Paul Tonko: “I thank Representative Garamendi for leading us in this Special Order that speaks to an urgency. More and more, people…”

“I thank Representative Garamendi for leading us in this Special Order that speaks to an urgency. More and more, people are beginning to recognize that it is within our responsibility to provide for the stewardship of our Earth, of the environment, and to pass it on to generations coming. As you just acknowledged the birth of a grandson, congratulations to Mr. Garamendi and his wife, Patti. It is important, it is incumbent upon us to do that. When we see the denial and the disregard--the denial for science, for climate change as a concept; the disregard for the Earth, the environment, and for public health--it is troublesome. Here we have in recent weeks heard about and presented the U.N. report through the IPCC, the international committee that looks at climate change, and they are indicating that there is precious little time, if any, by which to act--a timeframe that is becoming more and more urgent. It is so important for us to address the science of this issue, to look at the stats, to look at the data that is compelling, that speaks to everything from public health to job creation to a greening up of our thinking so that our policy and our resource advocacy will go toward what is a crisis situation.…”