Climate Silence | Greenpeace Blogs

Hurricane Sandy destroyed Joan Flynn’s home in Rockaway Beach, NY. She and her husband Steven have been environmentally conscious and concerned about climate change for decades. They see the event as a wake-up call about the climate change that fuels extreme weather events like Sandy.

As they and their family pick up the pieces and figure out how to rebuild, Joan took a few minutes to share her story, and what she would say to the politicians she charges with tackling global warming.

Greenpeace: Tell us about what happened to you and your home.

Joan Flynn's neighborhood in Rockaway, courtesy Joan Flynn and Steven Jambeck

Joan Flynn: Our decision to stay in our house during the storm was influenced a lot by Hurricane Irene, the last hurricane that hit us. That turned out to be nothing, and it lulled a lot of people into complacency about Sandy. Continue reading →

At a campaign event today in Etna, Ohio, Governor Romney was asked, “Do you still think the rising of the seas is funny?” Romney responded, “I never imagined such a thing is funny,” despite using rising sea levels as a punchline in his speech to the Republican National Convention.

Woman: “Do you still think the rising of the seas is funny?”

Romney: “I never imagined such a thing is funny.”

Man: “Is climate change still a joke to you?”

Romney: “As a matter of fact, if you’d like to – I know you’re filming – if you’d like to see my view on global warming, I wrote a book, and there’s a chapter on global warming and you’ll see what I think we can do to deal with it.” Continue reading →