now almost a year later, a lot has happened in executing on the commitments made in and the department of interior has announced its permitting of the 50th renewable energy project on federal lands during this administration, and the department of energy has issued multiple, new energy efficiency standards. the department of agriculture has announced seven new hubs to adapt operations to a change in climate, and the administration launched in this room and not very long ago a climate data initiative, bringing together open data and design competitions with strong commitments from the private and philanthropic communities in order to develop data-driven planning and resilience tools for communities, and i should say the climate data initiative and the results of this extraordinary study are coming

together, and all of the information that the study has developed will be available on the web, again, in user-friendly, accessible forms, to provide people with the toormation they will need reduce their vulnerability. of course, as you all well know, the president has instructed the environmental protection agency to develop standards both for new power plants, which have already been put out there, and soon, there will be standards proposed for discussion on and heatpower plants trapping gases, so this is a lot of progress. we also announced a few months ago a new study to reduce methane emissions which involves quantifying the emissions, committing to new steps to cut the emissions of that potent greenhouse gas, and outlining a set of actions going forward to improve the measurements so we can tell exactly how well we are doing.

i would say, is what progress is supposed to look like, and today's events around this extraordinary assessment are another big step. as i think probably everybody in the room knows, a critical piece of the presidents climate action plan is assuring we continue our steady pace to strengthen the science that informs and underpins the actions that we ofe to address the threat climate change and ensuring as we do that that we pursue the insights and information that are most relevant and useful to the people who need that information. we are talking about the folks who in some sense are on the frontlines of climate change. the coastal property owners, the farmers, the city planners, the water resource managers, and others whose livelihoods and his day-to-day decisions and who is longer-term planning needs to be informed i the best data available, knowledge about what is happening today in climate

change and what is likely to come down the road, and what can likely be done to reduce vulnerability, and this assessment that we are releasing today, as you might imagine, from its extraordinary links, 839 pages, i think, on the web, is a virtual encyclopedia of that essential information. the report was four plus years in the making and produced under the auspices of the u.s. global change program with 13 federal agencies and departments involved in that, and leadership -- nooa. noa some 300eam included individuals, and i would not even care to count the number of reviewers in one of the most transparent processes in the history of government.

and that effort, that extraordinary effort, which levels, people from all academia, nonprofits, it has accountinguced this of what climate change is already doing in every geographic region in the united states and the most effective sectors of our economy. the single most important bottom line that shines through all of these hundreds of pages is that climate change is not a distant threat. it is something that is happening now and is affecting the american people now in important ways. longer on the whole are snd hotter with longer period of heat, and wildfires continue into the fall, and rain is theng down in many areas of country with heavier downpours, and people are experiencing more seasonal allergies, and there are effects of water resources

that have been growing. again, of course, the key insight of this report is it is not the same everywhere. climate change is having different impacts in different parts of the country, and that is why it is so important that this study based on advancing science over the last five years has been able to disaggregate the ongoing and expected impacts regionally. obama launched his climate action plan, he made clear that the information in this new climate assessment would be used, and it will be used, to inform the effort of the federal, state, and local levels to increase preparedness for and resilience against the impacts of climate change which can no longer be avoided, and this report is not just a bad news story about all of the impacts that are happening. it is a good news story about the many opportunities to take cost-effective actions to reduce the damages.

i want to acknowledge a number of folks, including the stakeholders in this room, who have gathered to hear about this, and who will be crucial promoting,g out and propagating, and implementing the findings of this report. we are grateful for all of your engagement, but i do want to thank four key individuals, without whom this report would never have come to fruition, and kathy sullivan, the administrator of the undersecretary of commerce, who you will hear from later in the noaa, and her predecessor, who regrets she could not be here, but i spoke with her last evening, and she handed the reins over to kathy sullivan from jayne's earlier involvement in this extraordinary effort, and, 'sain, without noaa

partnership, and, needless to say, money, this study would not have been completed. the chair of the national climate assessment development advisory committee, affectionately called the nac a dac fac. jerry in aar from moment, as well. at the jacobs, who was the first executive director of the assessment, whose vision and made this thelly most transparent climate assessment ever and who kept the trains running on time for more than two years. she was a great contributor, and then her successor, who seamlessly picked up the ball and saw this report over the finish line with dedication, focus, and competence. i think to these folks and to the entire national climate assessment team, the 300

authors, the even more numerous reviewers, i think we owe them a big vote of thanks, and i want to believe that. -- lead to that. [applause] and to the rest of you who are here today, partners and institutions standing ready to disseminate and communicate the findings of this report and this message that we need to take action, and we can take action. of you here to absorb the energy and enthusiasm and carry it back, share it with your constituencies, share it with your communities, and this is, in a sense, a new beginning of this effort to reach out all across the country and incentivize and organize the kinds of actions that we need. we asked people to visit globalchange.gov to see with the climate is doing in the regions

where they live and work, ask them to share those further, and invite them to share stories about what their communities are doing by using the #act onclimate. strap onll wrap up and my master of ceremonies hat and proceed to the introduction of the next speaker, who is none jerry,han the dr., and surprised to say, given the enormous amount of work that he had to put in to help bring this study over the finish line, actually has a day job. he is a distinguished scientist and director emeritus at the marine biological laboratory, and he also just about a week ago received the distinction of being elected to the u.s. national academy of sciences, so, jerry, please accept my thanks and my congratulations, and please accept the podium. [applause]

and first, let me thank you all for being here. day fora long-awaited many of the members, authors, and all of our partners. it has been a team effort, and we really appreciate all that it have done over, i think has been four years, not just two, said thank you very much. to repeat this. climate change, once thought of as a problem for the future, has moved firmly into the present. the take on this is that it is happening now, and we need to

pay attention. it is affecting us in our pocket and on our land, in every region of the united states. lives ofnging the farmers, mayors, engineers, town planners, truckers, and forrester's. this national climate assessment looks exclusively at the united states, breaking it down as mentioned into eight distinct regions. in contrast to the global assessments that look at north america as a single region. the national climate assessment digs deeper than global and national averages to reveal specific regional impacts that matter to people every day. this report is about what is happening to people in this country. with five more years of observed data since the last assessment, and, by the way, a few of us, i have beenrs and

with this assessment process have the beginning, and we tracked its progress. this new report reveals specific climate-related changes and cumulative impacts already occurring in every region and in economics that are such as health, agriculture, energy, water, and transportation. the report also reveals linkages among the impacts in cross sectors, and this is something new in this report. for example, reduced water availability in already arid regions can increase competition for water resources among uses such as your addition, electricity production, and the needs of the ecosystem to oftain us, and this effort beginning to think about sectors is across something that we hope will continue, because it is absolutely a critical area for study.

this assessment is the result of a remarkably inclusive national process, as john mentioned, a lot of that thanks to kathy. the teams were made up of top experts from around the country and elsewhere. we had one australian member on our team, as a matter of fact. wereands of people involved, participating in listening sessions, providing technical inputs, and producing and reviewing the report, including reviews by the national academy of sciences and other scholars, federal agencies, and the public area the multi-year process, as john mentioned, was guided by an independent federal advisory committee that included experts from universities, federal, state, and local government and industry, including monsanto, chevron, conoco phillips, and zürich insurance. this committee reached unanimous agreement on the report's

contents after very serious consideration. will find things that matter to them in this report, from impacts in their own regions to those elsewhere that affect the air we breathe and our food, water, and energy supplies. the cost ofearing the increases in extreme heat, heavy downpours, and higher coastal storm surges. for decades, we have been collecting the dots. now, we have connected those dots. the picture is clear, and it is stark. change is bringing serious challenges to our way of but that is only the beginning of the story. as john mentioned, there are opportunities, and there is a lot that can be done about it. across the country, americans are already taking action.

the good news is that many of the actions taken to reduce climate change and its impacts have a variety of additional benefits for our health and for our economy. to changetill late our emissions path and reduce future climate change and its impact. the choices we make or do not make today will shape our future, climate, and the sustainability of our way of life. want to spend several minutes highlighting a few examples of what is new in the 2014 national climate assessment. this is a question we have been asked a lot by our friends in the press. scientific analysis using satellite data since the early 1990's shows that sea level rise has accelerated in some areas of the globe, including the coast north of cape hatteras.

