Scott Peters: “Just to follow on. I think what Mr. Cartwright said is exactly right. We don't know that our house is going to burn…”

“Just to follow on. I think what Mr. Cartwright said is exactly right. We don't know that our house is going to burn down, yet we buy fire insurance because we know that there is a risk of it. I often hear in this building, unfortunately, a lot of professed doubts about climate change; but even though I disagree with it, I think the science is pretty clear. If you doubt it, that doesn't mean it is not going to happen and you don't prepare for it and you don't plan for it and you don't make the investments to be more resilient, which is what the STRONG Act is about. So I completely agree. In the face of doubt, that doubt should not equal inaction. The fact that we have the strong evidence that this is happening, that we have had these off-budget expenses, is every reason in the world we need here to plan. I would say to folks listening at home that they need to get in touch with people in this body to let them know that. One thing I would just add briefly about what we did in San Diego, I was chair of a volunteer climate initiative which was part of the San Diego Foundation's effort to do civic engagement. What we tried to do was, through philanthropy, provide good support for decisionmaking locally around climate, because a lot of leadership, as you know, Mr. Tonko, is happening at the local level. We provided research on science.…”