Vice President Joe Biden made an earnest plea to the world–and to participants in the GOP debate–to take climate change seriously on Wednesday, calling it “absurd” that there was a debate over man-made global warming.
Referring specifically to the Republican presidential candidates, Biden mocked the notion that it would even be a topic of discussion.
“There’s still folks out there–particularly in the other party, we might hear it tonight,” Biden said referring to the upcoming debate. “[Y]ou’re going to hear people I suspect…deny climate change. I think if you push them, they’ll probably deny gravity as well.”
Biden warned of sea levels rising by two feet, extreme heat waves, superstorms, and drought that would occur as a result of climate change which could cause change including massive migrations of “tens of millions of people.”
“We’ve see already what happens with climate change, just look at Darfur and the carnage that’s occurred over the last 10 years because arable land is no longer available,” he said.
Biden argued that more spending was needed to jump start the alternate energy economy, complaining that Republicans had slashed their budget for subsidies.
“The stakes are too high,” he said, calling skeptics “shortsighted.”
Biden made his remarks during a speech at the Solar Power International Conference in Anaheim, California, defending government spending subsidizing solar power companies.
“Make no mistake about it folks, climate change is caused by human endeavors and it’s an existential threat to this planet, and I’m not talking about leaving our children a better future,” Biden warned. “What’s at stake is whether we have a future at all.”
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