with so many of our cities line on low lying coastlines, this matter is of tremendous importance. in 2012, the one foot sea level rise in new york city, which they already experienced, meant that the floodwaters from sandy surged further inland and did more damage than they otherwise would have. coastal flooding is also affecting many other east coast cities on a regular basis. occasional flooding has become ,requent in some of the cities and in others, frequent flooding. responses to chronic flooding can be expensive. is example, miami beach planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to reengineer storm drains in parts of the city to carry away seawater that backs up in the drains and floods the streets of that city. the link between climate change and sea level rise are clear.

trapping gases continuing to build up in our atmosphere, the oceans are absorbing more than 90% of the extra heat trapped in the climate system. causesses of -- this ocean waters to expand, and in aretion, mountain glaciers rapidly retreating, which adds water to the oceans. however, in giant, the sea level rise equation has been ice in the major ice regions of greenland and antarctica. the latest science, again using satellite data, shows us that the giant is no longer asleep. are nowthese ice sheets losing mass. how quickly they melt over the coming decades will determine whether we have an additional one foot of sea level rise or up to four feet and perhaps even more. another major change in our climate rot about by human-induced warming is the

increase in heavy downpours. this is clearly an area in which recent observations have been borne out our previous projections. our scientific understanding told us that a warmer atmosphere would hold more moisture, and we measured that, and, indeed, it is happening. we also predicted that the increase in water vapor would mean that more of the rain would come down in heavy events, and now we have seen that happen. some regions, like the northeast and midwest, have seen very large increases in the amounts of rain falling and the heaviest events. in the future, even areas that are projected to see decreases in total amounts of annual rainfall are expected to see significant increases in the proportion of that rain coming in very heavy events. seen isthing we have that the areas that have had big

increases in precipitation have also had increases in flooding. river flooding over the last 90 years have decreased from the southwest and increased in the great plains, parts of the midwest, and from the northern appalachians into new england. we are also seeing increased flooding. showsp on the screen increasing trends in floods in green and decreasing trends of floods in brown. the magnitude of the floods is related to the size of the triangles. of course, global warming also means that our nation has gotten hotter on average. areas seeing bigger changes than others, that it is not the average that we noticed so much but rather the extremes. in recent decades, we have had fewer really cold days and more really hot ones, and that has had many important impacts. been onhese impacts has the amount of energy we use for heating and cooling.

first, the good news. we needed less energy for heating. but now, for the bad news. we have needed a lot more energy for cooling. heating energy comes from heating oil, wood, electricity, and other sources. is all electricity. that means some of the new peaks in demand for electricity for air conditioning in the future are going to present serious challenges for our electric utilities. information in the assessment advances our understanding of the challenges that climate change presents for the american people. the assessment provides americans with firm scientific buildtions upon which to wise responses for themselves, their communities, and the nation. thank you. [applause]

this time, we are going to begin our panel, and we have the moderator of the panel for him wesleyan university. he has been called away sooner than we thought, so i would like to ask gary and the panel to join us up here on the podium, short will begin with a set of statements by each of the panelists, and then we will take our questions from stakeholders. so, gary, i am going to turn this over to you. >> thank you, jerry. thank you all for coming. talks to panel

specific findings in the third national climate assessment, and i think what you will take away from this is that this panel inclusionse specific of the third national climate assessment, that, indeed, every american will find things that matter to him or her in this report. that, i will ask each of the panelists to introduce him or herself, and you have three minutes. >> thank you, gary. i am a professor at the university of illinois home a and i was involved in the assessment in a number of different ways, including heading and collating the chapter on the climate science causing our changing climate. what i am going to do is talk little bit about the climate and why we seeg

human activities as being the primary cause of that change. first of all, there are many indicators that the climate is changing. each of the last three decades, it has been successfully -- successively warmer, and overall, a world has seen an increase of about 1.5 degrees fahrenheit increase since the late 1800's. a similaras seen temperature increase over this period. most of this increase has occurred since 1970. the most recent decade was the hottest on record both nationally and worldwide, and 2012 was the hottest year on record in the continental united states. all u.s. regions have experienced warming in the decades, but to that extent, warming has not been uniform. in general, temperatures are rising more quickly in the north, meanwhile, average precipitation across the u.s. has increased, although there

are important regional differences. episodes of extreme weather have increased, and temperatures have increased at several locations. heavy downpours are increasing nationally, especially in the northeast, midwest, and great plains. some regions have seen an increase in droughts, while some such as the northeast and west have seen more floods. natural drivers of climate cannot explain these changes. these changes are not due to the sun. they are not caused by natural cycles. the majority of the warming of the global scale over the last 50 years can only be explained by the effects of human influences, especially the effects of burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. this conclusion that human influences are the primary driver of recent climate changes based on independent evidence.

one is a fundamental understanding of how certain gases trap heat, how the climate system response to increases in these gases, and how other human and natural factors influence climate. another reason comes from reconstruction of past climates, using evidence such as tree and corals. it shows temperatures over the past several decades are clearly unusual. the last decade warmer than anytime in the last 1300 years and perhaps much longer. another line of evidence comes from using models to simulate the climate of the past century. natural factors like the sun and volcanic activity would have slightly cooled the earth in the last 50 years, and other natural aberrations are too small to explain the amount of warming. only when the human influences are included to we represent in the models the increases we have seen over this period.

thank you. >> thank you, gary, and dom. i am the director of the national climate data center at noaa, and i also chair a global research program. today, i am going to try to paint a picture of you of the expected changes in climate taste on the present path of global greenhouse gas emissions. willof this information we talk about, not all, but much is based on improved climate with higher resolution, more processes represented, so let me just highlight a few aspects of future climate expected by the end of this century. first, for temperature, it is going to be hotter. on average, about eight degrees fahrenheit warmer. compare that to the warmth of the increasing warming temperatures we have seen, with

the order of 1.5 degrees since the turn of the 20th century, and temperature changes up 215 degrees warmer in alaska. cold will be fewer extremes and many more hot extremes. there will be fewer frost days, with the frost preseason increasing between 30 to 70 days depending on location. for precipitation, the moist areas ofl get wetter in an order 10 to 30%. the arid areas will get drier in the order of 20 -- 10 to 20%. as a result, soil moisture will be reduced in much of the country, particularly in the southwest and the central u.s. due to hotter temperatures increasing evaporation rates. to go along with this, a number of consecutive dry days are expected to increase while at andsame time the frequency intensity of extreme

precipitation events is expected to increase across much of the continental u.s., up to every war times more than what we see at the present and as much as six times greater in alaska. for severement thunderstorms is expected to become more favorable in the future. intense hurricanes are expected to become stronger and more frequent, with rainfall rates increasing in an order of 20% near the center of the storms. the global sea level rise is expected to increase in an order of one to effort you are feet, with even greater rises where land is subsiding. summer sea ice, summer is expected to -- some is expected to disappear by 2050 of this century. the bottom line, the path we are on results in a climate far different than anything civilization has experienced. thanks.

