Political Quotes

“Madam President, let me first thank my friend Senator Schatz, of Hawaii, for joining me on the floor today to talk about the financial hazards that are associated with ignoring climate change. He has been a really terrific leader on this subject. I have to say that I am sometimes a little bit embarrassed that Rhode Island is the Ocean State when Hawaii has so much ocean out there in the Pacific. I guess that is what you get for getting there first, but I am delighted that Senator Schatz is here. What I want to do in my time here, in my following up on Senator Schatz' remarks, is to go through some of the recent warnings that have come out. One I will go back to from last year, and the other ones I will follow up on quickly. They are all between March 25 of this year and now, just in the last couple of months. The one from last year is a Wall Street Journal article that documented the increasing climate risk and the insurance industry's need to recalculate. It had the legendary investor--the ``Wizard of Omaha''--Warren Buffett warning that if reinsurance contracts--and he is a reinsurance guy--covered 30 years, he would be crazy not to include climate risks. Those were his words. The article goes on to point out that climate change may be gradual but that its effects are volatile. It is like something steady for a long time and then, in the words of the article, a sudden large, unexpected hit.…”