I believe mankind has looked at
climate change in that same way: as if it were a fiction, as if pretending that
climate change wasn’t real would somehow make it go away.But I think we know
better than that. Every week , we’re seeing new and undeniable climate events,
evidence that accelerated climate change is here right now. Droughts are
intensifying, our oceans are acidifying, with methane plumes rising up from the
ocean floor. We are seeing extreme weather events, and the West Antarctic and
Greenland ice-sheets melting at unprecedented rates, decades ahead of
scientific projections.
None of this is rhetoric, and
none of it is hysteria. It is fact. The scientific community knows it, industry
knows it, governments know it, even the United States military knows it. The
Chief of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear, recently
said that climate change is our single greatest security threat.My Friends,
this body – perhaps more than any other gathering in human history – now faces
this difficult, but achievable task. You can make history… or be vilified by
it.
To be clear, this is not about
telling people to change their light bulbs or buy a hybrid car. This disaster
has grown BEYOND the choices that individuals make. This is now about our industries,
and governments around the world taking decisive, large-scale action.Now must
be our moment for action.
We need to put a pricetag on
carbon emissions, and eliminate government subsidies for oil, coal and gas
companies. We need to end the free ride that industrial polluters have been
given in the name of a free-market economy, they do not deserve our tax
dollars, they deserve our scrutiny. For the economy itself will die if our
eco-systems collapse.
The good news is that renewable
energy is not only achievable but good economic policy.This is not a partisan
debate; it is a human one. Clean air and a livable climate are inalienable
human rights. And solving this crisis is not a question of politics, it is a
question of our own survival.
This is the most urgent of
times, and the most urgent of messages.It is the things that can’t be done by a
single individual. So all the people should do something for themselves. We beg
of you to face it with courage. And honesty……
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