Famous Environmental Quotes on Climate Change (Global Warming)
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The following are some famous environmental quotes centered on the theme of Climate Change (Global Warming). If you would like to go to the online environmental forum Click Here.
“Each passing day brings yet more evidence that we are now facing a planetary emergency, a climate crisis that demands immediate attention.”
- Al Gore
“The answer to global warming is in the abolition of private property and production for human need. A socialist world would place an enormous priority on alternative energy sources. This is what ecologically-minded socialists have been exploring for quite some time now.”
- Louis Proyect
“The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.”
- Nigel Calder
“The future is unfolding before our eyes. Canada’s Inuits see it in disappearing Arctic ice and permafrost. Australians see it in fatal heatwaves and extended droughts. Scientists see it in tree rings, ancient coral and bubbles trapped in icicles. All of these things reveal that the world has not been as warm as it is now for a millennium or more, and that the last years have been the hottest on record.”
- Peter Garrett
“What's now urgently needed [to stop environmental disaster] is the international political commitment to take action to avoid dangerous climate change.”
- David Miliband
“9 of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1990’ and as a result of this global warming and ensuing climate chaos, ‘a quarter of the world’s mammal species and 12% of bird species are in danger of extinction.”
- New Economics Foundation
“The evidence that humans are influencing the climate system is becoming more and more difficult to deny.”
- Francis Zwiers
“If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by the year 2000...This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age.”
- Kenneth E.F.
“We need 2050, 2070 targets. They're not priced into any of these markets at the moment. They should be. That's the flaw in the Kyoto Protocol, the black hole after 2012.”
- Warwick McKibbin
“We know the science, we see the threat, and we know the time for action is now.”
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
“A cap is a kind of umbrella, and right now there are two umbrellas in the world. One is over the European Union, which is the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, which was a child of the Kyoto Protocol, and the Chicago Climate Exchange, which is a functioning cap and trade within the United States right now. Without the cap, offsets may be moving things around. If you have the cap, you are required to be achieving reductions. I suppose you can say that for the moment, in the absence of a global umbrella, there's certainly a bit of leakage around the two umbrellas.”
- Paula DiPerna
“The ultimate concern is that if runaway global warming occurred, temperatures could spiral out of control and make our planet uninhabitable. This is the first time that a species has been at risk of generating its own demise. The dinosaurs dominated the earth for 160 million years. We are in danger of putting our future at risk after a mere quarter of a million years.”
- Michael Meacher
“Most of the observed increase in globally-averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations. It is likely there has been significant anthropogenic warming over the past 50 years averaged over each continent (except Antarctica).”
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
“The overwhelming majority of atmospheric scientists around the world and our own National Academy of Sciences are in essential agreement on the facts of global warming and the significant contribution of human activity to that trend. Suggesting otherwise may be good domestic politics, but it is not playing square with the American people. To my mind, to oppose environmental protection is not to be truly conservative. To put short-term financial gain ahead of the long-term health of the environment is a fundamentally radical policy, as well as being unethical. It was the leadership of the United States, both at home and abroad, that helped move the world through positive and cooperative engagement to new levels of environmental commitment and achievement. We need to find that road again; it is the only path to a sustainable future for humanity.”
- Russell E. Train
“Nuclear power as a solution to global warming is theoretically possible, but the proliferation problems and accident risks it would create would, I think, be intolerable because you have to build an immense number of nuclear power plants, one large plant a week around the world for the next 40 years, to make a significant dent in the global warming problem.”
- Rajendra Pachauri
“Our situation, with global warming and air quality and all of that, has gotten to be catastrophic.”
- Morgan Freeman
“We've got to ride the global-warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing - in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.”
- Timothy Wirth
“The cooling since 1940 has been large enough and consistent enough that it will not soon be reversed.”
- C.C. Wallen
“Global warming is too serious for the world any longer to ignore its danger or split into opposing factions on it.”
- Tony Blair
“Climate change is and will be a significant threat to our national security and in a larger sense to life on earth as we know it to be.”
- Gordon R. Sullivan
“The continued rapid cooling of the earth since WWII is in accord with the increase in global air pollution associated with industrialization, mechanization, urbanization and exploding population.”
- Reid Bryson
“The overwhelming majority of scientific experts, whilst recognizing that scientific uncertainties exist, nonetheless believe that human-induced climate change is already occurring and that future change is inevitable.”
- Dr. Robert Watson
“Climate change is not an environmental issue, but much more to do with security and economics.”
- Jonathon Porritt
“Today we're seeing that climate change is about more than a few unseasonably mild winters or hot summers. It's about the chain of natural catastrophes and devastating weather patterns that global warming is beginning to set off around the world.. the frequency and intensity of which are breaking records thousands of years old.”
- Barack Obama
“We are facing a global climate crisis. It is deepening. We are entering a period of consequences.”
