Casten, Castor, and Other Climate Experts Propose Climate Solutions at House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis’ Chicago Roundtable
Chicago, IL – Today, U.S. Representative Sean Casten (IL-06) was joined by House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Chair Kathy Castor (FL-14), and several Chicago area climate experts to discuss how the broad effects of climate change are impacting the Sixth District of Illinois, Chicago, and the Great Lakes region of the country.
During the roundtable, the panelists discussed the increasing frequency and intensity of flooding, extreme temperatures, changes to the Great Lakes, and how the climate crisis is harming public health and financial security. For each one of these problems, the panelists also proposed several solutions to help rectify or mitigate the effects of the climate crisis.
Chair Castor, Congressman Casten at Adler Planetarium Roundtable
Rep. Casten said, "I'm thankful that Chair Castor and the other great panelists from around the area were able to join me today to discuss one of the most pressing issues of our time. The effects of the climate crisis are so pervasive that in one way or another, they will affect every industry within the next few decades, in some cases causing irreparable damage. We must act now to employ market-based, clean energy solutions to effectively bring down carbon emissions. The collection of voices on today's roundtable, proposed innovative policy ideas with this reality in mind and I'm happy people from all over the area came out to hear our ideas."
Rep. Castor, Chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis said, "Illinois is doing a great deal to address the climate crisis and what we learned today about environmental justice, climate resilience and clean energy will be vital for informing our work in Congress. I was so excited when Representative Casten joined our committee because I knew he'd bring his expertise in science and clean energy, but this trip also underscored just how important this work is for his constituents, too."
The other panelists that participated in the roundtable were Dr. Aaron Packman of Northwestern University, Elena Grossman of the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public Health and Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE)-Illinois, Karen Weigert, currently of Slipstream and former Chief Sustainability Officer of the City of Chicago, Juliana Pino from the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, and Margaret Garascia of Elevate Energy.
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