Kerry: Current Climate ‘Is a Threat to ... the Planet Itself’
In an Earth Day message, Secretary of State John Kerry warned the current state of the climate "is a threat to our security, our health, our environment, and the planet itself."
He began on an upbeat note, observing that the first Earth Day, in which he participated as an activist, was quickly met with President Nixon creating the Environmental Protection Agency.
"Today, we need a similar effort and we need it on a global level," he said. "Climate change is a threat to our security, our health, our environment, and the planet itself. It’s a global challenge and one that President Obama thankfully has taken head on, putting forward the boldest and most far reaching set of climate actions in our nations history."
[Earth Day message]
KERRY: “Hello, everybody, and Happy Earth Day. For 45 years, this day has been a chance to reflect on our environmental challenges and determine how we can best meet them. It served as a reminder of the responsibility that we all have to preserve our God-given natural resources from the health of our oceans, the safety of our drinking water, to the quality of our air, to the diversity of our animal kingdom.
I will never forget personally the first Earth Day back in 1970. I was 26-years-old. I just came back from serving in Vietnam and I got involved in the effort in Massachusetts, my home state. But the reason that day was so historic was that I was only one of 20 million Americans who participated in one way or another, gathering in parks, on street corners all over the country spontaneously in many cases.
Congress even adjourned so that its members could attend rallies, teachings and marches. And the result was a force that was created that no American politician could ignore. Within months, President Nixon announced the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Congress quickly followed with landmark legislation to protect our air and water, endangered species, and threat on coasts. That first Earth Day was a proof that when enough people make their voices heard policy makers listen.
Today, we need a similar effort but we need it on a global level. Climate change is a threat to our security, our health, our environment, and the planet itself. It’s a global challenge and one that President Obama thankfully has taken head on, putting forward the boldest and most far reaching set of climate actions in our nation's history.
But the fact is we can't address this threat all by ourselves. United States can't do it alone. No country can. And that's why we are committed to working with other nations later this year in Paris to achieve a truly meaningful, ambitious, genuinely comprehensive agreement to curb greenhouse emissions and ultimately to fight climate change.
I've said it many times. If ever there were an issue that demanded clarity of purpose and unity of action, this is it. But we need to help making that case to policy makers around the globe.
On this Earth Day, I am asking Americans and concerned citizens everywhere to speak up, to demand more from their leaders when it comes to climate change.
Make this an issue that no public official anywhere can ignore like the generations that came before us. We have an undeniable obligation to safeguard our planet and all of its precious resources. We need to do it for those who follow us, our children, our grandchildren, the next generations.
So let's make this Earth Day another historic example of how every day citizens can change things, can save and improve world for centuries to come. Thank you."
