[Vision2020] 'We Need to Act': Transcript of Obama's 6-25-13 Climate Change Speech

[Ted Moffett]

Too little too late...

But the plans Obama outlined, if they can be implemented, which is
doubtful, are at least a start to mitigate the most catastrophic long term
(over centuries) impacts of anthropogenic climate change... Of course
China, India, Europe et al also need to cooperate with the effort.  But
even with China or India not taking substantial action, the US should lead
the way by example.  After all, the US has put more CO2 into our atmosphere
in absolute amounts than any nation on Earth by a long margin:
World Resource Institute data: Total Historical CO2 Emissions by nation,
1900-2004:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AonYZs4MzlZbdGxwVlFJZzdDbm03QU5TaTBLWWU5bFE#gid=0

The argument we will only hurt our economy if we lower our emissions, and
not stop climate change, while other nations continue massive emissions, I
find morally indefensible.  The impacts of climate change will be a grave
burden for future generations that present economic comfort does not
justify, and there are opportunities to develop non carbon or lower carbon
energy options that can offer economic benefits.

The options we as a species are now facing are along the lines of, do we
have 2 meters, 6 meters or 20 meters of sea level rise, do we lose 20
percent or 40 percent of species, and so forth...  Those numbers are not
meant to be precise stages or predictions, just a rough way of phrasing the
choices we are facing at this moment in time.

The claim we can stop significant climate change at this point is not
scientifically feasible, unless adopting extreme and risky geo-engineering.
-----------------------------------------
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-25/-we-need-to-act-transcript-of-obama-s-climate-change-speech.html
'We Need to Act': Transcript of Obama's Climate Change SpeechBy Tom
Randall  Jun
25, 2013 2:40 PM PT

*Transcript of President Barack Obama's speech at Georgetown University
announcing his new climate-change policy:*

On Christmas Eve, 1968, the astronauts of Apollo 8 did a live broadcast
from lunar orbit. So Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, William Anders -- the first
humans to orbit the moon -- described what they saw, and they read
Scripture from the Book of Genesis to the rest of us back here. And later
that night, they took a photo that would change the way we see and think
about our world.

It was an image of Earth -- beautiful; breathtaking; a glowing marble of
blue oceans, and green forests, and brown mountains brushed with white
clouds, rising over the surface of the moon.

And while the sight of our planet from space might seem routine today,
imagine what it looked like to those of us seeing our home, our planet, for
the first time. Imagine what it looked like to children like me. Even the
astronauts were amazed. “It makes you realize,” Lovell would say, “just
what you have back there on Earth.”

And around the same time we began exploring space, scientists were studying
changes taking place in the Earth’s atmosphere. Now, scientists had known
since the 1800s that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide trap heat, and
that burning fossil fuels release those gases into the air. That wasn’t
news. But in the late 1950s, the National Weather Service began measuring
the levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, with the worry that rising
levels might someday disrupt the fragile balance that makes our planet so
hospitable. And what they’ve found, year after year, is that the levels of
carbon pollution in our atmosphere have increased dramatically.

That science, accumulated and reviewed over decades, tells us that our
planet is changing in ways that will have profound impacts on all of
humankind.

The 12 warmest years in recorded history have all come in the last 15
years. Last year, temperatures in some areas of the ocean reached record
highs, and ice in the Arctic shrank to its smallest size on record --
faster than most models had predicted it would. These are facts.

Now, we know that no single weather event is caused solely by climate
change. Droughts and fires and floods, they go back to ancient times. But
we also know that in a world that’s warmer than it used to be, all weather
events are affected by a warming planet. The fact that sea level in New
York, in New York Harbor, are now a foot higher than a century ago -- that
didn’t cause Hurricane Sandy, but it certainly contributed to the
destruction that left large parts of our mightiest city dark and underwater.

The potential impacts go beyond rising sea levels. Here at home, 2012 was
the warmest year in our history. Midwest farms were parched by the worst
drought since the Dust Bowl, and then drenched by the wettest spring on
record. Western wildfires scorched an area larger than the state of
Maryland. Just last week, a heat wave in Alaska shot temperatures into the
90s.

