Political Quotes

“``climate change effects are outpacing our ability to adapt.'' That is from the recent IPCC report. Here is what that means in America in 2022: We have coastal communities where flooding has washed out roads before the bond used to pay for that road was fully paid off. We have mayors with no budget for seawalls who are being forced to tell their constituents that the only solution is for them to abandon their homes and their businesses and relocate to higher ground. NOAA reported recently that sea levels in Florida will be 18 inches higher by 2050. What that means is that there are properties in Florida today that will be underwater before their 30-year government-backed mortgage is fully repaid. What happens in your community when that happens, if voters are told they have to abandon their home, or that their town can't connect them back to their grocery store, or that their local bank has to write down Federally backed mortgages? We know the political pain that that drives, and we know what measures are necessary to protect American families from that pain. Yet my Republican colleagues in the Senate, who claim to be so focused on the economy, are withholding their confirmation for new Federal Reserve appointees because they have the temerity to suggest that we should not even do the scenario analyses necessary to protect ourselves against this climate risk to our financial sector.…”