Political Quotes

“I have crossed through and beyond 150 ``Time to Wake Up'' speeches. People sometimes ask me how I come up with the material. It is actually easy, even week after week after week, because it only takes reading the news. If we look back at the headlines and dubious milestones of 2016, we find plenty to talk about. Last year was hot. NASA and NOAA are expected to certify later this month that 2016 was the hottest year in recorded history, exceeding the previous record set by 2015 and the previous record set by 2014. What this means is, 2014, 2015, and 2016 have each succeeded the last as the three hottest years on record. The United Nations World Meteorological Organization found that the world was 1.2 degrees Celsius or over 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in 2016 than it was before the Industrial Revolution and the dawn of wide- scale fossil fuel use. We are careening closer and closer to the 2-degree Celsius mark which scientists say brings, to quote Donald Trump in 2009, ``catastrophic'' and ``irreversible'' climate effects. In 2016, climate change continued to make some places almost unrecognizable. Up north in the Arctic things got bizarre. Thermometers spiked in mid-November to almost 35 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal, with a 37-year low in the nearby sea ice. The peaks were about 50 degrees above normal, and around Christmas it actually rose above freezing at the North Pole.…”