Dick Durbin: “I come to the floor today to speak on the issue of climate change. Before I do, I would like to read a quote. What is a…”

“I come to the floor today to speak on the issue of climate change. Before I do, I would like to read a quote. What is a conservative after all but one who conserves, one who is committed to protecting and holding close the things by which we live . . . and we want to protect and conserve the land on which we live--our countryside, our rivers and mountains, our plains and meadows and forests. This is what we leave to our children. And our great moral responsibility is to leave it to them either as we found it or better than we found it. These are the words of President Ronald Reagan, and I agree with those words. Climate change is one of the greatest threats to our planet Earth. When I look at my beautiful grandkids, I feel a moral responsibility to leave this world as well as I found it or even better. We can't continue to ignore the problem of climate change. How will future generations judge us if we deny the reality of climate change and say that it is just too hard to do something that might leave them a safer, cleaner, better world? I don't think they will look on us kindly. Future generations actually count on us. Climate change is no longer debatable. The facts are in. Climate change is real, and it is not some distant threat.…”