airnow.gov

After another year of extreme weather in the U.S. — the searing drought in the Midwest that depleted the region’s water supplies and withered its crops and superstorm Sandy’s devastating floods from both sea and sky — the American public has reawakened to the real and present danger of climate change. Science and the reality of what we see out our windows are spurring broad concern and polls are showing a readiness — and indeed, a demand — for action on climate change that may be unprecedented.

But this is not a threat we face alone — the consequences of a changing climate tie our fate to those of millions and indeed billions of others around the world. While our farmers were dealing with the costly effects of this past summer’s drought, farmers in the...