And we know that the costs of these events can be measured in lost lives
and lost livelihoods, lost homes, lost businesses, hundreds of billions of
dollars in emergency services and disaster relief. In fact, those who are
already feeling the effects of climate change don’t have time to deny it --
they’re busy dealing with it. Firefighters are braving longer wildfire
seasons, and states and federal governments have to figure out how to
budget for that. I had to sit on a meeting with the Department of Interior
and Agriculture and some of the rest of my team just to figure out how
we're going to pay for more and more expensive fire seasons.

Farmers see crops wilted one year, washed away the next; and the higher
food prices get passed on to you, the American consumer. Mountain
communities worry about what smaller snowpacks will mean for tourism -- and
then, families at the bottom of the mountains wonder what it will mean for
their drinking water. Americans across the country are already paying the
price of inaction in insurance premiums, state and local taxes, and the
costs of rebuilding and disaster relief.

So the question is not whether we need to act. The overwhelming judgment of
science -- of chemistry and physics and millions of measurements -- has put
all that to rest. Ninety-seven percent of scientists, including, by the
way, some who originally disputed the data, have now put that to rest.
They've acknowledged the planet is warming and human activity is
contributing to it.

So the question now is whether we will have the courage to act before it’s
too late. And how we answer will have a profound impact on the world that
we leave behind not just to you, but to your children and to your
grandchildren.

As a President, as a father, and as an American, I’m here to say we need to
act.

I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet
that’s beyond fixing. And that’s why, today, I'm announcing a new national
climate action plan, and I'm here to enlist your generation's help in
keeping the United States of America a leader -- a global leader -- in the
fight against climate change.

This plan builds on progress that we've already made. Last year, I took
office -- the year that I took office, my administration pledged to reduce
America's greenhouse gas emissions by about 17 percent from their 2005
levels by the end of this decade. And we rolled up our sleeves and we got
to work. We doubled the electricity we generated from wind and the sun. We
doubled the mileage our cars will get on a gallon of gas by the middle of
the next decade.

Here at Georgetown, I unveiled my strategy for a secure energy future. And
thanks to the ingenuity of our businesses, we're starting to produce much
more of our own energy. We're building the first nuclear power plants in
more than three decades -- in Georgia and South Carolina. For the first
time in 18 years, America is poised to produce more of our own oil than we
buy from other nations. And today, we produce more natural gas than anybody
else. So we're producing energy. And these advances have grown our economy,
they've created new jobs, they can't be shipped overseas -- and, by the
way, they've also helped drive our carbon pollution to its lowest levels in
nearly 20 years. Since 2006, no country on Earth has reduced its total
carbon pollution by as much as the United States of America.

So it's a good start. But the reason we're all here in the heat today is
because we know we've got more to do.

In my State of the Union address, I urged Congress to come up with a
bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one that
Republican and Democratic senators worked on together a few years ago. And
I still want to see that happen. I'm willing to work with anyone to make
that happen.

But this is a challenge that does not pause for partisan gridlock. It
demands our attention now. And this is my plan to meet it -- a plan to cut
carbon pollution; a plan to protect our country from the impacts of climate
change; and a plan to lead the world in a coordinated assault on a changing
climate.

This plan begins with cutting carbon pollution by changing the way we use
energy -- using less dirty energy, using more clean energy, wasting less
energy throughout our economy.

Forty-three years ago, Congress passed a law called the Clean Air Act of
1970. It was a good law. The reasoning behind it was simple: New technology
can protect our health by protecting the air we breathe from harmful
pollution. And that law passed the Senate unanimously. Think about that --
it passed the Senate unanimously. It passed the House of Representatives
375 to 1. I don’t know who the one guy was -- I haven’t looked that up. You
can barely get that many votes to name a post office these days.

It was signed into law by a Republican President. It was later strengthened
by another Republican President. This used to be a bipartisan issue.

Six years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases are pollutants
covered by that same Clean Air Act. And they required the Environmental
Protection Agency, the EPA, to determine whether they’re a threat to our
health and welfare. In 2009, the EPA determined that they are a threat to
both our health and our welfare in many different ways -- from dirtier air
to more common heat waves -- and, therefore, subject to regulation.

