Clyde Burnett, Gilpin County. Many television viewers rely on the Weather Channel for complete local and national weather information. Their prompt warnings of violent storms and precautionary advisories are especially valuable. As their schedule permits, additional educational materials on weather science and observations fill an important niche in societal awareness.

The Weather Channel has recently introduced a series of two-minute interviews relating to climate change with 25 prominent citizens with a variety of professional backgrounds. It is available on their website (www.weather.climate25.com).

The interviews include authoritative reminders of climate science from the President’s science advisor, John Holdren; and from Heidi Cullen, chief scientist at Climate Central. We are reminded that the human activity of using of fossil fuels for energy production is the principle driver of climate change by increasing atmospheric CO2. It is this pollution that results in climate changes that are irreversible in our lifetime due to the centuries-long atmospheric lifetime of CO2 and the thousand-year lag in ocean temperatures.

George Luber, Director for Climate Change at the Centers for Disease Control, indicates that the climate change effects on human health and food support are universal but more severe for poor and undeveloped societies. Heat wave episodes destroy food crops and the lives of vulnerable humans. Heat-related deaths, for example, include 11,000 for Moscow in 2010; 2,330+ for India in 2015; 70,000 for Europe in 2003; 1,100+ for Pakistan in 2015; and 750 for Chicago in 1995. Diseases like malaria spread due to wider distribution and increased activity of the vectors involved, clearly attributable to global warming.

Sea level rise disrupts coastal homes and infrastructure. The coastal reconstruction in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy is a clear example of what former  Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson calls a new radical level in risk assessment. (And see his “3 Questions” on page 6 of the July National Geographic.)

Christine Todd Whitman, former New Jersey Governor and EPA administrator 2001-2003, notes that economic challenges in renewable energy present opportunities for conservative approaches that contrast with Republican leadership.

Brig. General Cheney, U.S.M.C. (ret), recognizes the military’s major contribution to pollution and relates that the Defense Department is working on corrections. And Hal Harvey, CEO of Energy Innovations, says there are solar, wind, and LED technology corrections that are becoming much more economical. We could avoid 1,000 years of pain: the expense is no longer a good excuse.

Tom Friedman’s (New York Times) on-site interviews with Syrians are clear evidence that the four-year drought and lack of government relief led to citizen revolt and continuing war. The Mideast instability has spread to Yemen, exacerbated by the problem of severe water shortage. General Cheney has identified a similar situation in Mali.

Our country has had major examples of leadership in pollution reduction. William K. Reilly, EPA administrator under President George H.W. Bush, notes the establishment of the EPA by President Nixon and the signature at Rio of President George H.W. Bush.

But the recent efforts to correct greenhouse emissions by Bob Inglis, former U.S. Representative from South Carolina, and the proposed congressional passage of carbon limitation have gone down to defeat. In contrast, the move to solar energy in Germany, wind power in Denmark, and the transition to renewables in the five-year plan in China are examples of global leadership coping with climate change.

The proposed leadership of certain U.S. politicians who deny climate change and its human cause is an example of potentially tragic leadership. And voter support for such leadership indicates a low level of scientific intelligence or an irresponsible reaction to industrial lobbying.