Political Quotes

“I am back for now the 290th time to urge this Chamber to act on climate change. I have my trusty graphic here, which after nearly 300 of these is getting a little battered. This evening, I would like to talk about two things: First is the grim parade of climate-driven disasters the United States and the world has experienced over the last several months. Then, our hearings in the Budget Committee on the enormous budgetary and economic dangers caused by fossil fuel emissions. Let's start with the unprecedented warming the world is experiencing. This June was the hottest June on record. Then July became the hottest month on record. Then August became the hottest August and the second hottest month on record, and September was just declared the hottest September on record and by the largest margin. Here is what that looks like when you compare it to previous years. We have popped out of the zone of previous experience. So 2023 will almost certainly become the hottest year on record, with the first significant chance that global average temperature will hit 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the preindustrial average. Exceeding that 1.5 degree-Celsius point will expose us to dangerous tipping points, things like ice sheet collapses that could cause dozens of feet of sea level rise. More than 6,500 daily heat records were broken in cities and towns across the United States this summer.…”