Today, about 40 percent of America’s carbon pollution comes from our power
plants. But here’s the thing: Right now, there are no federal limits to the
amount of carbon pollution that those plants can pump into our air. None.
Zero. We limit the amount of toxic chemicals like mercury and sulfur and
arsenic in our air or our water, but power plants can still dump unlimited
amounts of carbon pollution into the air for free. That’s not right, that’s
not safe, and it needs to stop.

So today, for the sake of our children, and the health and safety of all
Americans, I’m directing the Environmental Protection Agency to put an end
to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants, and
complete new pollution standards for both new and existing power plants.

I’m also directing the EPA to develop these standards in an open and
transparent way, to provide flexibility to different states with different
needs, and build on the leadership that many states, and cities, and
companies have already shown. In fact, many power companies have already
begun modernizing their plants, and creating new jobs in the process.
Others have shifted to burning cleaner natural gas instead of dirtier fuel
sources.

Nearly a dozen states have already implemented or are implementing their
own market-based programs to reduce carbon pollution. More than 25 have set
energy efficiency targets. More than 35 have set renewable energy targets.
Over 1,000 mayors have signed agreements to cut carbon pollution. So the
idea of setting higher pollution standards for our power plants is not new.
It’s just time for Washington to catch up with the rest of the country. And
that's what we intend to do.

Now, what you’ll hear from the special interests and their allies in
Congress is that this will kill jobs and crush the economy, and basically
end American free enterprise as we know it. And the reason I know you'll
hear those things is because that's what they said every time America sets
clear rules and better standards for our air and our water and our
children’s health. And every time, they've been wrong.

For example, in 1970, when we decided through the Clean Air Act to do
something about the smog that was choking our cities -- and, by the way,
most young people here aren't old enough to remember what it was like, but
when I was going to school in 1979-1980 in Los Angeles, there were days
where folks couldn't go outside. And the sunsets were spectacular because
of all the pollution in the air.

But at the time when we passed the Clean Air Act to try to get rid of some
of this smog, some of the same doomsayers were saying new pollution
standards will decimate the auto industry. Guess what -- it didn’t happen.
Our air got cleaner.

In 1990, when we decided to do something about acid rain, they said our
electricity bills would go up, the lights would go off, businesses around
the country would suffer -- I quote -- “a quiet death.” None of it
happened, except we cut acid rain dramatically.

See, the problem with all these tired excuses for inaction is that it
suggests a fundamental lack of faith in American business and American
ingenuity. These critics seem to think that when we ask our businesses to
innovate and reduce pollution and lead, they can't or they won't do it.
They'll just kind of give up and quit. But in America, we know that’s not
true. Look at our history.

When we restricted cancer-causing chemicals in plastics and leaded fuel in
our cars, it didn’t end the plastics industry or the oil industry. American
chemists came up with better substitutes. When we phased out CFCs -- the
gases that were depleting the ozone layer -- it didn’t kill off
refrigerators or air-conditioners or deodorant. American workers and
businesses figured out how to do it better without harming the environment
as much.

The fuel standards that we put in place just a few years ago didn’t cripple
automakers. The American auto industry retooled, and today, our automakers
are selling the best cars in the world at a faster rate than they have in
five years -- with more hybrid, more plug-in, more fuel-efficient cars for
everybody to choose from.

So the point is, if you look at our history, don’t bet against American
industry. Don’t bet against American workers. Don’t tell folks that we have
to choose between the health of our children or the health of our economy.

The old rules may say we can’t protect our environment and promote economic
growth at the same time, but in America, we’ve always used new technologies
-- we’ve used science; we’ve used research and development and discovery to
make the old rules obsolete.

Today, we use more clean energy -- more renewables and natural gas -- which
is supporting hundreds of thousands of good jobs. We waste less energy,
which saves you money at the pump and in your pocketbooks. And guess what
-- our economy is 60 percent bigger than it was 20 years ago, while our
carbon emissions are roughly back to where they were 20 years ago.

