    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [July 24, 1997]
    [Pages 993-995]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks During a Discussion on Climate Change
    July 24, 1997

        The President. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, first let me thank
    you for being here--members of the administration and concerned members
    of the public, the scientists, and other experts that are here.
        I would also like to say a special word of thanks to the Vice
    President. In one of our earliest meetings together--we meet once a week
    and have lunch--he went over the whole history of greenhouse gas
    emissions and climatic change. And I became convinced first that he was
    convinced that something was wrong. [Laughter] Then I became convinced
    something was wrong. And it's been a great help to me and I believe to
    the people of the United States to have him in the position that he's
    in, not only with the convictions that he has but with the knowledge
    that he has. And I'm very grateful to him for what he has done to help
    me come to grips with this issue.
        To me, we have to see this whole issue of climate change in terms of
    our deepest obligations to future generations. I have spent most of my
    time in the last 4\1/2\ years trying to prepare the American people for
    a new century and a new millennium. It is also very important that we
    protect the Earth for that new millennium, to make sure that people will
    be able to take advantage of all the things we are trying to do, the
    opportunities we are trying to create, the problems we are trying to
    solve.
        It is obvious that we cannot fulfill our responsibilities to future
    generations unless we deal responsibly with the challenge of climate
    change. Whenever the security of our country has been threatened, we
    have led the world to a better resolution. That is what is at stake
    here. And the scientists have come here to explain why.
        As the Vice President said, the overwhelming balance of evidence and
    scientific opinion is that it is no longer a theory but now a fact that
    global warming is for real. The world scientists believe that if we
    don't cut our emissions of greenhouse gases, we will disrupt the global
    climate. In fact, there is ample evidence that human activities are
    already disrupting the global climate and that if we stay on our current
    course, the average global temperatures may rise 2 to 6 degrees
    Fahrenheit during the next century. To put that in some context, the
    difference in average temperature between the last ice age, which was
    10,000 to 12,000 years ago--10,000 to 12,000 years ago--and today, is
    about 9 degrees Fahrenheit. So we could have two-thirds of that change
    in 100 years unless we do something.

    [[Page 994]]

        If we fail to act, scientists expect that our seas will rise 1 to 3
    feet, and thousands of square miles here in the United States, in
    Florida, Louisiana, and other coastal areas will be flooded. Infectious
    diseases will spread to new regions. Severe heat waves will claim lives.
    Agriculture will suffer. Severe droughts and floods will be more common.
    These are the things that are reasonably predictable.
        In the face of this, the United States must confront a challenge
    that in some ways is the most difficult of all democracy's challenges to
    face. That is, we have evidence, we see the train coming, but most
    ordinary Americans in their day-to-day lives can't hear the whistle
    blowing. Unless they have lived in a place where they have experienced
    severe and unusual and completely atypical weather disruptions in the
    last 5 years or so, the degree of the challenge is inconsistent with the
    actual perceived experience of most ordinary Americans. And this is
    true, indeed, throughout the world. And that presents us our challenge.
        A democracy is premised on the proposition that if the American
    people, or any people in any democracy, know what the facts are and
    believe them, way more than half the time they will do the right thing.
    And so what we are doing today is beginning a process in which we ask
    the American people to listen to the evidence, to measure it against
    their own experience, but not to discount the weight of scientific
    authority if their own experience does not yet confirm what the
    overwhelming percentage of scientists believe to be fact today. This is
    a great exercise and a great test for our democracy.
        I do want to say that I am convinced that when the nations of the
    world meet in Kyoto, Japan, in December on this issue, the United States
    has got to be committed to realistic and binding limits on our emissions
    of greenhouse gases. Between now and then, we have to work with the
    American people to get them to share that commitment. We have to
    emphasize flexible market-based approaches. We have to embrace research
    and development efforts in technology that will help us to improve the
    economy--improve the environment while permitting our economy to grow.
    We have to ask all nations, both industrial and developing, to
    participate in this process.
        But if we do this together, we can defuse this threat. And we can
    make the 21st century what it ought to be, not only for our children but
    for all the children of the world. I believe the science demands that we
    face this challenge now. I'm positive that we owe it to our children.
    And I hope that we can find the wisdom and the skill to do democracy's
    work in the next few months, to build the consensus necessary to
    actually make action, as opposed to rhetoric, possible. And for all of
    you for your commitment to that, I thank you.
        And now I'd like to ask Dr. Rowland to be the first of our
    distinguished scientists to lead off.
        Doctor.

    [At this point, the discussion proceeded.]

        The President. Let me again thank you all for your patience and your
    interest. I think we should give our panelists and scientists another
    hand. [Applause] I wish every American could hear what we've heard
    today. But thanks to our friends in the media, a good number of them
    will hear at least a portion of what we have heard today. And this is
    the beginning of a consistent long-term effort that we all have to make
    to involve the people of this country in this decision. And I thank you
    all for the points you've made because in different ways each of them
    will resonate with citizens of this country in a way that I believe will
    give us the support we need to take the action that has to be taken.
        In the weeks and months ahead, the Vice President, the Cabinet,
    other members of the administration, and I will be out in the country
    discussing this. We'll be working with the American people. We'll be
    talking about solutions as well as problems. The truth is, it's like
    anything else--the quicker you get--another answer Dr. Holdren might
    have given is that the quicker you get after this, the less extreme the
    remedy you have to embrace to have a measurable effect to avoid an
    undesirable outcome. And the longer you wait, the more disruptive the
    ultimate resolution will be. So that's another thing that I'd like to
    emphasize.

    Death of William J. Brennan, Jr.

        Before we close, I hope you will permit me to make a brief
    statement. Just before I came in here to this meeting, I learned that
    today, and not very long ago, retired Supreme Court Justice William
    Brennan passed away. He was a remarkable human being, one of the finest
    and most influential jurists in our Nation's history. He served on the
    Supreme Court for 34

    [[Page 995]]

    years. He was perhaps during that period the staunchest, most effective
    defender of individual freedom against Government intrusion. His
    devotion to the Bill of Rights inspired millions of Americans and
    countless young law students, including myself. And one of the great
    honors I have had as President was to be able to award him the
    Presidential Medal of Freedom in my first year in office.
        He once said the role of the Constitution is the protection of the
    dignity of every human being and the recognition that every individual
    has fundamental rights which Government cannot deny. He spent a lifetime
    upholding those rights, and he authored some of the most enduring
    constitutional decisions of this century, including Baker v. Carr, on
    one person, one vote; The New York Times v. Sullivan, which brought the
    free speech doctrine into the latter half of the 20th century. The force
    of his ideas, the strength of his leadership and his character have
    safeguarded freedom and widened the circle of quality for every single
    one of us.
        We will miss him greatly. And I know you join me in sending our best
    wishes and our prayers to his family and friends, and our gratitude for
    his life.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:57 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to discussion participants F.
    Sherwood Rowland, professor, University of California at Irvine, and
    John Holdren, professor, Harvard University. The proclamation on the
    death of William J. Brennan, Jr., is listed in Appendix D at the end of
    this volume.