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When I was growing up here, New Jersey had a well deserved national reputation for being one of the most heavily polluted states in the nation. Now thanks to the hard work of many people, we've managed to put some of that behind us. But global warming presents a huge growing threat to our health and safety, and with our high population density, and industrial economic base, we DON'T have room to cut corners or even make small mistakes. Basically, it comes down to this, over our history we've built up a body of common sense rules, building and safety codes and the like, that we need to obey, understand that they also need to be strengthened as we learn more. Its irresponsible for Americans to pretend that knowledge built up globally doesn't apply to us. We need to make the US the environmental leader it once was, again. We need to brainstorm, and conduct research on how to make our communities stronger, and build up a plan to deal with global warming to insure our safety. Otherwise, we could be buried with a host of problems. Look at the impact to their health of people who were impacted by Katrina. Those communities have just begun to recover, economically, physically and psychologically. Will it happen again? Of course, it could happen again at any time. Lightning can and often does strike twice in the same place. What I'm trying to say is that we can't play ostrich and put our heads in the sand. Our understanding of what is dangerous in our world and why it is so, is increasing, exponentially, as scientists grow more connected via the Internet. When we learn something is a problem, we need to act on it. New knowledge in any area often means that some change needs to be made or some safety standard needs to be tightened up, not relaxed. Even if its expensive, we would have to be idiots not to see that obeying the tenets of the globally recognized "precautionary principle" is far LESS expensive than the huge costs of ignoring common sense and public safety. The number one problem presented by global warming is increases in the variability of weather. We'll probably slowly see extremes in weather we have never seen before. The number two problem, is related, its.. warming, which means in some areas, more moisture and more decay, (and tropical diseases that previously only existed south of here) and in other areas, less, i.e. not enough water. New Jersey used to have a huge problem with malaria and other vector borne illnesses. We need to stay vigilant in preventing that from happening again. Otherwise, we could find that, as happened in the past, a great many New Jerseyans fall sick from diseases, some among the largest killers in the world, many of which there are no known cure. That is just one of the realities we face if we ignore the threats posed by the deadly combination of extreme weather and warming climates. Most of New Jersey is low in elevation, but because of our temperate climate, its safe. However if one goes further south, you'll see that in the tropics, bottom land is often not inhabited, or inhabited only by the poor. That is the reason. Additionally, we need to ask ourselves the hard questions, for example, what will happen here in extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and floods, if we don't site toxic facilities far enough from residential areas and watersheds to prevent danger if they were damaged in some way. Those kinds of things aren't in doubt, do happen, and we need to prepare for them. Look at what happened in Louisiana and Mississippi in Katrina. Such events are rare here, because of climate patterns, but climate patterns can change. Don't forget, homeowners insurance has exclusions that may not register when its purchased, but that often mean it does not cover damage for many things. Every community should start by asking what might happen in a 100 year storm. Or even a 300 year one. Its only prudent because bluntly, politicians often tend to underestimate problems and the costs of addressing them. (They don't like to be bearers of bad tidings, just good.) And those are the good legislators. How can we ensure that our water and air is safe, if irresponsible legislators tolerate a regulatory environment that "solves" health issues by simply declaring unhealthy situations to be healthy or ignoring their enforcement. With the HIGH cost of medical care nowadays, that is NOT saving money, just shifting a potentially much greater burden onto families and employers.