So, obviously, we can figure this out. It’s not an either/or; it’s a
both/and. We’ve got to look after our children; we have to look after our
future; and we have to grow the economy and create jobs. We can do all of
that as long as we don’t fear the future; instead we seize it.

And, by the way, don’t take my word for it -- recently, more than 500
businesses, including giants like GM and Nike, issued a Climate
Declaration, calling action on climate change “one of the great economic
opportunities of the 21st century.” Walmart is working to cut its carbon
pollution by 20 percent and transition completely to renewable energy.
Walmart deserves a cheer for that. But think about it. Would the biggest
company, the biggest retailer in America -- would they really do that if it
weren’t good for business, if it weren’t good for their shareholders?

A low-carbon, clean energy economy can be an engine of growth for decades
to come. And I want America to build that engine. I want America to build
that future -- right here in the United States of America. That’s our task.

Now, one thing I want to make sure everybody understands -- this does not
mean that we’re going to suddenly stop producing fossil fuels. Our economy
wouldn’t run very well if it did. And transitioning to a clean energy
economy takes time. But when the doomsayers trot out the old warnings that
these ambitions will somehow hurt our energy supply, just remind them that
America produced more oil than we have in 15 years. What is true is that we
can’t just drill our way out of the energy and climate challenge that we
face. That’s not possible.

I put forward in the past an all-of-the-above energy strategy, but our
energy strategy must be about more than just producing more oil. And, by
the way, it’s certainly got to be about more than just building one
pipeline.

Now, I know there’s been, for example, a lot of controversy surrounding the
proposal to build a pipeline, the Keystone pipeline, that would carry oil
from Canadian tar sands down to refineries in the Gulf. And the State
Department is going through the final stages of evaluating the proposal.
That’s how it’s always been done. But I do want to be clear: Allowing the
Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in
our nation’s interest. And our national interest will be served only if
this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon
pollution. The net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be
absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go
forward. It’s relevant.

Now, even as we’re producing more domestic oil, we’re also producing more
cleaner-burning natural gas than any other country on Earth. And, again,
sometimes there are disputes about natural gas, but let me say this: We
should strengthen our position as the top natural gas producer because, in
the medium term at least, it not only can provide safe, cheap power, but it
can also help reduce our carbon emissions.

Federally supported technology has helped our businesses drill more
effectively and extract more gas. And now, we'll keep working with the
industry to make drilling safer and cleaner, to make sure that we're not
seeing methane emissions, and to put people to work modernizing our natural
gas infrastructure so that we can power more homes and businesses with
cleaner energy.

The bottom line is natural gas is creating jobs. It's lowering many
families' heat and power bills. And it's the transition fuel that can power
our economy with less carbon pollution even as our businesses work to
develop and then deploy more of the technology required for the even
cleaner energy economy of the future.

And that brings me to the second way that we're going to reduce carbon
pollution -- by using more clean energy. Over the past four years, we've
doubled the electricity that we generate from zero-carbon wind and solar
power. And that means jobs -- jobs manufacturing the wind turbines that now
generate enough electricity to power nearly 15 million homes; jobs
installing the solar panels that now generate more than four times the
power at less cost than just a few years ago.

I know some Republicans in Washington dismiss these jobs, but those who do
need to call home -- because 75 percent of all wind energy in this country
is generated in Republican districts. And that may explain why last year,
Republican governors in Kansas and Oklahoma and Iowa -- Iowa, by the way, a
state that harnesses almost 25 percent of its electricity from the wind --
helped us in the fight to extend tax credits for wind energy manufacturers
and producers. Tens of thousands good jobs were on the line, and those jobs
were worth the fight.

And countries like China and Germany are going all in in the race for clean
energy. I believe Americans build things better than anybody else. I want
America to win that race, but we can't win it if we're not in it.

So the plan I'm announcing today will help us double again our energy from
wind and sun. Today, I'm directing the Interior Department to green light
enough private, renewable energy capacity on public lands to power more
than 6 million homes by 2020.

The Department of Defense -- the biggest energy consumer in America -- will
install 3 gigawatts of renewable power on its bases, generating about the
same amount of electricity each year as you'd get from burning 3 million
tons of coal.

