MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Climate Change Science

Interview

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SCHULTZ: ...Joining me tonight, Congressman Raul Grijalva. Congressman, good to have
you with us tonight.

REP. RAUL GRIJALVA, (D) ARIZONA: Thank you, Ed.

SCHULTZ: The poll that is out there showing about -- and talking about the
moral obligation. What is going to move people in Congress where we would
actually do something? What kind of poll do we need? What kind of -- how
much more information does NASA have to give us at this point?

GRIJALVA: Well, NASA, the Pentagon, can give us tremendous information on
what climate change has going to do to the national defense of this issue
which is yet to be heard in Congress and in front of committees to deal
with Pentagon and armed forces.

But what it`s going to take is real information, empirical scientific
information, testimony from experts that brings to the House and to the
members of this Congress, both the Senate and the House, the information to
take this issue much more seriously and don`t just miss it simply because
it doesn`t tie into the political contributions that we are receiving from
corporations.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, what would you suggest right now?

GRIJALVA: You know, I`m not a scientist. So what I said in the hearing,
in the Natural Resources Committee, the scientists that are providing
testimony, I believe it to be empirical, I believe it to be correct. But
when the preponderance 97 percent to 98 percent of the scientists that
provide information and do research are telling us that climate change is
real, that man has a great deal to do with the consequences of climate
change, then that needs to be part of their testimony.

You know, our effort to try to get a disclosure is not an effort to try to
(inaudible) research or empirical information. It`s an effort to try to
get testimony that is not tainted (ph) by any other aspect, who funded it,
who didn`t fund it.

And I think that -- I was asking for empirical fact (ph) based in science
is not trying to stop research. Research can be done here and the Koch
brothers or Exxon (ph) want to fund their research, fine. Just disclose
that that`s who`s funding it. And so the American people can make their
own decisions.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, the old saying in the Midwest is, "When the locust`s
come, they eat everything." When a drought comes, it eats everything away
at the economy, and the Western portion of the United States is seeing
thing they haven`t seen for decades. How much of a strain is this going to
be on the economy when we`re -- we`re even fighting in Congress over
defending the country on the Department of Homeland Security.

I mean, what hope do we have that we`re going to be there to alleviate the
strains of going through this whether extremes?

GRIJALVA: I think the generational consequences for the American people
are serious and real. I`m from the Southwest, the (inaudible) Southwest,
more (inaudible) than it`s ever been before.

And climate is playing a role in limiting the ability to grow crops,
limiting the ability to have a growing economy that depends on water as its
primary source. You know, waters have finite resource and we`ve treated
like it something that`s going to be over there all the time.

And I think the big problem Congress has is it politicize climate change,
taking the size away from it. And now want to make it purely a political
issue.

It is not a political issue. It is an issue about the consequences that
the next two generation is going to have in this country. And dire
predictions are not out of realm.

SCHULTZ: Yeah. Congressman Raul Grijalva, always good to have you with us
on the Ed Show. Thank you so much. I would hope to...

GRIJALVA: Thank you, Ed. I appreciate it.

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