Ranking Member Johnson’s Statement on 2012 Being the Warmest Year on Record for the U.S.
(Washington, DC) – Today, Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) issued the following statement on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) recent announcement that 2012 was the warmest year on record for the contiguous United States.
“This data from NOAA confirms what many of us already know too well - our world is getting warmer. According to NOAA, 2012 was part of a long-term trend of hotter, drier, and potentially more extreme weather for the country. While this report only addressed temperature records in the U.S., it speaks to the wider phenomena of global climate change.
Every new data point serves to highlight the folly of putting special-interest politics and partisanship before science and fact. The climate is changing. It is time for both sides of the aisle to accept the evidence, recognize the overwhelming scientific consensus, evaluate the risks of continued inaction, and come together to have meaningful discussions about climate change.
Though it may be too little and too late, policies focused on prevention of deeper, more devastating climatic shifts should still be our primary objective. Therefore, we must act boldly and we must act swiftly. Policymakers also have a responsibility to do everything that we can to ensure that communities, the agricultural sector, and other critical industries can adapt to the costly impacts of a changing climate.”
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