Global Issue Quotes

“The point is that there is tremendous hypocrisy among the Christian right. And I think that Christian voters should start looking at global warming and extreme poverty as a religious issue that speaks to the culture of life.”

— Al Franken

“Global health issues remind us - perhaps more than any other issue - that we are all children of the same extended family.”

— Kathleen Sebelius

“Adoption is a global issue these days - it's certainly current - and it's encouraging for a lot of couples whether they're straight or gay.”

— Sara Ramirez

“Measles is probably the best argument for why there needs to be global health, and why we have to think about it as a global public good. Because in a sense, measles is the canary in the coal mine for immunization. It is, you know, highly transmissible. The vaccine costs 15 cents, so it's not - you know, shouldn't be an issue in terms of cost.”

— Seth Berkley

“The question of whether or to what extent human activities are causing global warming is not a matter of ideology, let alone of belief. The issue is simply one of risk management.”

— Malcolm Turnbull

“There isn't a more important issue in the world than global warming. Even the Cold War and the Bay of Pigs crisis were a notional threat.”

— Simon Beaufoy

“The Administration should never have walked away from the Kyoto Treaty. Global warming is real and it is here today. The facts aren't the issue. The policy is the issue. I think the Administration's policy on global warming is dead wrong.”

— Ted Kulongoski

“The best way to really make the VPN issue a completely nonissue is through global licensing that we are continuing to pursue with our partners.”

— Ted Sarandos

“And like I say, I think we've got other cases other than Iraq. I do not think the problem of global proliferation of weapons technology of mass destruction is going to go away, and that's why I think it is an urgent issue.”

— David Kay

“Corruption is not a problem just for some countries; this is a global issue.”

— Nguyen Tan Dung

“I don't think there's any other issue out there that young people are more passionate, and more ahead in, than global warming.”

— Jose Antonio Vargas

“Rush Holt would be a fine senator. He's an actual physicist, which is neat. He cares very strongly about global warming, which is probably the single most pressing issue of our era.”

— Alex Pareene

“In a situation where many national leaders do the same thing and look out for national interests, and with an issue like global warming, you're likely to get no solution, so I think you have to have some kind of ethical trump on some of those issues.”

— Peter Singer

“I think Al Gore has done a great service in making global warming cool. He's basically taken it from a nerdy, almost ignored issue to making it what it is - namely, a problem.”

— Bjorn Lomborg

“Climate change is a global issue - from the point of view of the Earth's climate, a molecule of CO2 emitted in Bejing is the same as a molecule emitted in Sydney.”

— Jeff Goodell

“Global warming is a political issue. It is as much a political issue to the left as abortion is. It's as big a political issue as health care is.”

— Rush Limbaugh

“There's not going to be any one replacement for oil: we need to have hundreds of solutions to this global issue.”

— Craig Venter

“The fight against global warming is a humanitarian issue - how the planet can be preserved - and it is also an issue of considerable economic importance, of what we call green growth.”

— Francois Hollande

“Google will be obliged either to accept Chinese regulations or exit the world's largest Internet market, with serious consequences for its long-term global ambitions. This is a metaphor for our times: America's most dynamic company cannot take on the Chinese government - even on an issue like free and open information - and win.”

— Martin Jacques

“At issue is not whether the global economy will pass away. It is passing away. Rising populations and debt combined with depletion of freshwater sources and fossil fuel make the status quo untenable. The only question is whether civil society will survive the transition.”

— Daniel Suarez

“Climate is a global issue. Coal is still the energy that is being used more than anything else to make electricity. The United States is using less as we're turning more to gas. But, around the world, that's what they're using.”

— Ian Bremmer

“I'm a geophysicist who has conducted and published climate studies in top-rank scientific journals. My perspective on Mr. Inhofe and the issue of global warming is informed not only by my knowledge of climate science but also by my studies of the history and philosophy of science.”

— David Deming

“Global warming causing climate change may be the ultimate issue that unites us all.”

— Louise Burfitt-Dons

“That's just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.”

— Dick Costolo

“Global warming, you don't win it. It's this weird steady-state issue that's going to be with us for a few thousand years.”

— Douglas Rushkoff

“One group of scholars or persons, most of them politically motivated, say the Holocaust occurred. Then there is the group of scholars who represent the opposite position and have therefore been imprisoned for the most part. Hence, an impartial group has to come together to investigate and to render an opinion on this very important subject, because the clarification of this issue will contribute to the solution of global problems.”

— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

“Globalization is a complex issue, partly because economic globalization is only one part of it. Globalization is greater global closeness, and that is cultural, social, political, as well as economic.”

— Amartya Sen

“Global warming is a justice issue. It's a justice issue because global warming is theft - theft from our own children and grand children, of their right to a livable future. It's a justice issue, because its victims are, and will be, disproportionately poor and of color, those least able to contend with or to flee, the storms, droughts, famines, and rising tides of global warming.”

— Fred Small

“We appear to be overplaying this global warming issue as global warming is nothing new. It has happened in the past, not once but several times, giving rise to glacial-interglacial cycles.”

