Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it is terrific to be joined here today by my colleague from Oregon, Senator Wyden, to address some of the devastating effects of a changing global climate from the shores of Rhode Island and our beautiful Narragansett Bay to the forests of southern Oregon. Rhode Island is looking at losing significant territory to storms and sea level rise. Oregon is seeing ancient forests go up in smoke. For most of the country, this summer has been a scorcher. July was nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit above average, and, before that, the contiguous United States experienced its hottest May and third hottest June on record. It is oceans too. Just last week, the Rhode Island organization Save the Bay recorded ocean surface temperatures in Little Narragansett Bay, off the coast of Westerly, RI, at nearly 80 degrees Fahrenheit--the highest in over a decade of data and, perhaps, the highest ever in Rhode Island's history. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently released its report ``State of the Climate in 2017.'' The 500 scientists from 65 countries who contributed to this peer-reviewed report, which was published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, reported ominous records broken: the concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, a new high; heat in the upper ocean, a new high; sea level rise, a new high; sea ice coverage in the Arctic and in Antarctica, both new all-time lows and all headed in the wrong direction.…”