Trancsript: John Kerry on Climate-Change Conscious
Senator talks to ABC News about the urgency of climate change problem.
BALI, Indonesia, Dec. 10, 2007— -- Sen. John Kerry sat down with ABC News' Margaret Conley about the urgency of climate change.
Margaret Conley (MC): How serious is the issue of climate change?
Sen. John Kerry (JK): Urgent. Absolutely urgent. It's about as serious as any issue we could confront internationally and nationally.
MC: How soon do you think we'll be seeing impacts? It's hard to predict.
JK: We are already seeing impacts. We see impacts across our country now. Increased drought, intensity of storms, movement of species and vegetation, any infestation of insects in parts of the country where they didn't use to survive. We're seeing the impacts today.
MC: Some people are saying that it's serious enough to lead to a collapse of civilization or a global catastrophe. Do you agree with that?
JK: If global climate change is not responded to adequately, it has all the ability to be able to change life as we know it on earth, and to be catastrophic in its proportions. That's what the scientists tell us. That's not political talk. That is scientific analysis. That it will spread disease. It will dry up sources of water. It will create deserts where there are forests. It will change whole islands and lowlands will be wiped out by increased sea level. I mean these are all catastrophes. Will we get there? Obviously I and others who are working at this believe we don't have to and that we can avoid that. But we have to take action now in order to do that.
MC: And it could happen in our lifetime?
JK: It is happening now. There are profound changes that are taking place in all kinds of different aspects of life in our country and in other countries as a consequence of global climate change. Ice is melting faster in the arctic. The Greenland ice sheet which was completely stable in 1990 is now melting at the rate of 800 billion metric tons a year. These are profound changes and what you don't want to do, is tempt a tipping point over which you have no control. Nobody can say with certainty what happens if you go beyond these things. So if we are witnessing these dangers already, responsible action means do something about it.
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