00:00It's time, my friends, to ready ourselves for battle.
00:04And good morning, delegates.
00:07I'm going to start with one word, zeta-joule.
00:15What is that, you may ask?
00:17Well, a joule is the unit of heat energy.
00:23Zeta means that it has 21 zeros behind it.
00:31Not a billion joules, not a trillion joules, but a billion trillion joules.
00:42A billion trillions.
00:44A massive amount of heat.
00:48All the energy generated in a year by all humankind across all planet Earth adds up to only half a
01:02zeta-joule.
01:04And the price we pay for the fossil fuel component of that half zeta-joule is that 14 zeta-joules
01:16of excess heat go into our oceans every year.
01:22Multiple Hiroshima bombs worth of excess heat per second.
01:32Per second.
01:34This is part of the uncounted price of fossil fuel energy.
01:41Those of you who have coasts know what fossil fuel is doing to our oceans.
01:47The rising seas, the displaced fisheries, the dying coral reefs, the worsening storms.
01:55Every energy question is subordinate to the question of whether we will protect Earth's natural systems from unbounded fossil fuel
02:08pollution.
02:08The damage humanity sustains from fossil fuels in climate-driven floods and wildfires has a leading indicator in the insurance
02:22sector.
02:24Markets predict.
02:28Across my country, and probably yours, climate risks are making whole regions uninsurable.
02:37In my country, and perhaps yours, that means people's properties are becoming unmortgageable.
02:47And for most homeowners, that means a significant drop in the value of their property, of their home.
02:58This is a warning, but it is not my warning.
03:03There are many very clear financial warnings.
03:08They warn of a cascade.
03:11Climate risk crashes insurance markets.
03:14Insurance collapse crashes mortgage markets.
03:18Mortgage collapse crashes property values.
03:21And general economic recession follows.
03:26Like the global crash of 2008.
03:30Except likely without the rebound.
03:34These warnings aren't from green groups.
03:37They aren't from liberal groups.
03:39They aren't from progressive groups.
03:42They're coming from the top of the financial sector.
03:46From the top of big mortgage companies like Freddie Mac.
03:51Big insurers like Allianz and Aon.
03:56Key banks like the Federal Reserve and Bank of England.
04:01Even the International Financial Stability Board.
04:07Economist magazine has warned of a climate-driven $25 trillion hit.
04:15to real estate markets.
04:19You can look at my summary of those warnings.
04:22And a report on climate's effect on U.S. insurance markets.
04:27On the website for this event.
04:32The author, Ernest Hemingway, wrote about going bankrupt.
04:39Happening gradually and then all at once.
04:44This crash could well happen all at once.
04:49And it could happen soon.
04:52This is real.
04:54For our own safety, we need to get more serious about the politics of climate change
04:59if we're going to head this off.
05:00The fossil fuel industry fights fiercely to pollute for free.
05:07Its pollute for free business model is not only morally and economically a sin and a subsidy.
05:17It is now lethal to our climate safety as humankind.
05:25But they won't give it up.
05:27They depend on polluting for free.
05:29So a battle looms.
05:32In a battle, my friends, you need to know your adversary.
05:38Everywhere, fossil fuel operates through front groups.
05:43In most places, fossil fuel funds far-right groups as paid allies.
05:53Vladimir Putin's covert schemes in Europe both disrupt democracy and prop up fossil fuel, his primary revenue.
06:06In the United States, the political right fueled by dark money still denies climate science.
06:14So that is the enemy arrayed against you.
06:19Fossil fuel and all its front groups and dark money.
06:23Vladimir Putin and all of Russia's anti-democracy petro-state mischief.
06:29And far-right political groups that deny climate change.
06:35We face climate peril as fossil fuel disrupts Earth's natural systems.
06:43And we face the more immediate, systemic economic peril that prefigures it.
06:50So we must face up now to the political peril.
06:56The political peril right now of the fossil fuel industry.
07:01Its armada of front groups.
07:04Its political meddling through far-right groups it funds.
07:08It funds and the malign influence of the petro-state, Russia.
07:15Collectively, they amount to a new axis of evil.
07:21Determined to ruin society's ability to meet the climate challenge that fossil fuel pollution causes.
07:31It is time, my friends, to ready ourselves for battle.
07:37When the Zeta Jewels pile up and something very bad happens all at once,
07:45we will bitterly regret any failure to prepare and any failure to fight.
07:54Thank you very much.
08:01Thank you, Senator, for this call for action and for sharing your...
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