If you heard someone utter that phrase today, what would you think that person might be talking about?
The ISIS threat? The humanitarian crisis at our borders? The Russia-Ukraine conflict and Vladimir Putin acting like he wants to return to the Cold War? Or maybe the Ebola out-break? The Israel-Gaza back and forth? How about threats to religious liberty? The secularization of the culture? What about the militarization of the police given what's going on in Missouri?
If you're John Kerry, it's none of the above:
The global impact of climate change is “the biggest challenge of all that we face right now,” Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience in Hawaii Wednesday, putting an issue he feels passionately about at the center of a speech entitled “U.S. Vision for Asia-Pacific Engagement.”
“The science is screaming at us,” he said. “Ask any kid in school. They understand what a greenhouse
is, how it works, why we call it the greenhouse effect. They get it.”
“If you accept the science,” Kerry continued. “If you accept that the science is causing climate to change, you have to heed what those same scientists are telling us about how you prevent the inevitable consequences and impacts.”
“That’s why President Obama has made climate change a top priority. He’s doing by executive authority what we’re not able to get the Congress to do.”
Kerry said climate change was not some future crisis.
“Climate change is here now. It’s happening, happening all over the world. It’s not a challenge that’s somehow remote and that people can’t grab onto.”
He cited “unprecedented storms, unprecedented typhoons, unprecedented hurricanes, unprecedented droughts, unprecedented fires, major damage, billions and billions of dollars of damage being done that we’re paying for instead of investing those billions of dollars in avoiding this in the first place.”
The speech at the East-West Center, a Honolulu-based think tank, came at the end of a trip to Asia. Kerry used it to give an assurance that Obama’s touted “pivot” – or as the administration prefers to call it, “rebalance” – to Asia has not been moved to the back-burner because of pressing crises in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Both the speech and the trip, he said, “are meant to underscore that even as we focus on those crises that I’ve just listed and on conflicts that dominate the headlines on a daily basis and demand our leadership – even as we do that, we will never forget the long-term strategic imperatives for American interests.”
is, how it works, why we call it the greenhouse effect. They get it.”This goes beyond stupid. It goes beyond idiocy.
It represents an unprecedented level of bufoonery.
God help us.
No, really. God help us.
