May 23, 2014 - 1:56 AM
Secretary of State John Kerry addresses a Cleantech Challenge event in
(CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience in
Speaking at an environmentally-friendly technology event in
“Thirty-four degrees centigrade [Celsius] in
“What we are seeing around the world is what scientists have predicted,” Kerry continued. “They’re not telling us that we may see global climate change. We are seeing it, and we’re seeing the impacts now.”
Wednesday was a hot day in
European temperatures on the early afternoon of Wednesday, May 21, 2014 (Map: weatheronline.co.uk)
The hottest places in Europe in the heat of the day on Wednesday, according to weatheronline.co.uk included parts of Russia, Germany, central Italy and southern Turkey, all in the 29-32°C (84-89°F) range.
The highest temperature ever recorded in European Russia was 44°C (111.2°F) in 2010; in Germany was 40.2°C (104.4°F) in 1983 and 2003; in Italy was 48.5°C (119.3°F) in 1999; and in Turkey was 48.8°C (119.8°F) in 1993.
Kerry went on to underline the urgency of combating climate change.
“We are closer and closer to a time where the tipping point that they’ve warned us about is going to be reached. It’s becoming more and more dangerous,” he said.
“All you have to do is look at the last two reports, and particularly the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report of the United Nations, with 97 percent of the scientists of the world warning us about the devastating impact of global climate change if we don’t take action – and take serious action – soon.”
Kerry then reprised some of the points he made in a commencement speech at
“There’s still a debate in some places about why we ought to do it or whether it’s real – amazingly,” he said.
“But let me ask you something. If we do what you know you can do as entrepreneurs, as scientists, as innovators, if we do it, and if we were wrong about the science – which I don’t believe we are, but if we were – and we move to new and sustainable energy, what is the worst thing that could happen to us?
“The worst thing is we would create millions of new jobs; we would transition to cleaner energy, which hopefully would be homegrown, which makes every country much more secure; we would have cleaner air, which would mean we have less hospitalization for children for asthma and people with particulates causing cancer; and we would have greater energy security for everybody and independence as a result,” he said. “That’s the worst that could happen.”
“What’s the worst that happens if the other guys are wrong, the people who don’t want to move in this direction?” he continued. “Catastrophe. Lack of water. Lack of capacity to grow food in many parts of the world. Refugees for climate. People fighting wars over water. Devastation in terms of sea-level rise. We’re already seeing it in the Pacific.”