thanks, tom. my name is radley horton, and i am happy to speak to you about the findings of the northeast region, one of the eight regions covered by this report. in the northeast, we have seen sea level rise of about a foot in the past century and it also seen temperatures increase by almost two degrees fahrenheit over the past century, and these heavy downpours that we have heard about are now producing on the average of 70% more rainfall than they were just half a century or so ago. if climate changes are already leading to impact throughout the northeast and beyond, when we think about the impacts of sea level rise, the central part of that, the central range of that projection that time just mentioned, two to three feet, it would more than triple the frequency of coastal flooding throughout the northeast and beyond, even if storms do not become any stronger. for some places like new york city, what may have been a one would year event, it

become something you would expect during the life of the typical mortgage, even if storms do not become stronger. northeast, we have critical infrastructure right along our dense coastline. our iconicom transportation networks, interstate 95, amtrak, commuter rail networks, the electric grid, substations along the coast, wastewater treatment plants along the coast, all increasingly vulnerable as the letters -- as sea levels rise. commerce, human safety, and as he heard, leads to expensive repairs, as well. as we saw during hurricane sandy, all of these infrastructure networks are connected. if one part of that system goes down if we have electrical grid failures, it cascades into other systems. it is harder to pump water out, for example, when the electric grid goes down. another important risk to

highlight is the danger associated with more frequent heat waves as temperatures rise. we know that the very young, the elderly, and some of our disadvantaged populations are most vulnerable, and as temperatures rise, cities have unique vulnerabilities. air quality is often poor winter mergers are really hot, and there is a greater risk of power going out as we see increased demand for air-conditioning, but it is not just the cities that are going to be vulnerable, because as temperatures rise, some of the northern areas in the past who have not needed air-conditioning as much will be increasingly relying on it. intensealso, precipitation events pose some unique hazards for some of our inland and rural regions. we look at some of the mountain regions in the northeast. a lot of the human populations, transportation, agriculture is concentrated in valleys. with more of those heavy rain events, there is a risk of more flooding. more overflow

events, more failure of sewer systems, and a public hazard throughout the northeast and beyond. but it is important to highlight we have opportunities, as well. cities and states have shown leadership in thinking about these climate risks, and we have seen ambitious efforts to begin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and we have seen steps to adapt to these climate changes as well. in general though, implementation is at early stages. fortunately, this report offers a range of strategies to help close those gaps. thank you. >> thank you. and everyone. it is a pleasure and honor to be with all of you today and my colleagues here. thes one of the authors on human health chapter, and i just want to say when we talk about human health, climate change becomes very personal. we have always thought of climate change as something that happens to someone else, but now we know it is happening to us,

right now, and there are a few ways that climate change is fueling some of the most important kinds of extreme weather events that really affect people's health. my colleagues have mentioned extreme rainfall events, those big delusions that send lots and lots of rain. in fact, in the northeast, where i live, where i am from, there has been a 71% increase in the amount of rainfall that comes down in the most extreme rainfall events. in the last 50 years, the hospital that i was born in in upstate new york in bennington was floodedn, it after torrential rains, and those kind of rainfall events are projected to increase fivefold in the future. and radley mentioned heat waves, and those are a big concern, being fueled by lima change again, and extreme heat also causes drought risk and wired fire risk. it is not just an inconvenience.

it can be lethal. it can send thousands of people to emergency rooms, as it has done in the past. another dimension of this, there are millions of people in our country who are more vulnerable to the effects of heat and climate effects, and that in claims -- includes millions of people 60 60 five and older, and we are all getting older, as nature has it, our youngest americans, people living in economic disadvantage, some communities of color, people who already have breathing and heart and lung problems, so people already struggling to stay healthy are going to find that more of a struggle as climate change continues. as an example, today is world absent today. there are 26 million people that have asthma. -- today is world asthma day. attacks,igger asthma pollen, and it is even increasing the amount of time

plants produce the pollen longer, and already since 1995, there is been a two to three week increase in the ragweed oflen production in a swap states in the central u.s. and canada, and that matters to people who have asthma, but we have huge opportunities, as my colleagues have said, to make improvements that affect us all, and the assessment report really focuses on those opportunities. as an example, if we reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use to get energy, we stand 2, 1, reduce air pollution that we generate from that activity right now. that is a win for health today. two, we get a double benefit because we can reduce heat gases, and that is a win for our children for the future, and if we step back from taking every short trip to school, to work, to business in cars and substitute i-team, walking paths, more public

transit, we get a chance for more physical activity. that is triple. we stand to establish all kinds wins for public health, so we stand at a crossroads with the body of science we have collected thanks to the work of many scientists to make informed decisions about where we go from here and trying to create a future that really has a human face on it and that is healthier and more secure, and so i am really honored to be a part of that conversation with all of you. thank you. >> thank you, dr.. i am the co-author of the agriculture chapter. theme of theg agriculture chapter is that crop and animal agriculture producers in the u.s. are already facing increased challenges from changes in climate. to put this into context, u.s. agriculture is very diverse, with most regions having crops and animals that are highly adapted to local climate

conditions. local temperature, rainfall, and soils did they crops are growing and where. likewise, animal agriculture allows for grazing opportunities and more comfort and low disease potential. specialization and intensification that has increase productivity have also tightened the relationship to train agriculture and climate. i am from,est, where we have more rain coming in the first half of the year and less in the second half. we have a 40 year trend of increased extreme rainfall events that are delaying or preventing the planting of soybeans and corn. a rising concern about the increase in soil erosion accompanying these extreme rainy vents. are facingproducers a different but analogous set of challenges, including drought and heat, impacts on vegetable production. on the other hand, there has been a decline in the last 50

years in the number of chilling hours necessary for trees and fruits and grades to maintain high production. instance, thator require at least 900 chilling hours between growing seasons no longer meets the minimum chilling requirements in some parts of california to to warmer winters in the last half-century. oklahomas of texas and in 2011 experienced more than 100 days over 100 degrees fahrenheit, with most states setting new high temperature records, and rates of water loss were double the long-term average, depleting water resources and contribute in more than $10 billion in direct losses to agriculture. these trends in temperature and precipitation that pose threats to agricultural production observed over the u.s. are likely to continue and become much more severe under the high carbon emissions scenarios. these trends are consistent with the global trend of dry regions

getting drier and hotter and wetter regions getting wetter and more humid. all such trends pose threats to u.s. agriculture. farmers are beginning to connect the dots and recognize that local climates underpinning their multigenerational livelihoods and rural agribusiness communities are changing. seekare forced to increasingly more costly strategies to adapt to these changes in order to maintain profitability. century under current climate in mission trends, it is unlikely that adaptation strategies will be sufficient to avoid the negative impacts to most u.s. crop and livestock production. thank you. >> thank you. good afternoon. myname is suzanne, and it is great honor to introduce you to the coastal chapter. the essence of the story that we are trying to tell in the

coastal chapter is actually quite simple. it simply says what happens to our coast will happen to our nation. more than half of the american public lives in a coastal county, producing nearly 60% of gross domestic product. nine out of the 10 consumer products that you used in your house today, in your home, came through one of our nation's ports. tank, ift gas in your you bought seafood today for dinner, well, then, you are inextricably linked to what happens at our shores. it is facts like that that makes it clear that he will feel the climate change on our shores. do not liveay you in portsmouth, new hampshire, or wherek, virginia, or streets regularly flooded during particularly high tides already, so you do not live in cape cod or on hawaii, where the salt water already pushes into

coastal groundwater reservoirs that people depend on, or, let's say you do not live in the bayous of southern louisiana, onee every 24 minutes, football field worth of land is lost forever as an impact of sinking land and rising seas, and it might come as a surprise noyou that climate change is longer a hypothetical threats in some distant future. as we speak, it already leads to intermittent disruptions for businesses and everyday life, and it is already an expensive headache for those maintaining our coastal roads and sewage plants, and it is already eroding away valuable beaches and dunes and wetlands, and with it, the habitat for habitat and plant species, and as that sea level continues to rise, these issues will grow from an intermittent to a chronic problem, and during coastal storms to life-threatening dangers, and small coastal

villages in alaska as well as some of our biggest, most vibrant cities, like l.a., used in, or, as we saw in sandy, in the big apple. we show howapter, the lifelines like energy infrastructure and water pipes are a growing risk from sea level rise and storm surges, and we show how nationally important exits are at risk of being repeatedly disrupted by storms or floods. of our show how many most vulnerable populations are more exposed and have fewer options to adapt, and then how coastal habitats that we love and need are at the tipping point of your reversible damage, and what our chapter will also tell you is that coastal managers are also beginning to recognize these dangers and are working hard to find solutions. simple, there are no easy solutions come but, then again, america did not become a great nation because it was easy. what they show us is that we

can, with hard work, reduce these risks, work together with foresight for a safer future. thank you. >> well, thank you all and there are not a lot of smiles. of the questions i thought i would ponder and ask my we may be collect some questions from you all, and once you are done, i will actually answer it myself, but in 15 to 30 seconds, what keeps you up at night? >> so, me again. i live in the midwest. as bad as all of those coastal things susie was talking about threatening me as much as all of us, the things that really worry isthat keep me up at night

the concerns about severe weather. and it is not what we already know, it is what we do not know. we are trying to learn exactly what is happening with severe thunderstorms. are we likely to get more and tornadoes? in the future? are we going to have more ice storms? are we going to have more hail? we do not know those things yet, but we have some pieces of , and it could be that lightning war tornadoes become more intense, but we are still in the early stage of the research, and so i worry about it. the research i and my colleagues and i need to do to learn what needs to be learned there. >> thanks. a couple of things come to mind for me. it is those events that are feasible but not so likely.