- Al Gore
“We've known for some time that we have to worry about the impacts of climate change on our children's and grandchildren's generations. But we now have to worry about ourselves as well.”
- Margaret Beckett
“The issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our own peril. There may still be disputes about exactly how much we're contributing to the warming of the earth's atmosphere and how much is naturally occurring, but what we can be scientifically certain of is that our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return. And unless we free ourselves from a dependence on these fossil fuels and chart a new course on energy in this country, we are condemning future generations to global catastrophe.”
- Barack Obama
“Climate change is the single biggest issue challenge facing Canada.”
- Morag Carter
“Because it matters that people take personal responsibility themselves, we want all individuals and all businesses to join us and build a shared national purpose to make Britain a world leader in tackling climate change.”
- Gordon Brown
“We face, with the climate change threat, a level of risk that we have never experienced before in human society. The science of climate change is as solid, possible more solid, than any other area of scientific endeavor.”
- James Cameron
“Climate change is a global challenge that demands a global response. Yet there are nations that resist, voices that attempt to diminish the urgency or dismiss the science, or declare, either in word or indifference, that this is not our problem to solve. Well, let me tell you, it is our problem to solve. To the reticent nations, including the United States, I say this: There is such a thing as a global conscience.”
- Paul Martin
“The science is in. The facts are there that we have created, man has, a self-inflicted wound that man has created through global warming.”
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
“We are playing Russian roulette with features of the planet's atmosphere that will profoundly impact generations to come. How long are we willing to gamble?”
- David Suzuki
“We are now running out of time, and the question now is not what is happening to the climate, but how bad will it be before the world starts doing enough?”
- Eric Chivian
“Whether the process proves to be Kyoto or something else, let's acknowledge the urgency of global warming.”
- Brian Mulroney
“The government has not yet put in place key measures to support Canadians in adapting to a changing climate, nor has it clarified how it intends to manage its own adaptation efforts.”
- Johanne Gelinas
“It is the most dangerous challenge we've ever faced, but it is also the greatest opportunity we have had to make changes.”
- Al Gore
“All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.”
- Barack Obama
“The burning of oil and other fossil fuels is contributing to the dangerous accumulation of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere, altering our climate with the potential for major social, economic and political upheaval. The world is already feeling the powerful effects of global warming, and far more dire consequences are predicted if we let the growing deluge of greenhouse gas emissions continue, and wreak havoc with God's creation.”
- John McCain
“Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming.”
- Al Gore
“There is job growth in renewables, there is job growth in energy efficiency and there is job growth in developing innovative industries and technologies to successfully meet the challenge of climate change.”
- Peter Garrett
“I think we're going to find, with climate change and everything else.. things like global warming and goodness knows what else and the cost of fuel for a start.. that things are going to become very complicated.”
- Prince Charles
“It is time to break our addiction to fossil fuels. The evidence of global warming is mounting. We threaten the global environment with our continued use of fossil fuels. Not only is this an ecological threat, it is a tremendous economic threat, facing all of humanity. Global warming will bankrupt the re-insurance industry, spread infectious tropical diseases, and increase severe and unpredictable weather.”
- Ralph Nader
“I don't mean to imply that we are in imminent danger of being wiped off the face of the earth - at least, not on account of global warming. But climate change does confront us with profound new realities. We face these new realities as a nation, as members of the world community, as consumers, as producers, and as investors. And unless we do a better job of adjusting to these new realities, we will pay a heavy price. We may not suffer the fate of the dinosaurs. But there will be a toll on our environment and on our economy, and the toll will rise higher with each new generation.”
- Eileen Claussen
“A stable climate is the most fundamental resource of all. No one has yet built a civilisation in an unstable climate.”
- Tom Burke
“Global warming is one of those things, not like an earthquake where there's a big bang and you say, 'Oh, my God, this is really, has hit us.' It creeps up on you. Half a degree temperature difference from one year to the next, a little bit of rise of the ocean, a little bit of melting of the glaciers, and then all of a sudden it is too late to do something about it.”
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
“If we did not take action to solve this crisis, it could indeed threaten the future of human civilization. That sounds shrill. It sounds hard to accept. I believe it's deadly accurate. But again, we can solve it.”
- Al Gore
“Global warming is a serious threat. There is overwhelming evidence that increasing amounts of carbon dioxide [and other gases] are heating up the Earth's climate and that inaction could be disastrous. In this case, doing what will earn respect and support around the world is also in our own best environmental and economic interests and is the right thing to do. Even if, despite all the evidence, one chooses to remain a skeptic on climate change, taking action today -- as an insurance policy -- is the only wise course of action. As the mercury rises, so does the need for a creative solution.”
