It has been more than three decades since scientists first started warning the world about the greenhouse effect. Still, even today, many people refuse to believe in the existence of global warming.
Meanwhile, plenty of public figures and politicians are speaking up on the subject. So, below I will share some of their quotes about climate change that can make even die-hard skeptics doubtful.
Before I get to the quotes, however, I want to illustrate the severity of the climate crisis problem. Since numbers are often more powerful than words, I will now present to you a few quick statistical facts.
For starters, by the time you finish reading this article, more than 21 million square feet of forest land will be lost as a direct result of global warming. What’s more, 41 people will die in the next minute because of climate-induced natural disasters.
Obviously, the planet is struggling, and it needs help. Hopefully, the following collection of quotes about climate change will inspire you to do your share in protecting the environment.
21 Quotes About Climate Change and Its Irrefutable Science
Quotes About Climate Change That Will Make You Think
1. “It may sound frightening, but the scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade, we could face irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies.” — David Attenborough
2. “Because, underneath all of this is the real truth we have been avoiding: climate change isn’t an ‘issue’ to add to the list of things to worry about, next to health care and taxes. It is a civilizational wake-up call. A powerful message — spoken in the language of fires, floods, droughts, and extinctions — telling us that we need an entirely new economic model and a new way of sharing this planet. Telling us that we need to evolve.” — Naomi Klein
3. “Climate change is not the concern of just one or two nations. It is an issue that affects the whole of humanity and every living being on this earth.” — The Dalai Lama
4. “By the time we see that climate change is really bad, your ability to fix it is extremely limited… The carbon gets up there, but the heating effect is delayed. And then the effect of that heat on the species and ecosystem is delayed. That means that even when you turn virtuous, things are actually going to get worse for quite a while.” — Bill Gates
Quotes About Climate Change by Celebrities
5. “Climate change is not going away. It will only get more extreme and more dangerous with time. There is no hiding from it.” — Mark Ruffalo
6. “It is upsetting that many people don’t seem to observe what’s happening to the environment, what’s happening in terms of global warming, the loss of habitats and wild things.” — Joanne Woodward
7. “Global climate change is real, and we have a limited time to change our behavior or live with the consequences.” — Kyra Sedgwick
Humorous Quotes About Climate Change
8. “NC passed a law against global warming science, therefore it’s not happening. So I’m ignoring Twitter’s 140-character limit, so it’s not happ.” ― Stephen Colbert
9. “The best thing about improvements in health care is that all the climate change deniers are not going to live long enough to see how wrong they were.” — Joseph J. Romm
10. “I’m often asked whether I believe in global warming. I now just reply with the question: Do you believe in gravity?” — Neil deGrasse Tyson
Quotes About Climate Change by Politicians
11. “All across the world, …increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it’s here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.” — Barack Obama
12. “The scientific consensus is that climate change is real, urgent, and caused by humans.” — Brian Schatz
13. “To be clear, climate change is the true 800-pound gorilla in the room. The effects of global warming threaten global environmental upheaval over the coming century.” — Debbie Wasserman Schultz
14. “Climate change is real. The science is compelling. And the longer we wait, the harder the problem will be to solve.” — John F. Kerry
The Most Unapologetically Honest Quotes About Climate Change
15. “Almost everywhere, climate change denial now looks as stupid and as unacceptable as Holocaust denial.” — George Monbiot
16. “Those who say that climate change doesn’t exist are being understood as the flat-earthers that they are, as the people who deny the link between smoking and cancer.” — Lord Nicholas Stern
17. “Al Gore is not just whistling in the wind. Global warming is for real. Every scientist knows that now, and we are on our way to the destruction of every species on Earth if we don’t pay attention and reverse our course.” — Theodore C. Sorensen
18. “Anybody who doesn’t see the impact of climate change is really, I would say, myopic. They don’t see the reality. It’s so evident that we are destroying Mother Earth. This is not the problem of one country or a few countries: it is the problem of mankind. We need to work together to stop this. Otherwise, our future generations will simply disappear.” — Juan Manuel Santos
Environmentalists’ Quotes About Climate Change
19. “Global warming is no longer a philosophical threat, no longer a future threat, no longer a threat at all. It’s our reality.” — Bill McKibben
20. “Climate change is not just another issue. It is the issue that, unchecked, will swamp all other issues.” — Ross Gelbspan
21. “Things take longer to happen than you think they will, but then they happen much faster than you thought they could. The destructive impacts of the climate crisis are now following the trajectory of that economics maxim as horrors long predicted by scientists are becoming realities.” — Al Gore
To Conclude
As Barack Obama once said, the climate crisis “is no longer some far-off problem.” So, sooner or later, humankind will realize that global warming is NOT a myth. Let’s just hope that when that happens, it won’t be too late to make a difference. In the meantime, these quotes about climate change will have to suffice.