— Bangalore Puttaiya Radhakrishna

“In the midst of global crises such as pollution, wars and famine, kindness may be too easily dismissed as a 'soft' issue, or a luxury to be addressed after the urgent problems are solved. But kindness is the greatest need in all those areas - kindness toward the environment, toward other nations, toward the needs of people who are suffering. Until we reflect basic kindness in everything we do, our political gestures will be fleeting and fragile.”

— Bo Lozoff

“We've got to ride the global-warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.”

— Tim Wirth

“Global warming is such a politically charged issue that we are losing our perspective on the issue and more importantly losing an open forum from which to discuss the issue. If we lose the right or comfort level to openly discuss and debate this issue we will not be able to tackle it efficiently and economically.”

— Topper Shutt

“I'm convinced that after years of studying the phenomenon, global warming is not the real issue of temperature. That is the issue of a new ideology or a new religion. A religion of climate change or a religion of global warming. This is a religion which tells us that the people are responsible for the current, very small increase in temperatures. And they should be punished.”

— Vaclav Klaus

“Global warming competes with cancer and competes with AIDS for a finite amount of money. Nobody ever won that fight by saying: My issue isn't important.”

— Patrick Michaels

“The real issue is control. The Internet is too widespread to be easily dominated by any single government. By creating a seamless global economic zone, anti-sovereign and unregulatable, the Internet calls into question the very idea of a nation-state.”

— John Perry Barlow

“Climate change is a crucial issue in todays global agenda. Hopefully, we will wake up to this reality, sooner rather than later. Pressure has been mounting on European Union Member States to act decisively to fight global warming. A bold target has been set reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20 by 2020.”

— Joseph Muscat

“Global poverty is one of the most pressing moral challenges we face today. Yet, it's more than just a moral problem that billions of people around the world are struggling to survive. It is also in our national security interests that we reduce global poverty. Populations that struggle in extreme poverty are more likely to become mired in destabilizing conflicts, or worse, become havens or recruiting grounds for terrorist organizations. This is an issue that we cannot afford to neglect.”

— Adam Smith

“I have to admit that, until recently, I was somewhat wary of the (global) warming debate. I believe it is now our responsibility to take the lead on this issue.”

— Rupert Murdoch

“It seems strangely difficult for some to realize that here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest, and that we have joined the issue thus raised on the battlefield; that here we fight Europe's war with arms while the diplomats there still fight it with words; that if we lose the war to communism in Asia the fall of Europe is inevitable, win it and Europe most probably would avoid war and yet preserve freedom. As you pointed out, we must win. There is no substitute for victory.”

— Douglas MacArthur

“Their [American banks] big issue will be if they want to deal with the biggest companies, which are doing a lot of business overseas. How they do that is a big question. It's almost impossible to build a global investment bank from scratch. If they want to do that, they probably will have to do an acquisition.”

— Jamie Dimon

“Certainly whatever climate change and global warming means, we've got a big issue here. Right now, this civilization or this period that we're in is probably going to need the resources off our planet, perhaps the resources from the asteroids, perhaps there will be some on the moon, perhaps some on Mars that we can utilize for our own uses here.”

— Edgar Mitchell

“I'm not a philanthropist. While I care about the poor, the issue of local or global poverty doesn't keep me up at night.”

— Andy Stanley

“Asian Homo erectus died without issue and does not enter our immediate ancestry (for we evolved from African populations); Neanderthal people were collateral cousins, perhaps already living in Europe while we emerged in Africa ... In other words, we are an improbable and fragile entity, fortunately successful after precarious beginnings as a small population in Africa, not the predictable end result of a global tendency. We are a thing, an item of history, not an embodiment of general principles.”

— Stephen Jay Gould

“It is clear that the American people are weary of war. However, Assad gassing his own people is an issue of our national security, regional stability and global security.”

— Nancy Pelosi

“California will not wait for our federal government to take strong action on global warming. We won't wait for the federal government. We will move forward because we know it's the right thing to do. We will lead on this issue and we will get other western states involved. I think there's not great leadership from the federal government when it comes to protecting the environment.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

“But here is the heart of the moral issue for many of us. Simply put, those around the world who have contributed least to global warming and climate change will be the most and first to be impacted by the consequences of it all. Sadly, it's an old story. We, the affluent, create the problem, and the poor pay the price for our sins. It is wrong, and it is a sin-ours.”

— Jim Wallis

“I've often said that global climate change is an issue where no one has the luxury of being "half-pregnant." You either are or you aren't. And so it is with climate change. You either understand and accept the science - or you don't. Folks this isn't a cafeteria where you can pick and choose and accept the science that tells us what is happening, but then reject the science that warns us what will happen.”

— John F. Kerry

“I know that when I look at today's Mexicans and Central Americans, they seem to me fundamentally the same as my grandparents seeking a better life in America. On the other side, however, open immigration can't coexist with a strong social safety net; if you're going to assure health care and a decent income to everyone, you can't make that offer global. So Democrats have mixed feelings about immigration; in fact, it's an agonizing issue.”

— Paul Krugman

“Every single social and global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise”

— Peter Drucker

“The beautiful faces of the children I've met in Rwanda and in other countries are with me every day and fuel my passion to raise awareness of the global hunger issue. That's why I'm urging everyone to join me and #PassTheRedCup for Yum! Brands' World Hunger Relief effort. Together we can move millions of children from hunger to hope.”

— Christina Aguilera