Senator Murray: “It’s no longer acceptable to treat climate change like a problem for future generations to solve”

On heels of landmark U.N. report, Senator Murray urges leaders to believe in science, accept realities of climate change, and stop propping up special interests that are making global warming worse

(Washington, D.C.)  – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) released the following statement after the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change released a landmark report showing the effects of climate change are much more immediate and devastating than previously known.

“This report drives home the stark reality that it’s no longer acceptable to treat climate change like a problem for future generations to solve. The devastating effects of climate change are here. They are unfolding in real-time, on our front door steps and in the communities we love, from increasingly brutal hurricanes that batter our coasts, to worsening public health, to longer, more intense wildfires seasons that devastate the West on an annual basis. What’s particularly sobering in this new report is that from here things only get worse, much worse, if we do not act immediately and aggressively, and that the communities that will be hit the hardest are those that are already the most vulnerable. The United States, with our economic strength and unmatched scientific know-how, can and absolutely should be a leader in what must be a global all-hands-on-deck effort. It’s long past time that those in positions of power across this great nation actually believe in science, accept the realities of climate change, and stop propping up well-connected special interests that reap huge profits off of making global warming worse.”  

Last year, Senator Murray and other Democrats urged President Trump against withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. Senator Murray also cosponsored a resolution expressing support for the global accord.