Political Quotes

“just last week one of the world's most well- known spiritual leaders, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, visited the Capitol. He talked about the moral imperative to protect the planet we call home. The Dalai Lama spoke with passion and longing of his native Tibet, where mountain snows melt in spring to feed the rivers to provide Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan with water. The Himalayas are sometimes called the ``third pole'' because they contain nearly a third of the world's nonpolar ice. But in recent years, manmade climate change has caused milder winters, less snow, and less water for 1.3 billion people living downstream from Tibet. In the Western United States we face a similar problem. For more than a decade drought has plagued the Colorado River, both upstream and downstream--the lifeblood of a number of Western States, including Nevada, California, Arizona, and other States. During this period of time, we have had some so-called average snows in the Upper Colorado but none of it reaches the river. The climate has changed. Milder winters have meant less Rocky Mountain snowpack and less spring runoff to feed the river. Combined with more extreme summer heat and other issues connected with climate change, the shrinking western snowpack threatens the water source for more than 30 million people.…”