging Texas), droughts (currently the worst in 90 years in Oklahoma), floods (the Mississippi River is at record flood-stage) and wind storms (which rampaged through the South several weeks ago).  Climate scientists and government planners are waving the red flag, as Reuters reported this week:

Heavy rains, deep snowfalls, monster floods and killing droughts are signs of a "new normal" of extreme U.S. weather events fueled by climate change, scientists and government planners said on Wednesday.  "It's a new normal and I really do think that global weirding is the best way to describe what we're seeing," climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University told reporters.

Tragically, many Senators and Representatives from America’s hardest-hit areas have been in the forefront of resistance to  regulation of the carbon emissions that are driving climate change.They could use a wake-up call from a trusted friend, and Mr. Prime Minister, you are surely such a friend.  When you stand before the assembled Representatives and Senators, please share your vision with them.  They stand with Israel, conservatives and liberals alike.  So ask them to stand with you and the world community now, in this new and larger struggle to confront climate change.  And maybe, just maybe, they will listen.