so what we talked about today are those events that have considerable confidence as we continue to pass on that will eventually occur. but there are a number of events that are feasible but perhaps not so likely, but if they are, if they do occur, they could become quite a surprise. talked about the collapse of ice sheets in antarctica and greenland, and the other is the melting of permafrost, and massive releases of methane stored in the eyes for centuries, and a potentially additional burden on the atmosphere with respect to greenhouse gases that could actually accelerate the changes that we have already been talking about. along allowing up similar vein, i worry about loss of sea ice in the art. we have seen by 2012 about a 50% latetion in the area of summer sea ice, and about a 75%

reduction in volume. one of the reasons that is a cause for concern is that that is a faster rate than the models with increasing greenhouse gases. it raises the possibility that while climate models are absolutely our best tools for projecting the future, creating this bound of possible outcomes, it alludes to things we heard from jerry and things we heard of risk,that a sort worst-case scenarios, there are possibilities potentially outside of what climate models suggest that we need to be thinking about as well to protect our long-term concerns. >> ok, what keeps me awake at night, i worry about two things that come to mind. cumulative effects on people's health of one storm and then another storm and then more poor air pollution in communities that are already challenged by being next to places, facilities that emit air pollution over time, and then there is a heat

wave. i worry about people' is resilience, both economically and physically and mentally, spiritually. even strong people have a tough time being responsive and on their game with event after event after event, and that is what my change is doing, creating multiple events, and another is multiple system failures. we depend on roadways and electrical power to provide air-conditioning when it is hot as heck outside, and when it goes down, everyone is in the middle of a heat wave with a very little way to escape, or in the case of a storm, it compromises a way to get to safety, so i think those are real opportunity areas for us to look into and keep people healthy. >> i worry about food security both globally and in the u.s., because social unrest happens very quickly under food insecurity, and i talked about the production side of it, but that is only one side of food

security. it involves transportation. it involves processing. it involves storage, so any breakdown in any of those, from any of the factors that we have already talked about, could lead to food insecurity which could lead to social unrest very quickly. >> thank you. the question that you asked, what keeps you up at night, is the translation that we used in the coastal chapter actually to get at what are we most vulnerable to, and that is a mixture of what is really coming from climate change but also what it is meeting on the ground. it is the social vulnerabilities, our economic capacity to deal with it, so if you just look at sea level rise, you might say, well, miami is right at the front line, but miami has some pretty significant capacity to deal with it. i am worried about immunities facing similarly big risks. is not in l.a. or the

big cities. this keeps me up at night. >> thank you. i promised i would answer, as and this feeds off of what susie just said. what keeps me up at night is a persistent across the population not to recognize that the old normal climate is broken and that we do not know what the new normal climate is going to be, and that lack of recognition and communityity of this and decision-makers to communicate those risks unnecessarily put economic assets at risk and unnecessarily puts human lives at risk and unnecessarily puts ecosystems at risk, and when i wake up in the middle of the night, that is what worries me. >> ok.

what do you see as bright spots and how we are responding to climate change at the federal, state, and local level. i just got these, but i think , how can theyint help decision-makers, as well, and what is the estimated increase in health care costs? do we have any cogent estimates? look not inaken a the national climate assessment per se, but there is an cited in study that is reference. we want this to be a really important working foundational document. it was a study that looked at six things that climate change will increase in frequency or extend or the duration in the future, and these are events that already happened in the last decade between 2000 to 2009, and the health-related

to $40ere $14 billion billion, and those health costs do not typically get included when we estimate important infrastructure and roadway and building costs from these extreme weather events, so i think that is an important thing to consider. >> ok. i just got a great question. we heard the concerns of the panel. what gives them the most hope that we can meet the challenges of climate change, and i think this is only fair. >> well, i agree. i give a lot of public thought about climate change, because i think it is important to put my time in to explain to people why this is such an important issue. i worry about our children and our grandchildren and the future they are going to face. i and my talks basically talking about hope for the future. americans, have shown

through history that we know how to solve problems, and i think we can solve this. we can deal with it, but we have to make that choice and get on with it. >> so i think there is a great advantage in this issue, and that is that this nation is very whether conscience. we hear about it every day. conscious.ather experience in are changes that are quite unprecedented in the nations history. they talk about it. -- president talk about it talk about it today with a number of weather forecasters and broadcasters, and i think there is very much hope there to reach out and educate the broad populace with how we can solve it. >> just quickly, to echo that i do think we may be slow to get going with change, but i think

if you look at some historical we get started, change can happen quickly. and the northeast and beyond, examples at how cities are dealing with heat events, planting more trees, getting air-conditioners, cooling centers, and having action plans. facing the climate risk, elevating critical infrastructure, elevating houses, having discussion of coastal zone planning, and even more mundane things, increasing the size of culverts and drainage pipes, and routine maintenance and repair. extreme expect resuscitation. >> well, at the risk of being idealistic, the fact that everybody here is definitely interested in this issue and there is so much attention to it, because it affects everyone, climate change affects all of us, and i think there is a

rising sense of participation, and we are all in this together, and i think recent events with the extreme weather have brought that home. think about very tough problems when they are out of solutions, and i actually think the assessment report revised information that is really accessible about opportunities that we have, to make decisions that are going to get us to a at her place, and hopefully it will inspire leadership at every level to step forward and be part of that. >> i am excited by what i see in more of local systems and interest in local foods and reducing the number of food miles. do we really needs raw berries from argentina in the middle of january, or can we go back to some of the excitement iran number as a child growing up of getting fruit in season, because it was such a rare thing. can't we go back to some of those and in the process reduce food miles and, perhaps, even

increase our nutritional value? >> the things that give me the greatest hope is you all, and the people i work with on a regular basis in my day-to-day job. ares the people that leading the efforts in coastal communities. it is the people who are willing to step outside the colored lines and draw outside those and do something new, work together across disciplinary lines, work across to other divisions, to the next apartment, to the next unity down the stream. this, to me, is the greatest hope, and it is one thing we can tell you that we do not to a good job putting it into models. the human spirit, i will tell you, it is the most important factor of getting us from where we are now and onto a different path. >> ok, we are getting close to the end of time. one last question, that we got, and i think it is directed to

me, so i will try, can you speak to the climate change from the perspective of what the national climate assessment has taught us , and what i can say is that there will be costs to climate change. we are already experiencing them. they will get larger, and they are calibrated not always in dollars and cents but in human lives and whatever the appropriate metric. there will be some costs to the responses that we think about, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases or increasing resilience and preparedness to future but what youes, find over and over again from the specific examples that are located throughout the assessment is that the costs of not doing anything is much higher than the cost of doing something, and the cost of not doing something only increases dramatically over the next few years, the next decade, and into

the future from there, so with that, i thank you for your attention, and the dr. is back. [laughter] [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] our next washington journal, we will get different perspectives on the latest climate change report. members of the american fuel and petrochemical manufacturers, and we will also talk about the east end oil pipeline proposal, and then henry waxman will join us to discuss the report. he is the lead democrat on the energy and commerce committee. and later, on our spotlight on magazine series, from national geographic, taking calls. the magazine is doing work on food security. " is liveon journal every morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern, and you can join the

