Great news: Secretary of State John Kerry plans to be a climate change activist

To be more specific, Sen. Kerry plans to be a "passionate advocate" for action against all things global warming/cooling/etc.

During his confirmation hearing Thursday, Kerry told his fellow senators that he would "spend a lot of time trying to persuade you and other colleagues" that climate change is our country's "biggest long-term threat" to national security. When Republican Sen. John Barrasso voiced concerns that increased environmental restrictions could hamper the economy, Kerry responded with force:

I would respectfully say to you that climate change is not something to be feared in response to — the steps to respond to — it’s to be feared if we don’t.  Thirty-five thousand communities in our nation last year broke records for heat … and we had a derailment because of it. We had record fires. We had record levels of damage from sandy, $70 billion. If we can’t see the downside of spending that money and risking lives for all the changes that are taking place, to agriculture, to our communities, the ocean and so forth, we are ignoring what science is telling us. 

I will be a passionate advocate on this not based on ideology but based on facts and science, and I hope to sit with all of you and convince you that this $6 trillion market is worth millions of American jobs and we better go after it.

WATCH (via a delighted ThinkProgress):