And because billions of your tax dollars continue to still subsidize some
of the most profitable corporations in the history of the world, my budget
once again calls for Congress to end the tax breaks for big oil companies,
and invest in the clean-energy companies that will fuel our future.

Now, the third way to reduce carbon pollution is to waste less energy -- in
our cars, our homes, our businesses. The fuel standards we set over the
past few years mean that by the middle of the next decade, the cars and
trucks we buy will go twice as far on a gallon of gas. That means you’ll
have to fill up half as often; we’ll all reduce carbon pollution. And we
built on that success by setting the first-ever standards for heavy-duty
trucks and buses and vans. And in the coming months, we’ll partner with
truck makers to do it again for the next generation of vehicles.

Meanwhile, the energy we use in our homes and our businesses and our
factories, our schools, our hospitals -- that’s responsible for about
one-third of our greenhouse gases. The good news is simple upgrades don’t
just cut that pollution; they put people to work -- manufacturing and
installing smarter lights and windows and sensors and appliances. And the
savings show up in our electricity bills every month -- forever. That’s why
we’ve set new energy standards for appliances like refrigerators and
dishwashers. And today, our businesses are building better ones that will
also cut carbon pollution and cut consumers’ electricity bills by hundreds
of billions of dollars.

That means, by the way, that our federal government also has to lead by
example. I’m proud that federal agencies have reduced their greenhouse gas
emissions by more than 15 percent since I took office. But we can do even
better than that. So today, I’m setting a new goal: Your federal government
will consume 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources within
the next seven years. We are going to set that goal.

We’ll also encourage private capital to get off the sidelines and get into
these energy-saving investments. And by the end of the next decade, these
combined efficiency standards for appliances and federal buildings will
reduce carbon pollution by at least three billion tons. That’s an amount
equal to what our entire energy sector emits in nearly half a year.

So I know these standards don’t sound all that sexy, but think of it this
way: That’s the equivalent of planting 7.6 billion trees and letting them
grow for 10 years -- all while doing the dishes. It is a great deal and we
need to be doing it.

So using less dirty energy, transitioning to cleaner sources of energy,
wasting less energy through our economy is where we need to go. And this
plan will get us there faster. But I want to be honest -- this will not get
us there overnight. The hard truth is carbon pollution has built up in our
atmosphere for decades now. And even if we Americans do our part, the
planet will slowly keep warming for some time to come. The seas will slowly
keep rising and storms will get more severe, based on the science. It's
like tapping the brakes of a car before you come to a complete stop and
then can shift into reverse. It's going to take time for carbon emissions
to stabilize.

So in the meantime, we're going to need to get prepared. And that’s why
this plan will also protect critical sectors of our economy and prepare the
United States for the impacts of climate change that we cannot avoid.
States and cities across the country are already taking it upon themselves
to get ready. Miami Beach is hardening its water supply against seeping
saltwater. We’re partnering with the state of Florida to restore Florida’s
natural clean water delivery system -- the Everglades.

The overwhelmingly Republican legislature in Texas voted to spend money on
a new water development bank as a long-running drought cost jobs and forced
a town to truck in water from the outside.

New York City is fortifying its 520 miles of coastline as an insurance
policy against more frequent and costly storms. And what we’ve learned from
Hurricane Sandy and other disasters is that we’ve got to build smarter,
more resilient infrastructure that can protect our homes and businesses,
and withstand more powerful storms. That means stronger seawalls, natural
barriers, hardened power grids, hardened water systems, hardened fuel
supplies.

So the budget I sent Congress includes funding to support communities that
build these projects, and this plan directs federal agencies to make sure
that any new project funded with taxpayer dollars is built to withstand
increased flood risks.

And we’ll partner with communities seeking help to prepare for droughts and
floods, reduce the risk of wildfires, protect the dunes and wetlands that
pull double duty as green space and as natural storm barriers. And we'll
also open our climate data and NASA climate imagery to the public, to make
sure that cities and states assess risk under different climate scenarios,
so that we don’t waste money building structures that don’t withstand the
next storm.

