Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank the Senator from Rhode Island for his kind words. He is a real expert and a leader on climate change, and I look forward to continuing to work together with him and our colleagues on this important issue. He has just discussed the overwhelming evidence that global temperatures are rising. I would like to build on his remarks and add that temperature is not the only indicator that climate change is real and it is happening now. We see the changes in Hawaii and all over the world. One only need to look to the top of the world, where Arctic Sea ice is melting faster than scientists had predicted originally. Just last summer, the ice covering the Arctic Ocean retreated to its smallest size in recorded history, shrinking by 350,000 square miles--an area about the size of Venezuela. Glaciers continue to retreat. The Greenland ice sheet provides a stark example of the rapid recession of the world's ice. For several days in July of 2012, Greenland's surface ice cover melted more than at any time in 30 years of satellite observation. During that month an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet thawed. Some types of severe weather are also on the rise. While climate scientists are extremely careful not to attribute any single weather event to climate change, there is no doubt that increased climate change has ``loaded the dice,'' which means extreme weather events are increasingly likely. Extreme weather events cost us in lives and in money.…”