Ed Markey: “I am here today to talk about climate change and about our climate crisis. Climate change is an existential threat to…”

“I am here today to talk about climate change and about our climate crisis. Climate change is an existential threat to our country and the planet. We know this because the world's leading scientists--the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--just made that very warning last year. The U.N. report told us that we have very limited time until we are past the point of no return and the most catastrophic impacts of climate change are irreversible. Our own Federal scientists across 13 Agencies also just warned in the ``National Climate Assessment'' that the impacts of climate change are not in the future but are happening in our communities right now. Here is what all 13 Federal Agencies said: ``Our efforts do not yet approach the scale necessary to avoid substantial damages to the economy, environment, and human health.'' These are Earth-shattering reports about the state of our Earth. These are the doomsday reports about what will happen if we do not take bold action. The consequences of climate change will be dire: a tenfold increase in ice-free summers in the Arctic, a 99-percent loss of coral reefs, and a doubling of species lost around the world. In worst-case scenarios in the Northeast, by the end of the century, both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Logan Airport will be underwater. Climate emissions are not slowing down. In 2018, greenhouse gas emissions in the United States increased by 2.8 percent.…”