So that's what my administration will do to support the work already
underway across America, not only to cut carbon pollution, but also to
protect ourselves from climate change. But as I think everybody here
understands, no nation can solve this challenge alone -- not even one as
powerful as ours. And that’s why the final part of our plan calls on
America to lead -- lead international efforts to combat a changing climate.

And make no mistake -- the world still looks to America to lead. When I
spoke to young people in Turkey a few years ago, the first question I got
wasn't about the challenges that part of the world faces. It was about the
climate challenge that we all face, and America's role in addressing it.
And it was a fair question, because as the world's largest economy and
second-largest carbon emitter, as a country with unsurpassed ability to
drive innovation and scientific breakthroughs, as the country that people
around the world continue to look to in times of crisis, we've got a vital
role to play. We can't stand on the sidelines. We've got a unique
responsibility. And the steps that I've outlined today prove that we're
willing to meet that responsibility.

Though all America's carbon pollution fell last year, global carbon
pollution rose to a record high. That’s a problem. Developing countries are
using more and more energy, and tens of millions of people entering a
global middle class naturally want to buy cars and air-conditioners of
their own, just like us. Can't blame them for that. And when you have
conversations with poor countries, they'll say, well, you went through
these stages of development -- why can't we?

But what we also have to recognize is these same countries are also more
vulnerable to the effects of climate change than we are. They don’t just
have as much to lose, they probably have more to lose.

Developing nations with some of the fastest-rising levels of carbon
pollution are going to have to take action to meet this challenge alongside
us. They're watching what we do, but we've got to make sure that they're
stepping up to the plate as well. We compete for business with them, but we
also share a planet. And we have to all shoulder the responsibility for
keeping the planet habitable, or we're going to suffer the consequences --
together.

So to help more countries transitioning to cleaner sources of energy and to
help them do it faster, we're going to partner with our private sector to
apply private sector technological know-how in countries that transition to
natural gas. We’ve mobilized billions of dollars in private capital for
clean energy projects around the world.

Today, I'm calling for an end of public financing for new coal plants
overseas -- unless they deploy carbon-capture technologies, or there's no
other viable way for the poorest countries to generate electricity. And I
urge other countries to join this effort.

And I'm directing my administration to launch negotiations toward global
free trade in environmental goods and services, including clean energy
technology, to help more countries skip past the dirty phase of development
and join a global low-carbon economy. They don’t have to repeat all the
same mistakes that we made.

We've also intensified our climate cooperation with major emerging
economies like India and Brazil, and China -- the world’s largest emitter.
So, for example, earlier this month, President Xi of China and I reached an
important agreement to jointly phase down our production and consumption of
dangerous hydrofluorocarbons, and we intend to take more steps together in
the months to come. It will make a difference. It’s a significant step in
the reduction of carbon emissions.

And finally, my administration will redouble our efforts to engage our
international partners in reaching a new global agreement to reduce carbon
pollution through concrete action.

Four years ago, in Copenhagen, every major country agreed, for the first
time, to limit carbon pollution by 2020. Two years ago, we decided to forge
a new agreement beyond 2020 that would apply to all countries, not just
developed countries.

What we need is an agreement that’s ambitious -- because that’s what the
scale of the challenge demands. We need an inclusive agreement -- because
every country has to play its part. And we need an agreement that’s
flexible -- because different nations have different needs. And if we can
come together and get this right, we can define a sustainable future for
your generation.

So that’s my plan. The actions I’ve announced today should send a strong
signal to the world that America intends to take bold action to reduce
carbon pollution. We will continue to lead by the power of our example,
because that’s what the United States of America has always done.

I am convinced this is the fight America can, and will, lead in the 21st
century. And I’m convinced this is a fight that America must lead. But it
will require all of us to do our part. We’ll need scientists to design new
fuels, and we’ll need farmers to grow new fuels. We’ll need engineers to
devise new technologies, and we’ll need businesses to make and sell those
technologies. We’ll need workers to operate assembly lines that hum with
high-tech, zero-carbon components, but we’ll also need builders to hammer
into place the foundations for a new clean energy era.

We’re going to need to give special care to people and communities that are
unsettled by this transition -- not just here in the United States but
around the world. And those of us in positions of responsibility, we’ll
need to be less concerned with the judgment of special interests and
well-connected donors, and more concerned with the judgment of posterity.
Because you and your children, and your children’s children, will have to
live with the consequences of our decisions.

