Over and over, we hear politicians say they can't spend our tax dollars on environmental protection when the economy is so fragile.

• Treaties, agreements and organizations to help settle disputes may be necessary, but they often favor the interests of business over citizens.
• We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.
• The damage that climate change is causing and that will get worse if we fail to act goes beyond the hundreds of thousands of lives, homes and businesses lost, ecosystems destroyed, species driven to extinction, infrastructure smashed and people inconvenienced.
• Doing all we can to combat climate change comes with numerous benefits, from reducing pollution and associated health care costs to strengthening and diversifying the economy by shifting to renewable energy, among other measures.
• From year to year, environmental changes are incremental and often barely register in our lives, but from evolutionary or geological perspectives, what is happening is explosive change.
• The medical literature tells us that the most effective ways to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and many more problems are through healthy diet and exercise. Our bodies have evolved to move, yet we now use the energy in oil instead of muscles to do our work.
• Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism.
• Outright bans on plastic bags may not be the best solution, but education and incentives to get people to stop using them are necessary.
• In the environmental movement, every time you lose a battle it's for good, but our victories always seem to be temporary and we keep fighting them over and over again.
• Over and over, we hear politicians say they can't spend our tax dollars on environmental protection when the economy is so fragile.