conversation on facebook and twitter. the u.s. has offered to send a team to nigeria to support that government's response to the kidnapping of the 200 schoolgirls by islamic militants. secretary of state kerry on c-span. then, treasury, defense, and state department officials testified in front of a committee about intervention in ukraine. >> c-span's newest book him a collection of interviews with some of the nations top storytellers. berlin,she arrived in she was in love with what she referred to as the nazi revolution, and she was enthralled with them, which really struck me. we know in hindsight, how can you be enthralled with the nazi

revolution, but there she was. >>erik larson. c-span, sundays at 8:00, now available at your favorite bookseller. >> secretary of state john kerry told reporters that the u.s. has offered assistance to the nigerian government in efforts to recover more than 200 girls did nafta and threatened with being sold into slavery by a he alsot group, and assessed the ongoing unrest in ukraine. secretary kerry is joined by the 's catherineon ashton at the news conference. everybody.ernoon, i am very pleased, as always to

welcome my very good friend and colleague in these endeavors, the eu harbor representative, cathy ashton. i am happy to be back in washington after a trip to africa that has left us with a very long to do list. which we are already working on. covered an and i just lot of ground. since we are in agreement on so much of it, we were able to cover it quite quickly. discussed, most importantly, our shared strategy of using the tools of diplomacy in order to reduce the conflicts that are threatening europe, africa, the middle east, and other parts of the world, but particularly there. let me begin with ukraine.

in the weeks since lady ashton and i met and crimea with the russian foreign minister, we are disappointed to see russia live up to the very plain, easy to interpret commitments made in geneva. i will reiterated the commitment we made in geneva is not vague. it is not open to interpretation. was specific. it outlined concrete steps all parties need to take. ukraine's government, literally before the ink was dry, started to implement on that agreement. they have held up their end of the bargain. ukraine has shown remarkable

restraint. almost immediately coming out of that meeting in geneva, they ordered a cessation of any counterterrorism activity, any effort to remove people from buildings, based on the notion that both sides were going to work to bring people out of those holdings. and the fact is, they have been to move theiriev country forward through nonviolence. through constitutional reform. through dialogue. and through reaching out to be disaffected parts of ukraine. we are also very concerned about efforts of pro-russian separatists in and then ask -- tsk/ ask -- done

cause mored will problems than trying to do you escalate this situation. this is the crimea playbook all over again and no civilized nation is going to recognize the results of such a bogus effort. as president obama has made clear, if russian elements continue to sabotage the democratic rose says and keep ukraine from holding a free and fair election 19 days from now on the 25th, we stand ready to implement additional sanctions. the united states together. i know the european union is strong in its commitment to do this. our representative will have meetings next week in furtherance of our common goals here. we are not going to sit idly by

while russian elements of fan the flames of instability instead of fulfilling the commitments we made. look, we came together. we came together in a real spirit of trying to de-escalate. and we were playing a game. we laid down some very specific steps to be taken. and immediately, the government of ukraine, in good faith, undertook to implement those steps, including removing barricades, removing people from buildings, as well as reaching out to make clear to the people of ukraine how decentralization can take ways to get more power to those people in places that were disaffected. was not met that with reciprocity. and reciprocity is one of the things we discussed very clearly in geneva. i must also add it is very hard to reconcile that russia is now making the argument that ukraine

and postpone the election because of the violence that is taking place, but russia is whole hog having an election faryria where there is worse violence. reconcile that one for us, please. the choice is really russia's. eu, anded states, the our allies have made our chores very clear. we will stand united, not just ukraine, but united in support of de-escalating, united in support of a peaceful, democratic united in recognizing that there are historic and cultural ties between russia and ukraine, but the way to a certain is that the diplomatic negotiating table, not at the end of a gun. and we believe we will also stand together in the effort to try to de-escalate this

situation. next week, i will meet in london with our european counterparts in order to discuss what the appropriate next steps will be. i also want to underscore that lady ashton and i applaud the commitment and the courage of the monitors of the osce. we are deeply appreciative to these organizations for security and cooperation in europe who have put themselves in harms way on the side of a peaceful resolution, on the side of the escalation. de-escalateied to with the russian-backed forces in order to make sure there is a reasonable future for all of the people of ukraine. we believe that the osce can now play an enhanced role, and there are efforts taking place.

i talked yesterday with the osce chairman, and he will be traveling tomorrow to meet with president putin. i also met with the prime minister of germany. foreignoday with minister lavrov. there is a lot of energy being if we cano try to see find a reasonable way forward here. the efforts very much of this kind of diplomacy, to help the ukrainians restore law and order and improve the environment for free and fair elections on may 25. our honoredite guest to offer her thoughts here, i want to briefly mention a couple of other topics we discussed very quickly.

nigeria.an, first on south sudan. the cessation of hostilities agreement that was signed in january by the south sudanese government and the opposition has obviously not been upheld. reason attacks by the south sudanese government and the antigovernment forces both are absolutely unacceptable and the united states condemns them in the strongest terms. i thought this morning with the prime minister of ethiopia. he has been directly in touch the south sudanese leader, although they are working on a precise date. he has also talked in with president here. president here has committed absolutely to be there. we hope that will be the

beginning of the dialogue and we will have participants there to assist in approach -- process. as president obama has made clear however, we will hold accountable those who stood in the way of a peace plan. directly toas much the president and the former vice president when i was there this past weekend. the united states well announce sanctions on two individuals responsible for violating the cessation of facilities agreement. the first is the commander of the south sudanese presidential .uard forces he has led violent attacks juba.t civilians in further details will be released

about that. the second, who led the rebel forces in an attack that left more than 200 civilians dead. we will do our utmost to prevent south sudan from plunging back into the violence and despair that tore the country apart for so long. we will continue to stand with the people of south sudan who called for peace and recognize the only way to resolve this conflict is through a political dialogue. second link, on nigeria -- today i spoke with president goodluck ofathan on behalf of --sident obama, and behalf and on behalf a president obama, forred america's support nigeria in this crisis. with austry is prepared forward coronation cell that can provide expertise on

intelligence, investigations, and hostage negotiations and help facilitate information sharing and assistance. the president, president goodluck jonathan was very happy to receive this offer and ready to move on it immediately. we are immediately engaging in order to implement this. we remain deeply concerned about the welfare of these young girls , and we want to provide whatever assistance is possible in order to help their safe return to their families. and iy, lady ashton discussed -- i think you receive the breath of the things we were talking about. you get a sense of the tremendous cooperation between the eu and the united states, particularly between cathy ashton and myself, for which we are very grateful. we are grateful for her stewardship of the negotiations

taking place with iran on the nuclear program, a search for a comprehensive solution. politicaln and our directors will meet again in vienna next week. as we tried to seize this , to make ourment allies and ourselves safer, iran obviously has to make some tough decisions. we remain firm and our goals -- in our goals. they do not vary. must not obtain a nuclear weapon and must ensure they have a peaceful nuclear program. nocontinue to believe that deal is better than a bad deal. let me close by extending to lady ashton early greetings for europe day, which falls this friday as a holiday that recalls and renews the ee you's vision

for a united, peaceful, and democratic europe. the united states will stand side-by-side with europe as it strives to live up to that vision and those high ideals. lady ashton. kerry,k you, secretary or john, as i would prefer. thank you for your reception. to seemy great pleasure the colors of the european union and vienna. it is a recognition of this incredibly important transatlantic partnership that every nation of the european , and welue so highly thank you, your predecessors, and all of your colleagues for the work that has gone on to develop it. i think we are very much joined in our thinking. about aaid, we talked

range of issues. we talk a lot between these meetings. so, we cover a huge number of current concerns. with two or up three of them, of which ukraine is inevitably the highest on our agenda. the latest news of the great concern we have from the illegal is the focus of our attention. we want to see russia join in and a call to see the and to these actions. very much in line with the discussions we had in geneva, where would talk for practically seven hours about the importance of what this meant. there was no vagueness. those absolute clarity and what we were trying to do, to try to find ways to begin the de-escalation. we will begin, as the european union, to engage fully in seeking a political solution and to stay fully behind what we

