[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 54 (Thursday, April 26, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3936-S3937]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             CLIMATE CHANGE

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak with colleagues 
about global warming, which quite literally is a cloud that is looming 
on our horizon. As many have feared, there is evidence that this cloud 
has recently grown darker and more ominous.
  Over the last few months, in fact, the United Nation's 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its third report on 
global warming. This report was authored by over 700 expert scientists. 
Their conclusions, I am afraid, offer convincing evidence of a planet 
in distress, one that is slowly overheating with very serious--some 
would say disastrous but certainly very serious--consequences for those 
who will follow us on this Earth.
  According to these scientific experts, unless we find ways to stop 
global warming, the Earth's average temperature can be expected to rise 
between 2.5 and 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit during this next 100 years. 
Such a large rapid rise in temperature will profoundly affect the 
Earth's landscape in very real and consequential terms. Sea levels 
could swell enormously, potentially submerging literally millions of 
homes and coastal properties under our present day oceans. 
Precipitation would become more erratic, leading to droughts that would 
make hunger an even more serious global problem than it is today. 
Diseases such as malaria and dengue fever would spread at an 
accelerated pace. Several weather disturbances and storms triggered by 
climate phenomena, such as El Nino, would be aggravated by global 
warming and become, I am afraid, more routine.
  Unfortunately, that is not the first time we have heard such 
disconcerting predictions, which in their way are so extreme that they 
may be hard for some to believe, although I find as I go around my 
State and on occasion around the country that the public is ahead of 
their political leadership on this issue--at least a lot of the 
political leadership. The public has been reading these reports and 
understands that something is happening with the weather that will 
affect life on this planet unless we do something about it.
  For years, scores of scientists from throughout the world have issued 
warning after warning attesting to the harmful effect of increasing 
amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. While it is true 
that there have been some efforts to curb the release of these gases, I 
am afraid we have spent a lot more time debating the credibility of the 
warnings than doing something about them.
  Truly, this new data does not end the serious debate about whether 
global warming is a fact. This most recent scientific report is the 
most advanced study we have had on the subject. I personally conclude 
that the science is now incontrovertible.
  As this latest report reminds us, the threat is being driven by our 
own behavior. Remember the old Pogo cartoon: We have met the enemy and 
it is us. That is, unfortunately, the case with global warming. Let me 
quote the scientists in the report directly.

       There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming 
     observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human 
     activities.

  Human beings have added more than 3 billion metric tons of carbon to 
the atmosphere every year for the past two decades. In fact, the 
current levels of carbon dioxide are likely the highest they have been 
in 20 million years of history.

  In the face of this mounting evidence, what have we done? I am afraid 
we have a statement from President Bush saying that he ``takes the 
issue of global warming very seriously.'' But, unfortunately, thus far 
the acts that have followed that statement do not match the statement.
  I am afraid the only global cooling that will occur under this 
administration is the cooling of our foreign relations with countries 
around the world, including some of our foremost allies who are very 
anxious to work with us to do something about global warming. Last 
month the administration unilaterally announced, without consultation 
with Congress, and apparently without consultation with our allies or 
others around the world, that it had ``no interest in implementing'' 
the Kyoto Protocol. In doing so, the administration did not just back 
away from America's signature on an international agreement. They 
backed away from the process that resulted in the accord, and that 
action not only undermines our global environment but it also 
undermines our credibility with our allies.
  This is one issue that is so serious and will so profoundly affect 
the lives of our children and grandchildren and those who follow us 
here on Earth that we ought to be at the head as the greatest nation in 
the world of international efforts to stop this problem, to deal with 
it, and not be viewed by most of the rest of the world as loners going 
our own way not listening to science experts and not acting 
responsibly.
  I am afraid the Bush administration has also walked away from its 
chief domestic initiative on climate change, which was a very hopeful 
initiative, when it reversed the President's campaign pledge to adopt a 
market-based trading mechanism regulation of carbon dioxide emissions 
from powerplants. Those emissions account for up to 40 percent of our 
Nation's carbon dioxide emissions and 10 percent--one-tenth--of the 
global carbon dioxide emissions at this point coming from American 
powerplants.
  We have to take firm and decisive action--we ought to be taking it 
together; we ought to be taking it across party lines--to address 
global warming. If we act soon, we can still avoid the bleak fate that 
will otherwise await our children and grandchildren on this good Earth 
that the Good Lord gave us. We are visitors here, temporary visitors. 
We have an obligation to act not only as good visitors but as trustees 
of the planet for those countless generations that will follow.
  Science is giving us a warning. We all ought to put ideology aside 
and figure out a way to cooperate to respond to that warning, to 
protect the planet and those who will follow us on it. Doing so will 
require two things. One is global leadership, and the other is a shared 
effort to change the source of the problems and deal with them through 
technology and through cooperative effort.
  In the clear absence of Presidential action thus far, we in the 
Senate, I am pleased to say, have begun to provide some leadership on 
this issue. Just before the recess, we passed an amendment to the 
budget resolution that reestablished funding for all climate change 
programs throughout our Government, including funding for energy 
efficiency programs, funding for programs to encourage emissions 
reductions in developing countries, and the funding for full and 
adequate participation in international negotiations.
  I hope President Bush and others in the administration will take note 
of the Senate's concern about climate change, represented by this 
amendment, and join with us in taking action on this problem. There 
have been some strong voices within the administration that clearly 
understand the dimensions of the problem and want to work to be leaders 
in dealing with it. I am speaking of the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. 
O'Neill, and the Administrator of the EPA, Ms. Whitman.
  The alarming conclusions of the U.N. scientists' report should be of 
concern to all of us. Global warming is most decidedly not a partisan 
issue; it is a human problem. It is a problem for all of us who inhabit 
the Earth. Neither party wants to allow the apocalyptic future 
projected by the scientists' report. The evidence is compelling. Our 
planet is, in fact, slowly overheating. So now we have to join together 
across party lines and international borders and agree to act. This is 
a challenge because we are talking about a problem whose beginnings we 
can see now but whose worst effects will probably, hopefully, not be 
felt until some years have passed.
  So this requires leadership--political leadership--to avoid a problem 
whose worst effects most of us will not experience in our lifetimes, 
but it is the responsible thing to do to take such action.
  Kyoto set a framework. I was at Kyoto when that agreement was 
negotiated. It is not a perfect document by far. But considering the 
fact that we were dealing with so many of the nations of the world, 
approaching this problem from different places, it is a framework for 
international cooperation.
  I hope the administration, on second look, will view it that way, 
will go to

[[Page S3937]]

the international meeting in Germany in July, which is the next step in 
the Kyoto process, will consult with our allies and others in the 
world, and will find a way, together with us--both parties in 
Congress--to move forward to deal with this problem.
  We deal with serious problems every day in the Senate. It is part of 
the challenge and, indeed, the excitement of the privilege we have to 
serve our Nation. It is when we deal with those problems effectively 
that we have together--all of us--the moments of greatest satisfaction.
  This, in the long run, is one of the largest problems which any of us 
in this Chamber will ever confront. The sooner we get together and make 
some progress to deal with it, the better will be the world's future.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will please call the 
roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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