James Howard Kunstler Quotes

I am convinced that policies meant to reduce alleged carbon dioxide-induced global warming will be destructive.

The targets we all agree on - every country in the world except the U.S., Nicaragua, and Syria - will have targets under the Paris Agreement. So everyone knows what the targets should be, and then we can have a difference of opinion on exactly how these emissions will be reduced.

I think [George W.] Bush has done nothing right about global warming.

I can find them strategizing about any number of things in these WikiLeaks email dumps, but there's not a thread on climate change whatsoever. Why is that? If climate change were that big a deal to these people, don't you think they would be talking about it internally?

The best way to deal with climate change has been obvious for years: cut greenhouse-gas emissions severely. We haven't done that. In 2010, for example, carbon emissions rose by six per cent - the largest such increase on record.

The United States did not sign Kyoto, yet its emissions are not that different from the countries that did sign it.

Under the Paris agreement, every one of the 147 signatories issues what is called an 'intended nationally determined contribution' (INDC), which amounts to a promise that the nation will take certain actions to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by a certain date.

The U.K. has been at the forefront of developing the climate change policy architecture that can ensure climate action is integrated into economic decision making.

The UK is one of the only nations on earth that has actually met and even exceeded its goals under the Kyoto Protocol.

Carbon dioxide is natural, it is not harmful, it is a part of Earth's lifecycle. And yet we're being told that we have to reduce this natural substance, reduce the American standard of living, to create an arbitrary reduction in something that is naturally occurring in Earth.

If we're not in the debates there will be no real discussion of climate change, because Hillary Clinton's policy does not begin to address the threat.

I think that one of our most difficult international challenges is clearly climate change and making sure that the Paris agreement goes forward. While I think the international community understands that President Trump is not taking the same position as President Obama.

I think that the British government has long been on the record saying global warming is a very serious issue and we need to do something about it. I think what they did was they took their own economic experts and they said, "This time, let's try to put together a document that will really convince the rest of the world of a position that we've been holding for a while."

We have at most ten years—not ten years to decide upon action, but ten years to alter fundamentally the trajectory of global greenhouse emissions.

I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change. No longer than a decade at most.

I'm not against Kyoto. I just think it's a fantasy, especially considering China's energy predicament and their coal supplies.

I'm about to embark on what may be as important as an initiative as anything I do as President, trying to nudge the world in the direction of doing something serious about climate change.

I know it's absurd, but they're out saying so, and Hillary [Clinton] makes a big, big deal about climate change.

I think that the world will continue trying to grapple with the climate problem, no matter who is U.S. president. But I think that, depending on who that president is, it can have a significant influence on the trajectory.

Donald Trump thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it's real.

When the Kyoto Protocol enters into the force tomorrow, the world will take a significant and long-awaited first step towards stemming global warming. Instead of stepping forward as the world leader on climate change, however, the Bush Administration is clinging to the role of world obstructionist.

We really don't have a policy [on climate change]. There's a lot of rhetoric and not a lot of action.

The net-zero agenda, a set of targets and strategies by Western governments and climate diplomats to arrest global warming by limiting emissions, is the most audacious international effort in diplomatic history. It seeks to persuade or compel every country on the planet to make a transition to energy production that does not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The costs of the transition easily run into the trillions of dollars. The social and economic impact will transform everything from agriculture to manufacturing.

George W. cares as much about climate change as you would expect from a Texas oilman.

The Kyoto treaty has failed, and it's failed even in Europe, which has had cap and tax since 2005.