[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17620]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          SAFE CLIMATE CAUCUS

  (Mr. CLEAVER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, recently someone said to new EPA 
Administrator Gina McCarthy that she was not living in the real world 
with regard to climate change.
  My question today is if those who are questioning whether she lives 
in the real world would say the same thing to the survivors of the 
typhoon of Biblical proportions that just devastated the Philippines 
where 4,000 people have been impacted. This was the strongest land-
falling typhoon on record.
  And I am wondering if they would tell people whose homes were hit by 
the unusually late Mid-Western tornados this past weekend that they are 
not living in reality. Sixty tornados were reported, eight people were 
killed, and the damages are estimated to be at least $1 billion.
  Weather-related losses and damages have risen from $50 billion to 
almost $200 billion annually over the last decade.
  Putting our heads in the sand will not stop the reality that our 
climate is changing and that human beings are a part of the reason.

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