Rick Allen: “Just a few. One of the interesting things I found in Johannesburg is people look at us the same way that we look at…”

“Just a few. One of the interesting things I found in Johannesburg is people look at us the same way that we look at other countries. That is, we look at the policies set by the current administration, whether it is Britain or France or Germany, Russia, wherever, as being sort of the beginning and end of opinion on that subject in that country. And I think that one function that the six of us served who were over there is that we had a different view from the current administration, and that seemed to be of great comfort to a lot of people, that we were having a debate in this country, that it was not simply the case that people in the United States were saying, 'No, we're putting our head in the sand. We're pretending that climate change isn't going on. We've decided to adapt somehow.' I do not know about you, but in my State, every summer is warmer than the last. We used to have snow all the time at Christmas. Now it is relatively rare. The changes are visible to most people even though they are hard to quantify. But when you look at them, when you look at the numbers, and I can take one State, Alaska. In the last 30 years the average temperature in Alaska has increased by 5.4 degrees. That is an enormous increase. In many places the permafrost is melting, the roads are sagging, trees are tipping over, buildings have less secure foundations. It is leading to dramatic changes.…”