Congressional Record, Volume 148 Issue 46 (Tuesday, April 23, 2002)

[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 46 (Tuesday, April 23, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3115-S3117]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

GLOBAL WARMING

Mr. CARPER. Madam President, today marks, I believe, the 6th week
during which we have been debating the energy legislation that is
before us. In my own view, among the bills we will debate and discuss
and vote on this year in this Chamber, few, if any, are as or more
important.
I am encouraged there is a growing likelihood we actually may vote on
cloture and begin to reduce the scope of the amendments and the amount
of time that remains for this critical debate, to get to final passage,
and hopefully to enter a conference with the House and provide a
compromise the President can sign into law.
It is in our naked self-interest as a nation to finish our work and
to do so with some dispatch. We have heard countless times about our
growing dependence on foreign sources of oil, which is now approaching
60 percent. We have heard concerns from a number of Members related to
the trade deficit our Nation continues to run, a trade deficit that
exceeded $400 billion last year and roughly a third of which is
attributable to the oil we import.
I will take the next few minutes and share one other reason why we
should feel a sense of urgency in passing this legislation and
attempting to finalize a compromise with the House and the
administration. That deals with what is happening in the atmosphere of
our Earth: global warming.
This past Saturday, in Wilmington, DE, the annual Commonwealth Awards
were bestowed upon a variety of some of the most famous, remarkable
people in the world. Among the people who received the Commonwealth
this past

[[Page S3116]]

weekend were a husband and wife team who are researchers who work out
of Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. Their names are Dr. Lonnie
Thompson and Dr. Ellen Mosley-Thompson.
I ask unanimous consent the full statement of Calvert A. Morgan, who
presided at that event, be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:

Remarks of Calvert A. Morgan

The issue of global warming has been vigorously debated for
the past two decades. Is the climate on Earth getting
dangerously warmer, and if so, is modern-day air pollution to
blame? While many have exchanged rhetoric on the matter, two
American researchers have trekked to the world's remote ice
fields to dig for answers.
Dr. Lonnie Thompson and Dr. Ellen Mosley-Thompson are
husband-and-wife collaborators who study climate change and
global warming. They have spent the past 25 years collecting
and analyzing ice cores extracted from glaciers on the five
continents.
Their research has yielded a remarkable and priceless
archive of the earth's ancient climate.
What's more, their findings offer some of the most
convincing evidence yet that global warming is real, and
human activity is a contributing factor.
For their work in deciphering the Earth's frozen history
and its implications for our future, PNC honors these world-
class scientists with the 2002 Common Wealth Award for
Science and Invention.
The Thompsons conduct their work at the Byrd Polar Research
Center at Ohio State University.
Dr. Lonnie Thompson is a professor of geological sciences.
He has led some 40 international expeditions to collect ice
cores from the mountains of Africa, South America and Asia.
Dr. Mosley-Thompson is a professor of geography. She has led
similar field programs to Greenland and Antarctica.
To understand the earth's past and present climate, our
honorees and their research teams analyze the chemical and
physical properties preserved in ice cores.
Lonnie Thompson's research is unique because it focuses on
the ice fields of the tropics and sub-tropics instead of
polar ice. He believes the hottest part of the globe is
crucial to understanding global warming. Tropical glaciers,
he says, are ``the most sensitive spots on Earth'' and serve
as ``an indicator of the massive changes taking place'' in
today's global climate.
But to find ice in the tropics, you have to climb pretty
high. The physical and logistical challenges of this high-
altitude research are staggering. First, there's the climb to
a nearly inaccessible mountaintop with about six tons of
equipment in tow.
Once the team gets to the expedition site, the challenges
continue. Equipment maneuvers over crevasses, the danger of
avalanches, frigid temperatures, thin air and frequent
windstorms are all part of a day's work.
While six tons of equipment go up the mountain, 10 tons
come back down when you add four tons of ice samples. Dr.
Thompson has experimented with bringing the ice down in his
hot air balloon, the Soaring Penguin. Most often, however,
each core sample is carried by hand in an insulated box and
brought back to laboratories at Ohio State University for
analysis.
For our honorees, the thrill of discovery far outweighs the
occupational hazards. For instance, a 1,000-foot-long ice
core, drilled from the Tibetan Plateau, reveals China's
climate history for the last 130,000 years. An ice core
record of this length from the sub-topics is unprecedented.
New cores from two sites in central and southern Tibet
reveal that the past 50 years have been the warmest in the
last 10,000 years in that part of the world.
Using two decades of ice core data and aerial mapping, the
Thompsons offer proof that the world's tropical glaciers are
melting faster and faster as the years pass.
The icecap on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, has
lost 82 percent of its area since it was first mapped in
1912. One-third of the area has disappeared just since 1989.
Based on this dramatic evidence, Lonnie Thompson predicts
that the snow cap of this storied mountain will be gone by
2020. He says the same fate awaits other mountain ice caps in
Peru and around the world. These vanishing glaciers ``will
have a massive effect on humanity,'' he says, posing an
urgent natural and economic threat around the globe.
The Thompsons believe that it is already too late to save
the tropical glaciers. Now, they race against time, gathering
more core samples before Earth's frozen history is lost
forever.
Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in showing our esteem
to these dedicated and courageous scientist, Dr. Lonnie
Thompson and Dr. Ellen Mosley-Thompson, winners of the 2002
Common Wealth Award for Science and Invention.