- John McCain
“It's very important to understand that climate change is not just another issue in this complicated world of proliferating issues. Climate change is the issue which, unchecked, will swamp all other issues.”
- Ross Gelbspan
“Addressing climate change not only benefits the environment, but also offers potential economic benefits and business opportunities, such as energy efficiency improvements, research, clean energy development and reforestation.”
- Tom Osborne
“Our house is burning down and we are blind to it. The earth and humankind are in danger and we are all responsible. It is time to open our eyes. Alarms are sounding across all continents. We cannot say we did not know! Climate warming is still reversible. Heavy would be the responsibility of those who refuse to fight it.”
- Jacques Chirac
“The Arctic is the barometer of the globe’s environmental health. You can take the pulse of the world’s health in the Arctic... What is happening to the Inuit will happen to you too in the South, soon… Is it too much to ask for moderation for the sake of my people today, and for your people tomorrow?”
- Aqqaluk Lynge
“There's nothing wrong with dealing with global warming. And it's a high priority for me. But there is a big difference between talking about global warming, which requires global solutions, and the idea of America warming. No one talks about America warming. If we're going to have solutions that deal, for instance, with a cap in trade program or a BTU tax or anything of that nature, it has to be global in its sweep.”
- Mitt Romney
“First, I worry about climate change. It's the only thing that I believe has the power to fundamentally end the march of civilization as we know it, and make a lot of the other efforts that we're making irrelevant and impossible.”
- Bill Clinton
“This cooling trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century.”
- Peter Gwynne
“The impact of climate change is already being felt in our communities, especially the North.”
- Stan Struthers
“Scientists are beginning to understand climate as a complex interactive system that is affected by everything from the emission of greenhouse gases, to deforestation, to the condition of Arctic and Antarctic glaciers. One thing we have to keep in mind: While these might only be worst-case scenarios, many of the conditions and processes scientists think might trigger them already are present or under way. Global warming is at least as important an issue as gay marriage or the rising cost of Social Security. This is an issue that cannot, and must not, be ignored any longer.”
- Walter Cronkite
“We are upsetting the atmosphere upon which all life depends. In the late 80s when I began to take climate change seriously, we referred to global warming as a "slowmotion catastrophe" one we expected to kick in perhaps generations later. Instead, the signs of change have accelerated alarmingly.”
- David Suzuki
“Climate change is a very unusual ethical challenge because it's so completely measurable...one of the reasons people should take action is because they have a responsibility for their emissions...therefore what somebody else does is really irrelevant.”
- George Marshall
“We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late. The science is clear. The global warming debate is over.”
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Canadians are facing risks such as the spread of disease, more drought in the Prairies, melting permafrost in the North, longer and more intense heat waves and smog, and rising coastal waters.”
- Johanne Gélinas
“Our nation has both an obligation and self-interest in facing head-on the serious environmental, economic and national security threat posed by global warming.”
- John McCain
“If we keep emitting greenhouse gases at current rates we will see bigger changes this century than we did in the previous century. The amount of warming will depend on choices human beings make.”
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
“This cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. If it continues and no strong action is taken, it will cause world famine, world chaos and world war, and this could all come about before the year 2000.”
- Lowell Ponte
“We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity.”
- Al Gore
“Human activities are increasingly altering the Earth's climate.... It is virtually certain that increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will cause global surface climate to be warmer. The unprecedented increases in greenhouse gas concentrations, together with other human influences on climate over the past century and those anticipated for the future constitute a real basis for concern.”
- American Geophysical Union
“There is growing evidence that changes in the global climate will have profound effects on the health and well-being of citizens in countries throughout the world. We must better understand the potential health effects particularly for those who are most vulnerable, so that we can better manage the risks.”
- Dr. Kerstin Leitner
“The scientists are virtually screaming from the rooftops now. The debate is over! There's no longer any debate in the scientific community about this. But the political systems around the world have held this at arm's length because it's an inconvenient truth, because they don't want to accept that it's a moral imperative.”
- Al Gore
“What degree of proof about the human catastrophe from global climate change do we need before we are motivated to act to prevent it?”
- Eric Chivian
“The impacts of global warming are such that I have no hesitation in describing it as a ‘weapon of mass destruction’.”
- John Houghton
“Now it is time for Californians to seriously address the issue of climate change and its potential to create havoc with our environment and economy. The debate is over. We know the science. We see the threat posed by changes in our climate. And we know the time for action is now.”
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
“For a long time, the scientists have been telling us global warming increases the temperature of the top layer in the ocean, and that causes the average hurricane to become a lot stronger. So, the fact that the ocean temperatures did go up because of global warming, because of man-made global warming, starting around in the seventies and then we had a string of unusually strong hurricanes outside the boundaries of this multi-decadal cycle that is a real factor; there are scientists who point that out, and they're right, but we're exceeding those boundaries now.”
- Al Gore