Washington (July 12, 2017) – Today, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and co-Chair of the Senate Climate Action Task Force, released the following statement in response to a trillion-ton section of the Antarctic Larsen C ice shelf breaking off of the Antarctic peninsula. The enormous iceberg, which contains twice as much volume as Lake Erie, is one of the largest recorded. This Antarctic iceberg comes as President Donald Trump prepares to depart for Paris, after withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.

“The only thing more monumentally alarming than a massive new iceberg the size of Delaware breaking off from Antarctica is President Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate accord. It is a national embarrassment that President Trump refuses to have the United States show global leadership on climate change as the world watches an Antarctic iceberg the size of a U.S. state floats off into sea. The time has come for the Trump administration to put its efforts to deny the science of climate change and block progress on climate solutions on ice.”