The November election has created a pathway — after a four-year detour — for President-elect Joe Biden to sign national legislation to address climate change. But the election may not have created a pathway for the legislation to reach his desk.

Climate change is the most important issue not just of 2021, but for the entire lifetime of our grandchildren. New climate laws are needed both for making deep cuts to carbon emissions and to fulfill the needs of environmental justice to communities of color while those cuts are occurring.

Air and water pollution are short-term threats to life and health, and climate change is a long-term threat to global human survival.

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still holds the gavel in the U.S. Senate and has very little interest in climate solutions. Public opinion, transcending partisanship, is the missing ingredient in the climate battle. Nothing else can move this mountain.

The pandemic and the accompanying economic crash have been terribly damaging to our finances and our health. Climate change, which helped drive the virus into the human race, is an even greater threat to the futures of our families. This is especially true in communities of color that historically have been hurt disproportionately by environmental damage.

The election is over, but it is even more important to engage all of our members of Congress and our senators on climate solutions. Ask them for a price on carbon, to be refunded in a dividend, to end the destructive power of dirty fossil fuels. Ask them for jobs and training in renewable energy.

Speak up! All of our voices are vital.

CHRIS WIEGARD

Chester

The writer is a volunteer with Citizens Climate Lobby.