As I said before, climate change has become a partisan issue, but it hasn’t
always been. It wasn’t that long ago that Republicans led the way on new
and innovative policies to tackle these issues. Richard Nixon opened the
EPA. George H.W. Bush declared -- first U.S. President to declare -- “human
activities are changing the atmosphere in unexpected and unprecedented
ways.” Someone who never shies away from a challenge, John McCain,
introduced a market-based cap-and-trade bill to slow carbon pollution.

The woman that I’ve chosen to head up the EPA, Gina McCarthy, she’s worked
-- she’s terrific. Gina has worked for the EPA in my administration, but
she’s also worked for five Republican governors. She’s got a long track
record of working with industry and business leaders to forge common-sense
solutions. Unfortunately, she’s being held up in the Senate. She’s been
held up for months, forced to jump through hoops no Cabinet nominee should
ever have to -- not because she lacks qualifications, but because there are
too many in the Republican Party right now who think that the Environmental
Protection Agency has no business protecting our environment from carbon
pollution. The Senate should confirm her without any further obstruction or
delay.

But more broadly, we’ve got to move beyond partisan politics on this issue.
I want to be clear -- I am willing to work with anybody -- Republicans,
Democrats, independents, libertarians, greens -- anybody -- to combat this
threat on behalf of our kids. I am open to all sorts of new ideas, maybe
better ideas, to make sure that we deal with climate change in a way that
promotes jobs and growth.

Nobody has a monopoly on what is a very hard problem, but I don’t have much
patience for anyone who denies that this challenge is real. We don’t have
time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society. Sticking your head in the
sand might make you feel safer, but it’s not going to protect you from the
coming storm. And ultimately, we will be judged as a people, and as a
society, and as a country on where we go from here.

Our founders believed that those of us in positions of power are elected
not just to serve as custodians of the present, but as caretakers of the
future. And they charged us to make decisions with an eye on a longer
horizon than the arc of our own political careers. That’s what the American
people expect. That’s what they deserve.

And someday, our children, and our children’s children, will look at us in
the eye and they'll ask us, did we do all that we could when we had the
chance to deal with this problem and leave them a cleaner, safer, more
stable world? And I want to be able to say, yes, we did. Don’t you want
that?

Americans are not a people who look backwards; we're a people who look
forward. We're not a people who fear what the future holds; we shape it.
What we need in this fight are citizens who will stand up, and speak up,
and compel us to do what this moment demands.

Understand this is not just a job for politicians. So I'm going to need all
of you to educate your classmates, your colleagues, your parents, your
friends. Tell them what’s at stake. Speak up at town halls, church groups,
PTA meetings. Push back on misinformation. Speak up for the facts. Broaden
the circle of those who are willing to stand up for our future.

Convince those in power to reduce our carbon pollution. Push your own
communities to adopt smarter practices. Invest. Divest. Remind folks
there's no contradiction between a sound environment and strong economic
growth. And remind everyone who represents you at every level of government
that sheltering future generations against the ravages of climate change is
a prerequisite for your vote. Make yourself heard on this issue.

I understand the politics will be tough. The challenge we must accept will
not reward us with a clear moment of victory. There’s no gathering army to
defeat. There's no peace treaty to sign. When President Kennedy said we’d
go to the moon within the decade, we knew we’d build a spaceship and we’d
meet the goal. Our progress here will be measured differently -- in crises
averted, in a planet preserved. But can we imagine a more worthy goal? For
while we may not live to see the full realization of our ambition, we will
have the satisfaction of knowing that the world we leave to our children
will be better off for what we did.

“It makes you realize,” that astronaut said all those years ago, “just what
you have back there on Earth.” And that image in the photograph, that
bright blue ball rising over the moon’s surface, containing everything we
hold dear -- the laughter of children, a quiet sunset, all the hopes and
dreams of posterity -- that’s what’s at stake. That’s what we’re fighting
for. And if we remember that, I’m absolutely sure we'll succeed.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless the United States of America.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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