said in geneva. ukraine has athat integrity.fend its we understand that the obligations it has as we work closely with them. they have done a lot from the beginning of leaving geneva to try to implement what was agreed. i joined the chief monitor at a special meeting. he called on all sides to exercise restraint, avoid bloodshed, and resolve differences peacefully. you will know that we took the decision to extend the number of people subject to targeted sanctions for actions that undermine ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence. any further steps to destabilize the situation in ukraine would lead to additional and

far-reaching consequences in a broad range of areas. one you, too, we are focused the elections and the importance of free and fair presidential elections. this is an important step in the stabilization of ukraine. it is about democracy. it is an opportunity to choose and have a legitimate debate on -- future of read crane ukraine and engage with people who want to talk about what that future might be. course, will continue as well with our assistance package, which you know will overall 11 billion euros over time. the escalatedion violence in south sudan. i owed enough from our special representative to the region, from people from the country, wellyour efforts were very

recognized. i congratulate you for that, as well as many other things. i am worried that this country is on the brink of what could be a civil war, ethnically motivated. prospects of humanitarian disaster are really looming large now. we need to work together. we need to work to ensure the leaders in south sudan really do take the action you have identified a need to. whether the meeting takes place on friday, the really have got to now set aside personal differences and change the atmosphere to prevent any offenses. you know the foreign affairs council was meeting and the full room where i am president, to try to look at all of these issues and decide how we will move forward.

we need to work closely in cooperation with you and others and make sure we try to prevent disaster. be a like you, our thoughts are with the parents of the nigerian girls and with the girls themselves. and the future of the country. they are future doctors, politicians, scientists, mothers, women in the making who have a right to play their full part in a society. what has happened to them is devastating for all of us. we everything possible to reunite them with their families and prevents this ever happening again. i want to end, if i might, but also reiterating my full support for everything you have done in the middle east. -- i know that, and i know this has been a difficult time. but i do think you have made tremendous progress and the european union stands absolutely beside you as you continue your

efforts and we are committed to support you in every way possible. thought, of course, next week we will try to take this process forward. we are all interested to make sure that if we get an agreement, it is the best agreement. >> thank you. [indiscernible] [laughter] the first question will be from andrea mitchell of nbc news. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary, lady ashton. why has itfirst -- taken so long to mobilize an american effort? we understand president jonathan said he is welcoming the help. but there was no indication before this. it will take a while to organize this. why, given our extraordinary abilities with surveillance,

detection, did not the united states act sooner with other allies? it is understood some of these girls may have been taken over borders. it's an international issue. they are listed as a terror thenization, boko haram, on state department list. it seems inconceivable that we would not act sooner where lives are at stake. how long now will it take to act? i could ask you about benghazi, because this is our first opportunity. first of all, your response to committee'sa's subpoena for you to appear? we understand on may 21 the date you are ordered to prep -- to appear, you're supposed to be traveling in mexico. will you now organize another date to appear? how do you feel about being subpoenaed rather than being invited, as would have been the normal protocol? is your response to the

committee's charge that the state department under your watch as well has dragged its feet being forthcoming with all of the demands for documents? and if i could ask lady ashton finally, given the conversation between president obama and chancellor merkel last week, can the international community really wait to see whether these -- the sectoral sanctions will work? it seems that vladimir putin and his supporters are not changing policy and not responding, even to the damage that has been done , to their economy. thank you very much. >> next question please. >> no, no, no. i want her to answer.

i thought that was her. >> the question was why way to impose sanctions given that vladimir gooden has shown no -- the to assisting sifting, despite the sanctions already imposed? >> all right. sure. let me state to nigeria. first of all, we have been in touch from day one and our embassy has been engaged. own setrnment had its of strategies, if you will, from the beginning. offer and talk, but you can't do it the government has its own sense of how it's persuading. i think now the publications that have arisen that have convinced everybody there needs and thereter effort.

will be a greater effort. literally, immediately. our embassy is in touch -- we have been talking with africa on com.frica you will see a rapid response. >> [indiscernible] i understand. yeah, we do. but it depends on where they are and what they are looking at on any given day. there are options. i assure you, i think the white house will have more to say on what we will be doing. i will let them speak for that. the >> answer is, we will do everything we can to be helpful. i'm going to see the president in a little while this afternoon. i think the president, as some might say about this in the near term, let's just -- the important thing is we have put everything on the table. we are going to send a team. it will be a combined team, ready to work. but you have to have a host

country that is ready to receive and work with you in any situation, and we are prepared to work. on the issue of benghazi, you know, i served 29 years in the united states senate. 28-plus. i was chairman of a major committee. i don't think i ever issued a subpoena to somebody i had not first invited to speak. i think this speaks for itself, frankly. had more than 50 briefings. the doublebeen in digits of hearings. we have delivered over 25,000 documents. the fact is that documents require a legal process to go for examination of executive privilege or other kinds of classified or other kinds of things that may or may not be on them. it's not going to happen automatically. wouldguaranteed we

cooperate in every single way. we have and i will in the department well. that is our obligation and of course we will. but i think everybody needs to sort ofard look and measure what has already been put out there versus where this effort is going. you see a very partisan response on the hill with respect to it. i also think there is an issue with the requisite body figuring out who has jurisdiction over this. from what i understand, there are still questions as to who we willg to do what. respond, because we have absolutely nothing to hide whatsoever and i look forward to complying with that over -- with whatever responsibilities we have. with respect to -- i will comply with whatever responsibilities we have. ofh respect to the question isctions, what we're doing having a major impact. nobody should doubt that.

the bonds and russia are already just above junk bonds. they have had to postpone the sale of a number of bonds. the economy is on a downward decline. the imf has declared it is in recession. their growth was going to be 1.3%. .1%, now respected to be minimal. and we have only yet begun. if we have to. important for the united states and europe to move together on this. we believe that. that requires a certain element of preparation, coordination. you have to do the right april work, the right examination, you have to pull your teams together. a veryproceeding in effective and authoritative way. made it very clear. president obama and chancellor merkel had a meeting the other if, and they said clearly, there are is -- if there is

continued interference with respect to the election process, there will be more sanctions and this time they will bite into the sect errors of the economy s of the economy and those will be more compelling than what has been put on the table to this point. obviously when you're trying to keep a door open to find a diplomatic solution, when the other party says they are willing to come to the table and engage in that discussion, it seems to me to be reasonable to try to do that. i think most people in most what's a responsible government not to escalate to the point of creating an inevitable confrontation, but rather to find out if there is a way to find that diplomatic solution. that is what diplomacy is about. there's no question about our ability, when we want to put sanctions in place that are even more biting than what we have today.

but you have to ask yourself ahead of time whether or not that invite something further. that you don't want to have happen. so, there's a delicate mix here, and i think president obama has calibrated this extremely effectively. it is having a biting effect. we will continue to proceed in unity with our european allies to do what we think is the greatest impact and the most effect. >> i have nothing much more to these sectoralay support of what the european union is doing, it is the best way to find de-escalation. that is what geneva was about. that is what you do. when we saw we were not getting results in geneva, we pressed and wep button again

continued with sanctions. it is a mix of things you want to do to try to create the circumstances that will lead to the most important thing, which is the cessation of violence, and to get the kind of discussion, debate, and democratic approach that will lead ukraine into a future. so, you have to consider all of the ways that can be done. -- bringingding together the 28 foreign ministers on monday. they will be discussing all of the elements of that approach working with colleagues in the united states. why countries like germany are busy engaging and talking as well as looking at what we might do as a coordinated effort. and i really hope we are successful. >> the next question will be welle. from deutsche i'm sorry. i butchered that. >> thank you.

