[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:

       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. . . .
       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. 
     His wife, 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.

  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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