Political Quotes

“for the past 6 years, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has delivered weekly addresses to the Senate Chamber on climate change, telling us that it is time to wake up. That is the sign he posts on the floor each time he comes to discuss the disastrous effects of global warming. Today will mark his 200th speech on the Senate floor on this topic. The urgency of the topic is real. Climate change threatens our national security and our local communities. Climate change drives global conflict and has far-reaching national security implications. A report by Oxfam states that there is growing evidence that climate change is making droughts more frequent and more severe. Drought has contributed to the crisis in Syria, migration from West Africa, and rapid urbanization in Somalia. Just last week, ``PBS NewsHour'' reported that in the last year alone, more than 1 million Somalis have been forced from their homes because of drought. Herders and farmers used to live among one another, but increasingly severe drought has led to a scarcity of land and water. Some animal herders now carry weapons and fight over fertile land. Farmers who have fled to the city claim herders burned down their homes and turned their farmland into grassland. The fighting and scarcity of land has pushed both farmers and herders to the cities, and most of them end up in ramshackle camps, burdened by poverty--a tinderbox.…”