The most important thing for people to know about the governance of the Arctic is that we have a chance now to act to maintain the integrity of the system or to lose it. To lose it means that we will dismember the vital systems that make the Arctic work. It's not just a cost to the people who live there. It's a cost to all people everywhere.

My parents moved to Florida when I was 12, and my backyard was the Gulf of Mexico.

We need to respect the oceans and take care of them as if our lives depended on it. Because they do.

For humans, the Arctic is a harshly inhospitable place, but the conditions there are precisely what polar bears require to survive - and thrive. 'Harsh' to us is 'home' for them. Take away the ice and snow, increase the temperature by even a little, and the realm that makes their lives possible literally melts away.

There's plenty of water in the universe without life, but nowhere is there life without water.

We must protect our ocean as if our lives depend upon it, because they do.

America gains most when individuals have great freedom to pursue personal goals without undue government interference.