[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10284]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL

  (Mr. TONKO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, last week Pope Francis echoed the chorus of 
97 percent of climate scientists whose findings prove that climate 
change is real and is manmade, and climate change has the potential to 
destroy the only planet that we have. Let me say that again. Climate 
change is real, it is manmade, and it can reverse all the progress we 
have made as a nation.
  Pope Francis frames the reality of climate change in a way that we 
must consider if we are to protect our environment as directed by our 
Creator for future generations, future economic development, and future 
progress. The leader of the Catholic Church accurately points out that 
it is a moral imperative to act on climate change; it is a moral 
imperative to act as a good steward of the environment and the gifts we 
have been given.
  I thank Pope Francis, and I hope the words he shared last week will 
ring true with all of us, including those who continue to deny climate 
change, both in this body and around the world. I hope the Pope's 
encyclical will encourage deniers to work with us to find creative ways 
to clean up our environment, help create jobs, and make our world just 
a little bit better for our kids and grandkids.

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