another question on the ukraine. -- putin'snctions ast important goal -- i have perception that europe seems to be reluctant to pursue this policy. is a problem, but in what respect could he also be part of a solution? of a neutraltion ukraine that would probably satisfy putin? the second part of my question goes -- is about serious -- is the syrian delegation is nbc to talk to the secretary of state. mr. kerry, your administration has offered the syrian coalition

diplomatic status. a sign that the u.s. is more actively involved in the civil war than providing the rebels with heavy weaponry? and to you, lady ashton, will you also grant diplomatic status to the syrian coalition? >> on ukraine, the people of ukraine decide what ukraine is and will be. they will consider very carefully where they sit in the world. ukraine, whenited i met with the then-president it's not about competition between europe and russia for a nation. ukraine will want strong and good economic links with russia, and we recognize that is important. it never should be about this idea the competition. ross, it is all about trying

to find a way forward, as i have already indicated, to find a formula that is going to help the escalate the situation, to talk with everybody and to keep all the doors open, while being very clear the situation cannot continue as it is. european union itself does relations withic anyone. its individual member states do. >> [indiscernible] theresident putin as president of russia and russia is playing a role at the moment. the question for russia is, if you take what i have just said a nation craine as needs to have a good relationship with all of its neighbors, then you need to look at how they are going to define that, and the finding that for me is about strong economic links. yes, there are a strong historical links, and yes, there

needs to be a way that they can coexist usefully. i hope the president put in may consider -- president putin may consider that going forward. >> regarding your question on there is notin -- observer of russia, there is no one engaged in diplomacy today, who does not understand president putin is calling the shots and russia. a very narrow group of people around him are devising him in one way or another, but president putin is almost exclusively,if not calling the shots. there is no specific effort by the united states of america to somehow single him out other than to respond to the fact that has employedrussia its forces, engaged in direct activities, first and crimea,

now in east and south ukraine, in ways that are destabilizing the country, and still has 40,000-plus or so troops lined up on the border in a place it did not have them before they began to move into crimea. do is not trying to haveted on him because we some personal thing or something about him. it is because he is making are adversely affecting the region and the rights of the people of ukraine to choose their future and to have their solvency inspected area -- sovereignty respected. we have one interest in this. that is the stability and respect for ukraine, its integrity and sovereignty, and the opportunity of the people of ukraine to choose their future. is our interest. we are not seeking an alignment. we are not seeking a base.

we're are not seeking anything except this universal value that is respected around the world for the right of people to not be bludgeoned at the butt of a gun or a military invasion to be told what to do. now we believe it's appropriate for us to respond, in response the legitimate demands of a government that was voted on. supporters ofrmer president yanukovich, who deserted the country, of his own a decisionand made not to live up to the agreement he signed back in february. the parliament, with his own party's support, voted him out and provided for an interim government and called for elections. what could be more sensible than to allow this country under have an be able to

election where they give legitimacy to a new government by having all of the people be able to vote? are lookingpeople for here. it seems to me it should not be so complicated for russia to engage in that resets. process. we respect russia has a long historical connection to ukraine and kiev is the birthplace of russian religion and wars of liberation have been fought on that territory. we understand the connection. aboute strong feelings protection of people, russian speaking and so forth. nobody is arguing against that though. the fact is that the interim government of ukraine is prepared to respect the russian language, prepared to respect greater autonomy for people in that region, to give them -- frankly, the government of

ukraine has offered to give the people in south and east ukraine more power over their own lives on every -- on an everyday basis been russia gives any individual state or province in russia. that is a fact. what wehe answer is think is important here is the rights of the people be respected. is correct. they have to choose their future. they have said that they are not seeking alignment. they have said they are not seeking nato membership. and nato, and those of us who are members, and said we are prepared to respect the choice of the interim government and whatever future government of ukraine there is. final comment -- we have said again and again to the russians, and i hope they hear it again today -- we are not seeking for a ukraine that belongs to some other part of the world.

we want one that belongs to ukraine. we are not seeking one that is a and west.en east we would like ukraine to be a bridge between east and west. we certainly agree with president from raw's vision that we could have -- president that we can have an arrangement that goes from vladivostok to lisbon, where everybody benefits. there is more to talk about then unfortunately some of the heated that has given people a sense of. why we pursue these discussions, to see if we can't find a way to make those andrests meet the moment find a way forward that the escalate the confrontation. i'll, in syria, i didn't answer we have not recognized

them. we give them diplomatic status to be able to come here. but because we previously said they are the legitimate representative, but we have not --ed to create the climatic diplomatic, you know, to recognize or create a diplomatic situation. we are hopeful that there also we can find a way forward that deals with this extraordinary violence that is literally destroying the country of syria. our hope is we can never reasonable way forward to do that. thank you. seth but thank you all. -- >> thank you all. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> the house this week will take up two resolutions on the irs targeting of conservative groups. john mckinnon has been covering

this issue for the wall street journal. what will the house vote on this week? >> there are two things they will vote on. former irsold official lois lerner in contempt of congress. the other is to appoint a special prosecutor in the irs matter. lerner'sas been ms. reaction, not only to the citation, but to be committee? >> she contains to maintain her innocence, something that she has been doing since about a year ago. that is part of the reason she is in her fix that she is in now. she has steadfastly refused to talk to the particular committee that has demanded she testify. wrote a piece last week with a headline about her attorney's reaction. the headline said "lois lerner's

holding her in contempt would be un-american." what did he mean by that? >> that is interesting. he is harkening back to the mccarthy era when they would bring people and who did not want to testify. they would seek to invoke their fifth amendment privilege, as now, and ons doing some occasions, congress would hold a minute -- hold them in contempt and there were a lot of court cases that resulted from that. in a deft way, mr. taylor, her attorney, is trying to compare this to mccarthyism. >> so the house will vote on this contempt of congress resolution. assuming it passes in the house, what does that mean, and is this something the senate would have to take up as well? >> no, this is something each chamber basically gets to

control. this resolution would -- the contempt resolution would go to the department of justice and the justice department would -- it's basically required by statute to present this matter to a grand jury. the statute does not say anything about whether the grand jury would actually have to do anything or whether the justice department would have to do anything. it could be this is as far as it goes, at least of likely. least publicly. but the house has other ways of getting this matter before a court. they could go to court themselves and try to get some relief from a court's. it's unclear though whether they will try to pursue that remedy. i think it gets pretty gray from here. >> on the other issues -- the resolution being brought up by jim jordan from ohio, calling on the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor for this iressa case -- what is likely to happen there?

>> i think it's hard to predict. you know, what the agency is going to do with that demand. republicans are concerned that one of the prosecutors who has been working on this matter so far gave some not insignificant amounts of money to president obama's election campaigns in the past. so, they have some leg to stand on their. there. and they also did a fair amount of investigative work, showing some issues that have not previously been brought to public attention, particularly, ms. lerner's efforts to get other officials at the irs to deny an application for tax-exempt status by crossroads gps, which is the very big republican leaning nonprofits

organization that was very election the 2012 cycle, spending a lot of money on tempe nabs. republicans feel like they have new evidence they are trying to showcase. whether any of that will rise to the level the justice department would have to act on -- that's a mix of legal and political questions we can't really answer. >> john mckinnon is on twitter. you can follow his reporting on twitter. the mckinnon, thank you for update. >> you're welcome. >> republicans in the house will hold a vote on a contempt of congress resolution. testifydeclined to before congressional panels relating to the agency's handling of applications for groups apply for nonprofit status. a vote on also be

whether to appoint a special prosecutor. our next washington journal, we will be looking at perspectives on the white house climate change report. we will talk to charles drevna. we will also talk about the keystone oil pipeline proposal. and later on our spotlight on -- nationalies, geographic will take your calls. they are doing a series on security around the world and the role that climate plays. eastern.e at 7:00 >> if you are accused of being ambitious and chinese, you were

accused of being wild hearted. that was a death sentence professionally. it could damage her family. what it meant was you put your self before the group. for chinese history, that was totally unimaginable. the confucian period or the socialist period. when i got there, things were beginning to change in some deep way. this was not in a glamorizing or self-promotional way. in a self protective way. so, even the term in chinese for was transforming. people were getting comfortable using it. in the united states, we talk about the me generation as being this time when we started to

focus on ourselves perhaps too much. was a revolution in our conception of a person. in the past, people would always " the family, the group, the clan, the village. and then all of a sudden in 1979, people had no choice but to think about themselves, and that became the fundamental my eight-yearrove fascination and investigation with china. nos on the rising conflict between the individual and the chinese government, sunday at 8 p.m.. >> republicans on the senate foreign it -- foreign relations committee were critical of the obama administration. senator bob menendez chairs the committee. the ranking member is senator bob corker of tennessee.

