John McCain issued a remarkable statement earlier today in response to reports that runaway climate change may have begun:
America this week faces an historic crisis in our climate system. We must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we do not, the Southwest will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy. If we do not act, every corner of our country will be impacted. We cannot allow this to happen.
Last spring, I laid out my proposal and I have since discussed my priorities and concerns. Senator Obama has expressed his priorities and concerns. This morning, I met with a group of advisers to talk about the steps that we should take going forward. I have also spoken with members of Congress to hear their perspective.
It has become clear that we are running out of time.
Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.
I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.
We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved. I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night’s debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.
I am confident that before Monday we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, protect taxpayers and homeowners, and earn the confidence of the American people. All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so.
Following September 11th, our national leaders came together at a time of crisis. We must show that kind of patriotism now. Americans across our country lament the fact that partisan divisions in Washington have prevented us from addressing our national challenges. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country.
A blogger can dream, no? I will say that I didn’t have to change very many words from his actual remarks today.
Related Posts:
- Is the financial crisis more dire than the climate crisis?
- Turns out McCain doesn’t care about global warming, the greatest threat we face
- Is 450 ppm politically possible? Part 6: What the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill debate tells us
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Joe –
Well played!
ER
What can one say – McCain chicken! Cardboard politics….
Joe, Nice one.
Looks to be nice practice for dealing with the AGW crisis.
Can’t we just vote tomorrow and get this whole, miserable farce over with? I don’t think the planet is going to wait for the election.
Blogging for the future at Climaticide Chronicles
Maybe I missed something but what exactly is going to change Nov 5 … or Jan 20 or next year even
Nothing is going to change – nothing is going to get done
there will be talk and delays to any kind of action. The new administration will be pulled in 20 different competing directions and nothing will get done.
this election doesn’t matter.
eventually there will be some watered down climate legislation – don’t be expecting much.
nice job.
But we are all a bunch of frogs sitting in the warming pot. each moment of warming is pretty much like each other warming so it’s hard to tell that there is a difference. Much like the artillery of time that attacks all of us. Just one more day warmer. Just one more day closer to our own death. Just one more day of adding to the other thousands and hundreds of thousands of days that we put more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, not any of the days matters, but all of them together does.
We need for more people to be paying attention.
Why is it we can spend $7b on Wall St for Fat Cats, but not $5b on tackling world child destitution.
It stinks.
Perhaps because the fat cats net worth is threatened but *their* children aren’t destitute?
Anyone starts talking about getting rid of regulations, remind them that we have to protect ourselves from the very greedy.
paulm Says:Why is it we can spend $7b on Wall St
September 25th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
…of course that should have been $700b
You make a great point and the further parallels are depressing.
Five years ago Warren Buffet was calling the credit swap derivatives “Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction”. Others also posted warnings. No one did anything until global financial disaster threatened. Now no one knows if the economy has passed a tipping point such that even this unprecedented bail out won’t save us.
I fear it will take a climate related disaster of similar proportions (say a never seen before Category 6 hurricane hitting Miami or the Gulf Coast) to generate an appropriate response to global warming.
Update:
McCain did not suspend his campaign.
He gave at least one political speech today . And arranged a photo-op at the White House. He’s been giving political interviews this evening.
His “people” appeared on various media outlets and made campaign presentations.
His ads ran around the country.
His campaign offices remained open and doing business.
Can you say “McLiar”?