Climate Change
Security
Technology & Innovation
Global Issues
13 May, 2016

Quote of the month

John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State

“In the time ahead, we are going to need an all-out global commitment – not only to clean energy – but to clean air, clean harbors, clean coasts, and the preservation of our endangered ocean and marine resources. Now, if you think current conflicts are all-consuming, imagine what happens when we add food shortages, water shortages, stronger storms, longer droughts, steady rises in sea-levels, which are already being predicted, and entire countries swallowed by the sea. If we don’t make the choices available to us today, then the problems of today are going to pale in comparison with what’s coming down the road. But we don’t hear a lot of people, not enough people, laying those real choices in front. The bottom line is that we don’t have to sit here and wait for this to happen. If we accelerate the transition towards clean energy solutions – we have the technology, we have the knowledge.”

- John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, May 11, 2016

You can find the complete speech here.


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