In 2010, the Obama administration ended the 30-year fight between the auto industry and government to raise fuel efficiency standards for automobiles and light trucks, which should cut greenhouse emissions by 30 percent.

The president's other big push, a bill that would have capped U.S. greenhouse emissions, got stalled in the Senate. President Obama must get that bill back on the table.

The other hope for the (United Nations international climate talks) is the genesis of a new global emissions-reduction agreement that would take effect in 2015. U.S. leadership is the key to making that happen.

The truth is we all need to be more engaged in the stark realities of climate change, which will affect the national economy over time just as much as will the huge federal budget debt.

No individual, no region, is immune from its effects, be it searing heat or severe flooding.