[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 112 (Wednesday, July 31, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H5187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CALIFORNIA AND RISING SEA LEVELS

  (Mr. LOWENTHAL asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LOWENTHAL. Mr. Speaker, climate change is a long-term threat to 
my home State of California and to all coastal States. Climate change 
will increase the risk of flooding and eventual submersion of millions 
of American low-lying homes.
  Mr. Speaker, I hold up this article that a group of scientists from 
Princeton and the University of Arizona recently published, a journal 
article that quantifies State by State the coastal populations that are 
exposed to storm surges and sea level rise.
  The researchers found that in California there are more than 138,000 
housing units and over 325,000 Californians living on land that is 
below one meter of high tide. And in the entire United States, there 
are approximately 3.7 million Americans living on land below one meter 
of high tide.
  Mr. Speaker, if Congress and the world does nothing, climate change 
will have a devastating impact on these 3.7 million Americans who are 
on the front line of climate change. And that number will only grow.

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