Mr. CARPER. I would like to share some excerpts of it today during my
own remarks:

Cores have been drawn from mountain tops from throughout the world.

New cores from two sites in central and southern Tibet
reveal that the past 50 years have been the warmest in the
last 10,000 years in that part of the world.
Using two decades of ice core data and aerial mapping, the
Thompsons offer proof that the world's tropical glaciers are
melting faster and faster as the years pass.
The icecap on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, has
lost 82 percent of its area since it was first mapped in
1912. One-third of the area has disappeared just since 1989.
Based on this dramatic evidence, Lonnie Thompson predicts
that the snow cap of this storied mountain will be gone by
2020. He says the same fate awaits other mountain ice caps in
Peru and around the world. These vanishing glaciers ``will
have a massive effect on humanity,'' he says, posing an
urgent natural and economic threat around the globe.

I think it is important, as we come to the end of the debate on this
energy bill, to remind ourselves that, yes, indeed, we import entirely
too much oil from around the world from people who do not like us, in
some cases, and who, I am convinced, use the resources we send to them
to hurt us. I think it is important that we remind ourselves of the
economic trouble we create for America by a growing trade deficit, a
third of which is attributable to our dependence on foreign oil, on
imported oil.
Lost in this discussion are the points that Drs. Thompson have made,
of which we were reminded in Delaware just this last Saturday; that is,
there is global warming. The climate of the Earth has changed and is
changing more rapidly as time goes by. Fully one-quarter of the carbon
dioxide that we put into the air comes from the cars, trucks, and vans
we drive.
As we prepare to approach the end of this debate, I hope we will not
only have done something to reduce our reliance on foreign oil, not
only done something to reduce our growing trade deficit, but that we
will have taken affirmative steps to reduce the amount of carbon
dioxide we are putting into our atmosphere, that literally is
destroying the icecaps of Mount Kilimanjaro and any number of other
mountains throughout our tropics and subtropics.
I used to think global warming was a figment of somebody's
imagination. I don't see how any of us anymore can say that is the
case. It is real. It is here. It is imminent. It is something we can do
something about, and we need to do that in the context of this energy
bill. I hope we will.
I yield the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada is recognized.
Mr. REID. Before the Senator from Delaware leaves the floor, I would
like to say, the Senator from Delaware and I came here from the House
of Representatives together in 1982. The Senator has always been very
studious. What I mean by that is that legislation is something he
reviews and studies and I am sure worries about. This legislation now
before the Senate is no different.
The Senator from Delaware is concerned, as he has indicated, with the
need for an energy bill. We had a vote on an issue that is of extreme
importance to the country. It did not go the

[[Page S3117]]

way a lot of us believed it should. The Senator from Delaware is coming
back at such time as I hope he can offer this amendment, with something
on which he has spent hours and days, coming up with something that is
reasonable and will meet many of the goals that need to be met,
allowing the United States to become less dependent on production.
I say to my friend from Delaware, I am very glad he is in the Senate.
He has brought to the Senate the same style that he had in the House of
Representatives and, I am sure, to the office of Governor, although I
am not as aware of his work as a two-term Governor of the State of
Delaware. But he has brought, really, a fine dimension to the Senate. I
am proud of the work he has done, as should be the people of Delaware.
Mr. CARPER. If the Senator will yield, I say to my friend, our
assistant majority leader, those words mean more than you know. I have
been called any number of things as Governor, as a Member of Congress,
and as a Member of the Senate, and studious is one of the kinder and
more generous.
It is an honor to work with the Senator. I thank him for his
leadership.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? Who seeks recognition?
Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BAUCUS. Madam 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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