Political Quotes

“I am delighted to be here with my colleague from Rhode Island. This is a coast-to-coast presentation, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and on around the world, because our oceans are in deep trouble from climate chaos. It is indeed time to wake up, and this week is my colleague's 222nd speech addressing that fact. It is so important not just that we speak but that the world act. Driving these factors--whether we are talking about the impacts on the land or the impacts on the ocean--is carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide pollution. It is facts on the ground everywhere that people can pay attention to, but I think every now and then it is good to return to the basic science. So I am just going to share this chart which shows, with this red line, rising carbon dioxide levels. This chart ends a little bit early, but we are now well over 400 parts per million. When I was born, we were at about 314 parts per million, and we are approaching 414. This generation over the last 62 years is the first generation to experience a 100-point climb in human history on this planet, the first one to experience this dramatic growth in carbon dioxide. If it were just growth in carbon dioxide, if it were just a matter of changing the air chemistry a little with no impact, we wouldn't be here talking today, but now we have this set of black dots representing temperature changes.…”