A “Call to Arms” to Combat Climate Change; Kerry’s Visual and Evocative Analogy for Emphasis

Climate change--or rather, the fecklessness of governments around the world (including the U.S.) with regard to combating  global warming--has been in the news lately because of the just concluded U.N. climate summit in Lima, Peru.  So, I felt it’s a good time to reproduce a couple of short segments from a forceful and stirring speech by Secretary of State John Kerry in Jakarta, Indonesia, this past February during which he issued a “call to arms” (to quote PBS NewsHour) to confront climate change.

Excerpt One -- Kerry’s visual and evocative expression:

“The science of climate change is leaping out at us like a scene from a 3-D movie.”

Excerpt Two -- His exemplary censure of climate change deniers:

“We should not allow a tiny minority of shoddy scientists and extreme ideologues to compete with scientific fact, nor should we allow any room for those who think the costs associated with doing the right thing outweigh the benefits.”

Very well said, Mr. Kerry. Now, if only others fighting for urgent action on this issue would begin using similarly strong and hard-hitting language to denounce climate change deniers. [See my May 18 post “some choice words to lambaste politicians who reject the scientific consensus on climate change.” In that post, which was triggered by famous Princeton scientist Michael Oppenheimer’s warning that “the millennials will have hell to pay,” I described climate change deniers as “today’s new breed of Holocaust Deniers.”]

© Copyright 2014  V. J. Singal