Owing to past neglect, in the face of the plainest warnings, we have entered upon a period of danger. The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedience of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences. We cannot avoid this period, we are in it now
Not originally spoken about climate change, but I don't think a better expression of today's reality could be found. Go to Peter Sinclair's piece "9/11, Climate Change and Why Facts Matter" to read a great article and at the same time see who said the above and when.
(Oops, did I just play the Hitler card AND the 9/11 card in the same post??)
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And the last paragraph of that speech, somewhat edited:
"Two things, I confess, have staggered me, after a long ... experience, in these Debates. The first has been the dangers that have so swiftly come upon us in a few years, and have been transforming our position and the whole outlook of the world. Secondly, I have been staggered by the failure of the [Congress] to react effectively against those dangers. That, I am bound to say, I never expected. I never would have believed that we should have been allowed to go on getting into this plight, month by month and year by year, and that even the Government's own confessions of error would have produced no concentration of [Congressional] opinion and force capable of lifting our efforts to the level of emergency. I say that unless the [Congress] resolves to find out the truth for itself it will have committed an act of abdication of duty without parallel in its long history."
To be fair, the perfect political speech can be applied with absolute appositeness to any circumstances one cares to name. And if the perfect political speech exists, then one can safely assume that it was Churchill who made it.
To be honest though, this isn't a sentiment I'd expect to have seen on Scienceblogs. This place seems packed to the gunwhales with people who think they're important enough to change the human race's chosen method of self-extermination.....
Ian seems to think that nobody can change anything, not even in large numbers.
Poor little lamb.