The year 2021 was one for the books when it came to extreme weather events, many related to man-made climate change.

Some of these events, according to weather.com, were devastating floods in British Columbia, a record-setting lack of snow in Denver, and Siberian wildfire smoke arriving at the North Pole.

Here in New Jersey, Hurricane Ida produced flash floods. Especially terrifying for me is that many people who lost their lives died in their cars, as roads transformed into fast-flowing rivers. As a result, everybody on my Christmas list got a special little hammer, designed to give drivers and passengers a fighting chance of breaking and escaping through a car window.

Mixed in among all this bad news, however, I find a bright spot: Construction has started on the wind energy port on the Delaware River at Lower Alloways Creek Township, and New Jersey is poised to become the U.S. capital of the offshore wind industry.

Kudos to Gov. Phil Murphy for his support of renewable wind energy and the jobs it will bring.

The next step is to help us fight an even more extreme 2022 by halting all new fossil fuel projects in the state, thus cutting on back added greenhouse gases that help bring about climate change.