Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the facts are undeniable. Climate change is real, it is caused by humans, it is happening now, and, it is solvable. Today I would like to talk about a noncontroversial way to reduce 10 percent of the world's carbon pollution: fighting deforestation. Of course, no single action will solve climate change, but stopping deforestation is underrated as a solution, with a high impact and a low cost. While we have been on this floor for years in an intense, often partisan, debate over pipelines and the EPA's rules on coal-fired powerplants, forest conservation is an area where we have always had strong bipartisan support. As forests are cut down, two things happen. First, carbon stored in trees is released. Second, the trees stop absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. Each year, the world loses forests the size of Ohio, and that rate is increasing. Unless we act, an area twice the size of Texas will be lost by the year 2030. Of course, most deforestation is happening in tropical forests, in the Amazon, the Congo River Basin, and in Southeast Asia. But global demand, including demand from the United States, for palm oil, soy, beef, and timber products greatly contributes to forest loss in these regions. This is why the United States has to lead in stopping deforestation. There are three things that we can do: First, we have to fully implement and fund the Lacey Act. This law prohibits the import of illegally harvested wood products but has only been in place since 2008.…”