“If you have a president who’s really ready to bring about transformation, then you move forward courageously and go to the country, take it to the people.”

“We’re either going to move towards sustainability with a president who has the courage to stand up to big oil and coal interest groups, or we’re going to keep drifting along.”

“You prime the pump of the economy. You create millions of jobs by having people manufacture wind and solar technologies. This is doable, and it’s time to do it.”

“We’re losing our capacity for moral reasoning when we engage in resource wars. We need a president who rejects war as an instrument of policy, who believes peace and sustainability are one.”

“Imagine a president who has a real environmental conscience, who understands the world as one. This candidacy represents the potential for the profoundest change.”

“This [California] is obviously the perfect location for the first ever Presidential Forum to focus on the climate crisis.”

“The consequences are so dire that this election has to focus on this issue. We cannot afford to fiddle while the world warms because we have already seen and we know conclusively what that will do to us.”

“What we have seen for the last 7 years is a president that has dodged, denied and dissembled the most important global issue that we can directly address and act on.”

“When I speak to tens of thousands of people and say that we’ll do everything necessary to end our dependence on foreign oil, people cheer. When I add we will once and for all attack global warming—people sit there.”

“I have three major goals: first, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% from 1990 levels, by 2050. Second, to cut foreign oil imports by 2/3 by 2030. And third, to move from a carbon based economy to an efficient green economy by unleashing a wave of innovation in clean energy and energy efficiency.”

“Over the past three decades, California has held its electricity use per-person flat through practical steps to increase efficiency while energy demand in the rest of our country grew 50%.

“I think it’s important to start talking about green-collar jobs. Everybody knows about blue-collar jobs and white-collar jobs. We’re going to put five million Americans to work making America green.”

“That’s why this forum is so significant because we need lots and lots of people who come to presidential events asking questions, standing up and saying, ‘This is important to me, personally, this will influence my vote.’”

“I see the oil and gas companies blocking progress by spending millions of dollars and deploying hundreds of lobbyists in Washington to make sure that America stays addicted to foreign oil and fossil fuels.”

“It is a political strategy that is absolutely doomed to failure because we are never going to get the change we need by pretending that this is going to be easy and that no sacrifice will be required.”

“Right now, we’re not just turning a blind eye to global warming, we’re also missing an opportunity to lead the world and reclaim the spirit of American ingenuity that has driven great advances and helped us overcome great challenges in the past.”

“Why should foreign firms be the ones taking the lead in building wind farms here in America why is that not being done by American firms? If we take the steps that I propose, American entrepreneurs and manufacturers can lead the world in developing the green technology we need to generate clean, reliable energy and to use it more efficiently.”

“Families can come out ahead if they switch to renewable fuels, use energy efficiently and make smaller sacrifices in their own lives. I think we’re ready for that. I think, actually, the American people are ready for a president who calls on them to sacrifice and asked them to be patriotic about something other than war.”

“This is the moral test of our generation. Will we leave our children a better world than we found, as our parents and our grandparents did?”

“I think it’s a mistake to think of global warming out of the context of America being a credible leader. And I might add, a country that’s worthy of leadership. Because to be worthy of leadership as the most powerful nation on the planet, the world needs to see America meeting its responsibility, not just to our selfish needs, but our responsibility to humanity.”

“The most powerful thing, power that the president has is the ability to convince America, and to galvanize America around taking action.”

“A lot of you hear the same thing, people know that this is a problem, they don’t yet understand the crisis nature of the problem. I mean, they think of it as something that maybe we can do something about down the road. They have no concept, that urgent, immediate, bold action is required. And that’s where the presidential candidates come in, and that’s where the presidency comes in.”

“The California League of Conversation Voters Education Fund continues to be at the forefront, bringing together our policy makers, voters like you, our elected officials, business and labor, all working on this issue so that we know that we’ll have a life here in California and the rest of the world that we can pass on to our children and our children’s children.”

“I want to thank Los Angeles for showing up, for being here today, for sending the message to our candidates and the rest of the nation about the seriousness and importance of this issue.”

“Californians know how important this issue is. Poll after poll show that 84% of us believe it’s a serious problem. So the fact that we were able to put together a forum on global warming and our energy future in Los Angeles—the first serious discussion by our candidates—is amazing.”

“By being here today, Senator Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich are demonstrating a greater presence. Now I know the press is focused on Iowa and New Hampshire. These candidates came west because they understand that we can no longer kick the hard questions down the road.”

“Just last month across Southern California we were scorched by fires. With just 22% of normal rainfall, Californians can see and feel the future of a warming planet right outside of their own doors and windows. 500,000 people were evacuated - untold billions in property loss, more than 2,000 families homeless.”

“Last month the Bush Administration was caught red-handed, again suppressing the science of global warming. Left on that White House cutting room floor were six pages of findings on the diseases and maladies likely to thrive on a warming earth. Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you what this forum comes down to. It’s time we had somebody in the White House who actually believes in science.”

“It’s time for the United States of America to assume its rightful position of moral authority as the global leader on global warming. It’s time to take the keys to our federal regulatory agencies back from the industry lobbyists who have been taking scissors to the rules.”