Scholars have shown that societies are shaped by climate. Yesterday, Professor Obasi gave a nice summary of how the international community has responded to a variety of significant climate issues from GARP to greenhouse gases to ozone natural variability and human induced impacts. In the U.S., we can trace political awareness back to the introduction of the National Climatic Program Act of 1975. Hearings were held in 1976 on this bill, by then Chairman of the House Environment and Atmosphere Subcommittee George Brown, who died last year after a long and distinguished career fighting to protect our environment. What Chairman Brown said in 1976 is equally true today.
Mankind has an incredibly big stake in the behavior of the climate.
That stake will grow greater, and come closer home, with every passing year There is today a keen and universal awareness that climate means food, climate means health, climate strikes deeply into our patterns of living. It is becoming ever clearer that the riddles of the climate cannot be allowed indefinitely to remain so. Our Nation and the world need an effort with the imagination, size, and continuity appropriate to the solving of a major mystery with which we all live every day. I'm pleased that Joe Fletcher is here today. Joe Fletcher was one of the key figures behind this climate awareness.