correction
A previous version of this article incorrectly said that congressional Democrats were working on a $3.5 billion reconciliation bill. The proposed bill is $3.5 trillion. The article has been corrected.
When Hurricane Ida made landfall on the coast of Louisiana Sunday, the Category 4 hurricane was one of the most intense storms to hit the state. More than a million people lost power, entire towns were cut from communication and many have been left without clean water — or in some cases, water at all. Human-caused warming of the planet, experts say, likely made the hurricane more powerful than it otherwise would have been.
Ida is only the latest weather-related disaster in another summer of deadly heat waves, floods, droughts and wildfires, which evidence suggests are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change. Scientists say this summer is another sign of what’s to come if the world does not take dramatic steps to curb its use of fossil fuels.
How is climate change affecting the United States? What can be done to address it? Washington Post climate reporters Sarah Kaplan and Tik Root answered your questions live. Kaplan covers how humans are responding to a warming world and regularly writes The Post’s Climate Curious column. Root reports on climate and climate solutions for The Post.
Below are a few questions they answered:
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Lizzy Raben and Eliza Goren, editors on The Post’s audience team, produced this Q&A.