[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 11, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H482-H483]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          WARMING OF THE EARTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, what I would like to do this evening is 
give the Members some ideas of a phenomenon that is occurring in the 
oceans that is clearly observed by the scientific community that is 
having an effect on the Earth's climate.
  Ocean currents that flow throughout the entire world stabilize the 
heat balance on the planet so that the northern

[[Page H483]]

hemisphere does not get frigidly cold and many people that live in the 
southern hemisphere are not forced to move because of the increased 
heat.
  To give some example of this, if you look in this area of Canada, you 
know that it is quite cold there. But if you go right across the 
Atlantic Ocean and visit England, you will know that the weather is 
quite moderate. In fact, the weather in England is often and most often 
is much more moderate than much further in latitude to the south and 
mid-Atlantic part of the United States.
  If you look at the Scandinavian countries and their latitude, in 
Labrador you will see that their climate is more moderate than the 
climate we see on that latitude in North America. The reason for this 
is the ocean has currents that take warm from the equatorial regions to 
the northern regions that moderate their temperature. At the same time, 
when those warm waters reach the north, because they get colder and 
because of the salinity they drop to the ocean bottom and come to the 
south. As they gradually warm, they rise, because we know that warm air 
rises and colds air falls. Well, that is the same thing that happens 
with water.
  Part of what I am trying to explain here is that there is a constant 
dispute about whether or not there is such a thing as global warming. 
Is the climate changing? Does human activity put more greenhouse gasses 
into the atmosphere to cause a warming in the atmosphere?
  What I would like to do in just a brief minute here is to explain the 
fact that there is clear, unequivocal evidence that the ocean surface 
water is warming. As a result of that, there is more evaporation in the 
equatorial regions of the ocean. With more evaporation, that means 
there is more rain further north, and so the northern ocean is becoming 
more fresh.
  Now what does that mean? What that means is, as the ocean current 
moves from the equatorial regions north in its current and it moves 
into the northern hemisphere, as the water becomes more fresh, it 
becomes less dense. That means it will sink a lot slower. As the water 
evaporates more, it leaves more saltwater in the southern hemisphere, 
less saltwater in the northern hemisphere.
  There are two things that cause this ocean current to occur, fresh 
water and salinity. As the ocean water becomes more salty, it sinks up 
here; and when it sinks to the bottom, it returns down to the 
equatorial regions like we have here. When the ocean becomes saltier up 
here and more or less saltier, that water sinks.
  Without becoming too complicated, the phenomenon is that the ocean 
currents are changing as a result of the increase in temperature of 
surface water. The increase in temperature of surface water is 
happening because, over the last 40 years, the warmth or the increase 
in temperatures in the atmosphere is moving up.
  Now, whether or not you think there is more CO2, more 
greenhouse gasses, is almost at this point beside the point, because 
the fact of the matter is here, over the last 40 years, temperatures on 
the planet have been increasing, thereby causing the temperatures of 
the surface of the ocean to increase. As a result of that increase in 
temperature of the ocean, we are actually redistributing fresh water 
and saltwater so we are having an effect on ocean current.
  Saltwater, the density of salt, the amount of fresh water in its 
distribution of the ocean are fundamental to moving water from one 
place to another. As a result of that, as a result of the current 
moving in this way, the cycle of ocean current is slowing down; and 
when the cycle of currents slow down there is less warm water moving 
north and less cold water moving south. The result of that, this region 
of the United States receiving less warm water, this region of Europe 
is moving into an era when it is becoming colder. So that is a 
counterintuitive observation when you consider that the Earth is 
getting warmer.

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