On the recordJune 3, 2014
I rise in morning business to respond to the Republican Senate leader who just spoke. I preface my remarks by making the claim that I have made on the floor now three different times, and I am still waiting for the first Member of the other party to come to this Senate Chamber and to dispute what I am about to say. The Republican Party of the United States of America is the only major political party in the world today that denies global warming. I have said it. I am waiting for them to come forward and say: No, there is another one somewhere. One said: Well, we think there is one in Australia. Really? So the entire world understands that global warming is a challenge except for one political party, the Republican Party of the United States of America. And what have we seen with global warming? We have seen a change in the world we live in. Weather is more extreme; things are changing. We have from time to time young people who come and visit the Senate Chamber and sit in the galleries. They are always welcomed, but of course our debate today is about them. It is about the world they will live in and a question of whether it will be habitable, a world they can live in and prosper. Don't we have an obligation, our generation, to leave that world to them and, if nothing else, a world as good as what we inherited from our parents and grandparents? That is what this debate about. And if we are going to do that, we have to make some changes.…
