Political Quotes

“I yield myself 3 minutes. Mr. Chairman, the McKinley amendment provides that the Department of Defense may not make decisions based on science. Imagine, the Department of Defense should not make decisions based on science. They should ignore that there may be a cost from climate change. This amendment waves a magic wand and decrees that climate change imposes no costs at all. Therefore, they would block the Defense Department from recognizing the damage caused by climate change. This is incredible, because the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review called climate change ``an accelerant of instability or conflict'' that ``could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments.'' But the McKinley amendment tells the DOD to ignore these impacts. Numerous national security experts with unimpeachable credentials-- Democrats and Republicans alike--have warned that climate change threatens our national security. Just this month, a panel of retired three- and four-star generals and admirals released a report calling for action to address this problem. It will be too late for action when they see some of their facilities being overwhelmed by the increase in rising seas or by storms that may destroy some of our defense installations. But according to this amendment, they can't look at that.…”