Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlelady for yielding. I rise in support of the resolution, June 8 as World Ocean Day. But for the past 50 days, and for the next 6 months at least, every other day is going to be ``ruin our oceans day.'' We like to think, well, this is all about BP. I think we have to go a little bit further. We have to understand that we have been pursuing a way of life that is not sustainable. It's not sustainable for us as human beings; it's not sustainable for our planet. So we can be here today to talk about the oceans, and we should; but we have to keep in mind, Mr. Speaker, that our oceans receive billions of gallons of runoff flows, pesticides, metals like mercury and lead, massive amounts of fertilizer, volatile organic compounds, countless other chemicals. Even before the Deepwater disaster, this runoff caused the single biggest dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Our oceans are absorbing the malfeasance of oil companies who are not only responsible for at least three separate major oil gushers as we speak, but are responsible as being one of two major contributors causing climate change. And we are subsidizing them with taxpayers' money. Our oceans are absorbing the malfeasance of coal companies, the other major fossil fuel contributor to climate change. For decades the oceans have been our repository for the greenhouse gases that come mostly from the burning of fossil fuel. The result is that oceans have grown more acidic.…”