Former Rep. Inglis wins Profile in Courage award

Source: The Boston Globe

By Zolan Kanno-Youngs GLOBE CORRESPONDENT MAY 03, 2015

Former US Rep. Bob Inglis was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award on Sunday for putting his career on the line to call attention to the threat from climate change.

“My grandfather’s legacy is kept alive by Bob’s courageous decision to sacrifice his political career to demand action on the issue that will shape life on Earth for generations to come,” former President Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg said in a speech at the JFK Library on the 25th anniversary of the awards.

Inglis represented the fourth congressional district of South Carolina as a Republican from 1993-98 and again from 2005-10. He was honored for acknowledging that climate change is real and caused by humans, a decision he said played a role in his reelection loss in 2010.

After being introduced by Schlossberg, Inglis described how the future of his children and interactions with scientists in Antarctica influenced his decision to recognize the threat to the environment. He said that the free enterprise system can contribute to solving the problem by aiding government in putting a price on carbon emissions.

“We’re going to come together and get this done,” Inglis said in the speech. “I believe that a pricing of carbon dioxide will be like someone said of the financial crisis, ‘It’s amazing how the impossible went to the inevitable without ever passing through the probable.’”

Read more: /www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/05/03/former-rep-inglis-wins-jfk-profile-courage-award-for-calling-attention-climate-change/cOMUGofTLKKWvpm5q8xJpJ/story.html