Political Quotes

“earlier this evening I touched on the numbers that underlie this debate--the numbers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the numbers from the National Academy of Sciences--and said they really drive me to the judgment that climate change is the scientific equivalent of a speeding Mack truck. But I believe numbers don't really capture this discussion fully because what people want to know is the impact of climate change in their community, what it truly means for them in their part of the country. To get into those impacts, I will start with one that is shellacking my home State; that is, the wildfires that are burning longer, getting hotter, and starting earlier. Drought and high temperatures from climate change are driving all of this. During the early part of this past year's fire season, intense wildfires once again burned across the Western United States, threatening population centers and destroying hundreds of homes. This winter, fires have already burned in western Oregon--something that used to be very rare. The number of houses that have burned in our country from wildfires has increased a staggering 400 percent in only the past couple of years and is projected to get far worse. In 2012, 2 percent of my home State of Oregon burned in just one summer and nearly 1.5 million acres burned across the Pacific Northwest.…”