Protecting public
health and safeguarding our human life, natural resources, and our economy in the face of climate change is an urgent task which PennFuture has been dedicated to since our founding. We're pleased to add our support to U.S.
Congressman Matt Cartwright's Preparedness and Risk management for
Extreme weather Patterns Assuring Resilience (PREPARE) Act.
In Rep. Cartwright's announcement of the legislation last week, PennFuture joined with a diverse set of stakeholders -- including the U.S. Green Building Council, National Parks Conservation Association, members of the insurance and building industries, and conservation groups -- to support this commonsense, bipartisan effort to immediately begin preparing for extreme weather as it increases in our changing climate.
The Congressman represents Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District in Northeastern PA which includes the cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pottsville, Easton and surrounding municipalities -- and has a population of over 700,000. In much of Pennsylvania and this district, most of our major weather disasters are due to flooding. But whether extreme weather consists of floods, wildfires, or droughts, this bill ensures that the federal government takes steps now to share information and prepare plans to address them. According to Rep. Cartwright: "In the last two years, there have been 20 extreme weather events that have each
inflicted at least $1 billion in damage and have taken a total of 409 lives. Right here in northeastern Pennsylvania, many of our citizens are at risk of
flooding. The Susquehanna River threatens Wilkes-Barre and the
surrounding neighborhoods...This common sense, zero cost legislation builds
off the GAO’s recommendations and some planning procedures already in place."
Rep. Cartwright recently blogged on this as part of the Congressional Safe Climate Caucus.
Kate Gibbons is PennFuture's Northeastern Pennsylvania outreach coordinator and is based in Wilkes-Barre.
