CNN
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Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly on Sunday drew on his experience as an astronaut to call for action on the climate crisis amid an intense heat wave across the United States, including in his home state of Arizona.
“When I went to space four times, I mean, I could see how thin the atmosphere is over this planet. It’s as thin as a contact lens in an eyeball, and we have to do a better job of taking care -lo,” Kelly told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
“In my time in the Senate, I haven’t seen many people deny that the climate is changing. That was a thing of the past. Now it’s: What do we do about it? We passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which is a big down payment for reduce the amount of carbon we put into the atmosphere. This will make a difference over time. Obviously we need to do more,” he added.
As the climate crisis pushes temperatures ever higher, scientists have warned that there is an increasing likelihood that 2023 will be the hottest year on Earth. Heat kills more Americans than any other form of severe weather, such as floods, hurricanes or extreme cold, according to data from the National Weather Service.
These climate crisis warnings have been especially powerful in recent days, as more than 85 million people remain under heat alerts as the week-long heat wave continues and intensifies in the Southwest. Dangerously high temperatures continued to affect the western US throughout the weekend, and temperatures are expected to rise further south in the coming days.
More than 100 temperature records could be set through Monday in the West and South.
“My view hasn’t really changed. We’re going through a heat wave here in Arizona. It’s usually very hot in the summer. This is obviously dangerous for the elderly and people living on the streets,” Kelly said Sunday .
While scientists say the record heat is alarming, most are not surprised, though frustrated that their warnings have been largely ignored for decades.
The world is “walking into uncharted territory,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, told CNN earlier this month. “We’ve never seen anything like this in our lives.”
Kelly also said Sunday he was “concerned” about the impact the No Labels group — which is pushing for a third-party unity ticket in 2024 — could have on President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.
“I don’t think that ‘No Labels’ is a political party. I mean, it’s a few individuals putting dark money behind an organization, and that’s not what our democracy should be about; it shouldn’t be about a few rich people,” he told Tapper. “So obviously I’m concerned about what’s going on here in Arizona and around the country.”
Arizona Democrats have sued for recognition of No Labels as a political party with the ability to place candidates on the state ballot and potentially play a spoiler role in 2024, when Arizona, which Biden won for less than half a point in 2020, it is about to be a critical swing state.
No Labels will host an event Monday in New Hampshire, with centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia as the keynote speaker. Kelly said he had spoken to Manchin about the issue, but offered no details.
“I’m not going to go into details of the conversations I have with my fellow senators. That’s kind of my policy,” he said.
This story has been updated with additional details.
