Political Quotes

“I could start with the body that was chartered 150 years ago, actually, to provide us independent, scientific, objective advice--the National Academy of Sciences. If that doesn't suit, try the American Association for the Advancement of Science or the American Physical Society or the American Meteorological Society or the American Geophysical Union or the American Medical Association or the American Chemical Society or the Geological Society of America. If none of my colleagues are scientists, check it out. Ask the responsible scientists. Ask the leading scientific societies. If my colleagues don't believe the measurements--measurements confirm what the scientists know. Sea level is rising, and the rise is accelerating. We measure that with a glorified yardstick. It is already up nearly 10 inches at the Newport Naval Station since the 1930s when we in Rhode Island had the devastating hurricane of 1938. It is similar at Fort Pulaski in Georgia. Go visit Miami Beach, where they just spent hundreds of millions of dollars installing huge, 14,000 gallon-per- minute pumps to keep the city dry as the rising tides flood in. The ocean is warming. We measure that with a thermometer. Narragansett Bay is nearly 4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer, mean water temperature, than 50 years ago. That is an ecosystem shift, and it has wreaked havoc with our winter flounder catch, for instance. Warmer waters aren't just in Rhode Island.…”