Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am back with my increasingly scuffed and battered ``Time to Wake Up'' sign now for the 138th time to urge that we stop sleepwalking through history. Climate change, as we know, is already harming our oceans and our farms, our health and our communities. Yet here in the Senate we continue to just stand idly by as carbon pollution piles up in the atmosphere, driving unprecedented changes in our States. I urge us again to wake up and to act with urgency. Just 3 years ago the monitoring station atop Hawaii's Mauna Loa measured a significant milestone--400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This chart of the data from Mauna Loa illustrates the negligible march upwards of our carbon levels. And it is not just at this one spot in the Pacific. The World Meteorological Organization maintains a global atmosphere watch network of atmospheric monitoring stations that spans 100 countries, including stations high in the Alps, Andes, Himalayas, as well as in the Arctic and Antarctic. Earlier this month, the Cape Grim Station--perhaps aptly named--in remote northwestern Tasmania saw its first measurement above 400 parts per million. A few days later, Casey Station in Antarctica measured carbon dioxide concentrations above 400 parts per million. What is significant about 400 parts per million?…”