Today, I will testify to Congress about global warming, 20
years after my June 23, 1988 testimony, which alerted the public that global
warming was under way. There are striking similarities between then and now,
but one big difference.
Again a wide gap has developed between what is understood
about global warming by the relevant scientific community and what is known by
policymakers and the public. Now, as then, frank assessment of scientific data
yields conclusions that are shocking to the body politic. Now, as then, I can
assert that these conclusions have a certainty exceeding 99 percent.
The difference is that now we have used up all slack in the
schedule for actions needed to defuse the global warming time bomb. The next
President and Congress must define a course next year in which the United States
exerts leadership commensurate with our responsibility for the present
dangerous situation.
