Hi John,

If you are reading this from the East Coast, I hope you and your family and staying safe with all this terrible smoke. I was in DC this week, and I literally couldn’t see the Washington Monument because of all the smoke. It was pretty unnerving.

And yet for us in California, none of this is new. We’ve been dealing with wildfires and smoky air for years now! In fact, the air quality in my district is consistently ranked among the worst in the nation. And this has taken a tragic toll - 11,000 kids in my community now have childhood asthma. My brother and I both suffered from it growing up.

I’m hopeful that the past few days have woken up some of my colleagues in DC. Air quality, wildfires, climate change – these aren’t just California issues, these are global issues that will affect every single one of our families.

Tackling this issue is multi-faceted. We have to combat mega fires with better land management and firefighter recruitment. We have to fight air pollution with real emissions reform. And we desperately need politicians to take climate change seriously - we are at a precipice of smoky days becoming our new normal if we don’t act now.

I don’t relish that the East Coast is suffering right now. But I do hope that we can use this as an opportunity to rally more support behind common sense climate solutions. Our kids are counting on us.

Thanks for listening, and everyone stay safe out there,
Josh