Women's rights is not only an abstraction a cause it is also a personal affair. It is not only about us it is also about me and you. Just the two of us.

I hope that in future Congresses there will reemerge a recognition that climate change is a reality that our policies to meet our energy needs must also deal responsibly with environmental issues including the damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

I think it makes people in the Pentagon kind of nervous to know that chemical agents and environmental factors could cause so much damage in terms of what may happen in the future.

We're not trying to reinvent the wheel for any environmental organization to claim sole responsibility for any kind of victory is insane because everybody attacks these problems as a group.

But as environment minister I am very interested in a thriving German automobile industry because I can only pay for the rising costs of environmental protection at home and abroad if there are people in Germany with jobs and who pay taxes.

New Zealand needs to balance its environmental responsibilities with its economic opportunities because the risk is that if you don't do that - and you want to lead the world - then you might end up getting unintended consequences.

There are nuclear weapons in China Iran Korea and Pakistan. It wouldn't take much to send a couple of warheads off on this planet somewhere that would cause a lot of environmental damage then if you have got someone who wants to retaliate you have real problems.

Have we failed to slow global warming pollution in part because climate and environmental activists have been too polite and well behaved?

Americans don't pay much attention to environmental issues because they aren't sexy. I mean cleaning up coal plants and reining in outlaw frackers is hugely important work but it doesn't get anybody's pulse racing.

We had some major successes and we did so because the country embraced the spirit of Earth Day and embraced this concept that we have to have forward-looking visionary environmental policy and energy policy in this country.