MARKEY REACTS TO UNITED NATION'S REPORT ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Washington, DC - Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources Committees, today reacted to the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, to be released tomorrow.

Rep. Markey said, “For those who are still trying to determine responsibility for global warming, this new U.N. report on climate change is a scientific smoking gun.  We ignore it at the peril of our children and their children.”

In the 2001 IPCC report, the world’s leading scientists said that it was “likely,” or 66% probable that human activities are causing global warming over the last 50 years. This year, the IPCC reportedly concludes that it is “very likely,” translating to 90% probable, that we are responsible for global warming.

“The debate about climate change has rapidly moved from ‘if’ to ‘when,’” stated Markey.  “The world's scientific community is stating with one clear voice that human activities are causing climate change and we can no longer afford to move at a glacial pace in stopping, stabilizing, and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that we know are causing global warming.  It falls to this Congress to meet this challenge by moving aggressively to transition away from forms of energy which have the capacity to destroy the planet as we know it.”

The report will also likely detail the catastrophic costs of doing nothing and continuing business as usual. The IPCC’s forecast for this century is reportedly bleak, including projections that we will see temperature increases of at least between 3.5 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit, increased intensity of hurricanes and tropical storms, significantly rising sea levels, and millions or possibly billions of people facing water scarcity and food shortages.

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