>> the meeting will come to order. panelistscome today's -- come to order. let me welcome the department and a wide range of perspectives to help us aassess putin's actions in ukraine. before i talk about ukraine and russia, i want to note my grave concern about the cowardly and heinous kidnapping of some 276 young nigerian women from their school and claims by boko haram's leader that many of the over 200 missing are being trafficked to neighboring states and sold into child marriage. as a father i'm heart sick that these brave young women are in a set of circumstances where they simply were getting an education and have been kidnapped. i'll look forward to the passage

later today of a resolution authored by landrieu and boxer condemning boko haram, a brutal organization that is waging an escalating campaign of terror and war against its own people. violence they have full meanted contributed to an estimated 1500 deaths in nigeria this year alone and today they have may have kidnapped an additional eight girls from village homes in northeastern nigeria. later today i'll send a letter to the president of nigeria pressing him to lead the effort to find the young women and hold the cap tors accountable. i urge him to work closely with the united states and international partners and welcome the offer by secretary kerry to provide a coordination cell that would include u.s. military personnel and law enforcement officials with expertise in investigation and

hostage negotiations. turning back to the situation in ukraine and i'm pleased to have ambassad ambassador mottsuk of ukraine. the situation in ukraine is untenable. there's no question that russia and president putin himself is supporting and instig gating the events in ukraine. lavrov's ruling out of additional talks makes it clear that russia has no interest in resolving the crisis and necessarily leads us to conclude that the goal is to destabilize the country. our resolve, however, must be clear. putin's actions may not stand and will not go unchallenged. these actions are in an inexcusable breach of international law and deeply aggressive gesture that sets a troubling precedent.

by sending in armed men to grab land and he's also launched a massive propaganda effort to destroy the facts of the situation. in my view president obama's decision to impose sanctions and send hundreds of u.s. troops to easternmost nato allies is a correct response. there are several additional steps we could take. first i believe enhancement should be made to nato's defense post tour. they need to take seriously the possibility that russia will take aggressive actions beyond those it has already undertaken and nato should begin preparation to station forces in the central and eastern europe. second, we should consider additional targeted sanctions. i'm not shy when it comes to the use of sanctions because i believe they can be an effective tool of peaceful diplomacy, whether against iran or russian oligarchs than made russia the home of more billionaires than anywhere else in the world.

i would like to see narrowed sanctions on actions that are causing economic havoc in ukraine by manipulating crisis in supply. we could pursue other individuals in the inner circle and those that continue to send weapons to assad. the next step beyond that could be sanctions as outlined by the administration on the financial inferring and defense sectors. thirdly, we need to exam further steps we can take to assist ukraine and this critical juncture, including the provision of military assistance and equipment, body armor as well as training and security assistance for ukrainian forces. now, i have to add i'm disappointed by some efforts to draw partisan lines around this issue. this committee very successfully reported legislation weeks ago in a bipartisan manner supporting ukraine and imposing sanctions. if additional legislation is

needed, i would hope we would work together to make that happen and rather make this an election year issue which tends to work against productivity. in that vein, i'm particularly concerned about language in a bill that would tie implementation of the new start treaty, and more broadly the u.s./russian strategic nuclear balance and dangerously imply the united states and way to pressure russia into withdrawal of its forces. i hope we can continue to move forward and work in the way that we have successfully done over the last 16 months. and today i hope we can get perspective on our panelists where putin's actions could lead and what options they are. i hope we can send a strong, clear bipartisan message to putin that his repugnant behavior in ukraine cannot stand. mr. corker for his remarks. >> thank you.

i appreciate you very much calling this hearing and the way we've been able to work together. i like the way you laid out what we need to do to address this issue. i could not agree more there needs to be a strategy that includes strengthening nato and i put a lot of effort into thinking about that. i think you know that. i know you have too because we've had conversations together with leaders of other countries towards that end. i think we also need to sanction russia and try to prevent behavior from being such that we're doing something after the fact. i know you just shared the same thing. and thirdly, we need to work to harden our allies that are not part of nato like ukraine and moldova and georgia. i know we did the first round together. i think conditions on the ground certainly have changed dramatically since that time.

and it would be my hope that based on the conversations that we've had and i know the shared views that we have that it would be my hope we would do something more robust. thank you for your opening comments. ann patterson came in here 41 days ago and ann patterson is someone like you that i respect greatly. i really appreciate the work you've been doing in ukraine since you were confirmed in the position you're in. you've been very diligent and certainly transparent with us. and ann patterson had always been that way too. she came in here and wanted to talk about a strategy on syria and talked about the fact that they had one. many of us have been very concerned about what's happened in syria. as a matter of fact, candidly, it feels like to me in ukraine we're watching the same kind of thing unfold that we watched unfold in syria, and that is we

talk big, but we didn't follow up. we didn't do the things we said we would do. as i've said many times, assad, the wisest thing he did for his own survival was kill 1200 people with chemical weapons and since that time, probably a barrel bomb is dropping on innocent civilians, killing and maiming people indiscriminately. so you know, ann said she had a strategy and wanted to share with us this strategy. it's been 41 days, i haven't gotten a phone call. have you gotten a phone call? i don't think so. so what i hope is going to happen today with the tremendous respect that i have for you, you will lay out a strategy that will tell us exactly what the administration is going to do. the fact is that, you know, somebody you work closely with, putin is ak flishing exactly what he wants to accomplish inside eastern ukraine without

moving troops. we know what he's doing. we know -- we don't think that. we know that. and the administration has stated that publicly. since the sanctions went in place last monday the stock market has risen almost 4% in russia. they are laughing it off. it has no effect whatsoever on russia's behavior and moves them in the other direction because they are minor irritants and not the kind of things that change behavior. almost 4%, 3.63 increase since the sanctions were announced that everyone knew had no effect. madam secretary, i hope today with your great strength and admiration that we all for you, what you're going to do is layout what the administration is going to do, not talk about, not heavy rhetoric, you've never given that, but tell us what we're going to do to effect things on the ground. my thinking is that if we continue as we are, it's going

to be just like syria. when we could have nipped it in the bud and made it a much lesser issue, we let it get out of hand and i think the very thing is happening right now. i'll close with this in ukraine. the president when people speak like chairman menendez just did, when they speak like i do or ron johnson or john mccain, the president continues to say we're war mongering. i would say it's just the opposite. if you let things fester until they get out of control, it's far more likely that we're going to find ourselves in a conflict that is of much more major nature than if we do those things to prevent russia from doing the things that they are continuing to do on a daily basis. i hope you're going to be very explicit what the administration plans to do to change things on the ground today. i thank the chairman for having this meeting. >> thank you, senator corker.

>> the only thing senator corker didn't do with his southern charm say god bless your soul before he went to the rest of the -- >> god bless your soul. [ laughter ] >> thank you, senator. >> my friends from the south when they say that i brace myself. on a serious note, i appreciate the ranking member's comments. we'll hopefully get a fair amount under way here. let me start off by assistant secretary of state victoria nuland and for russia and ukraine and dr. evelyn farcass. thanks you all for being here. we are going to include all of your opening statements fully in the record without objection and i would ask you to try to summarize within five minutes or so your statement so we can get into a panel discussion with each of you and we'll start with

you, madam secretary. >> thank you, chairman menendez and ranking member corker for inviting me today. i apologize for being late. i will blame secretary kerry. we were meeting with lady ashton. i also want to thank this committee for its bipartisan legislation for its support and people of ukraine and many visits many of you have made. i hope collectively we can answer your questions here, senator corker and layout a strategy. when i testified before the subcommittee on april 10th i laid out four pillars of u.s. policy to address challenges in ukraine. supporting ukraine and reassuring nato allies and creating costs for russian behavior and keeping the door open for deescalation through diplomacy. collectively we'll speak to all of those things today. what i want to focus on are the