Political Quotes

“I have tried one before to pursue a simple truth that climate change is real. Earlier this year, I came to the floor and asked my colleagues if they could all agree on that simple scientific fact. Sadly, given the nature of this body, they could not. So we are going to break it down into smaller bits because the reality of climate change is made up of many, many simple truths; and I hope that by breaking it down piece by piece, I can find areas where my colleagues will agree. Today's simple truth: Sea levels are rising. Can we agree on that? The resolution specifically says: 'recognizing that sea levels are rising at accelerated rates due to human-caused climate change.' As global air temperatures rise, obviously, so do the temperatures of the oceans. Here is a graph showing the increase in ocean heat content. It is measured in zettajoules. 'Zettajoules' is a very big number. 'Zetta' means it has 18 zeroes. It is a billion trillions or a trillion billions, depending on which way you want to go about it. To put it at a more practical scale, the entire production of energy by the human species on all of planet Earth adds up to one half of a zettajoule. The price we pay for the fossil fuel component of that half zettajoule of energy is an ocean whose temperature is increasing by around 15 zettajoules a year. It is a 30-times magnifier because of the effect of fossil fuel emissions.”