[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 7, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2773-S2774]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLIMATE CHANGE

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I am here now for the 66th consecutive 
week the Senate has been in session to ask my colleagues to wake up to 
the threat of climate change. The topic has become taboo for 
Republicans in Congress, and so the discussion on climate change is 
somewhat one-sided around here, but the recent comprehensive National 
Climate Assessment released this week shows Americans are witnessing 
the effects of climate change in every State of our Nation.
  Colleagues, read the assessment. Find out how climate change is 
affecting every region of the country.
  In March I visited Iowa, where I heard over and over that Iowans are 
awake to the threat of climate change and are actually ready to hold 
Presidential candidates accountable on climate when they go there for 
the first-in-the-Nation Presidential caucus.
  Over the April recess I spent 5 days traveling down the southeastern 
coast of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. I went 
there to talk to people on that coast firsthand. I met with scientists, 
students, outdoorsmen, faith leaders, and State and local officials--
people of diverse backgrounds, but all of them have one thing in 
common: their concern for the coastal communities they love. These 
folks know climate change is real because they see it where they live. 
They are not waiting around for this Chamber to get organized. They are 
acting.
  Last week I spoke here about the business owners, community leaders, 
and researchers I met in North Carolina. From there I headed into South 
Carolina. My first stop was the University of South Carolina's Baruch 
Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences.
  At the Baruch Institute, I learned how salt marshes--the ocean's 
nurseries and our first line of defense against storms and hurricanes--
have to adapt to rising sea levels. These marshes retain sediment as 
the tide goes in and out, and they slowly increase their elevation as 
the sea level rises, if given enough time.
  Dr. Jim Morris, director of the Baruch Institute, has been studying 
these marshes for decades. He is a renowned expert. He explained that 
sea level rise is starting to happen so fast that the marshes may not 
keep up. If they can't keep up, then the marsh deteriorates to mudflat, 
and the mudflat deteriorates to open water, which is already happening 
in places I visited. That deterioration from marsh to mudflat can 
devastate coastal property, infrastructure, and wildlife.
  Business as usual means sea level rise increases of 3 feet or more by 
2100. This chart illustrates what the Baruch Marine Institute and 
surrounding marshes would look like after this sea level change--before 
and after. It would be pretty much a goner.
  Next I visited the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, which 
extends for 22 miles and encompasses more than 6,000 acres of barrier 
islands, salt marshes, intricate coastal waterways, sandy beaches, 
fresh and brackish water impoundments, and maritime forest. Sea level 
rise threatens this area as well.
  One signal: Last year over 70 percent of endangered loggerhead turtle 
nests had to be relocated by people in order to prevent them from being 
flooded. This is a place where these turtles have been nesting for 
centuries, but now look at how coastal erosion is affecting their 
nests. These are the turtle eggs, and the coast has eroded. National 
Park Service officials there told me:

       This is not just about wildlife. This is about the 
     community. It's about your livelihood and well-being.

  They are right.
  According to a foreword in the report titled ``Climate Change Impacts 
to Natural Resources in South Carolina'' by Alvin Taylor, director of 
the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources--I mean, tell me how 
people from South Carolina are denying climate change is real when the 
State published a report called ``Climate Change Impacts to Natural 
Resources in South Carolina.''
  Here is what the report says:

       Climate-related changes may adversely affect the 
     environment in many ways, potentially disrupting or damaging 
     ecological services, water supply, agriculture, forestry, 
     fish and wildlife species, endangered species, and commercial 
     and recreational fishing . . . Fishing, hunting, and wildlife 
     viewing contributes almost $2.2 billion annually to South 
     Carolina's economy and supports nearly 59,000 jobs.

  How can they pretend it is not real? Business owners and executives 
in South Carolina are starting to take action on climate change. There 
is a South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, headed by Frank 
Knapp, who has organized something called the South Carolina Businesses 
Acting on Rising Seas to raise awareness among businesses and their 
customers of the threat posed to the Palmetto State. In cities 
including Charleston and Myrtle Beach, coastal businesses threatened by 
rising sea levels are displaying strips of blue tape in their window 
fronts where the water level would be to show their support for taking 
action.
  I continued down the coast and visited Charleston's Fort Johnson, 
where marine research facilities are located for NOAA, the College of 
Charleston, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the 
Medical University of South Carolina. The tide gauges in Charleston are 
up over 10 inches since the early 1920s. Deny that all you want. It is 
a measurement, it is not a theory.
  This chart shows what Fort Johnson would look like with 3 feet of sea 
level rise, which is projected for 2100. Nearly all the research 
facilities at Fort Johnson would be lost ironically to the very seas 
their research helps us understand. Three feet could actually be on the 
low end of sea level rise by 2100. This chart of Fort Johnson 
demonstrates what 3 feet of sea level rise looks like.
  During my visit at Fort Johnson, I heard from students, faculty, 
elected officials, and Federal and State employees all working at the 
leading edge of climate change and adaptation research. One scientist, 
Dr. Peter Moeller, described how climate change is allowing algae 
species to grow in waters where they were previously not found. As 
these algae species migrate to new areas, they encounter bacteria, 
fungi, and other unfamiliar algae. As Dr. Moeller explained to me, 
under these conditions, previously nontoxic algae can make dangerous 
toxins that are novel to science and nature. It almost sounds as if 
science fiction, but these are the consequences of human-caused climate 
change.
  My last stop in South Carolina was at a roundtable discussion at the 
Coastal Conservation League. There I heard from a diverse group of 
South Carolinians--researchers, environmental advocates, business 
owners, and faith leaders--about their efforts to raise awareness to 
the threats of climate change and to promote clean energy. I learned 
this: South Carolinians are not afraid to talk about climate change and 
how it is affecting their State--at least not until they get to 
Washington.
  When WCBD-TV in Charleston asked Representative Mark Sanford about my 
visit to his State, he actually said something quite nice. He said:

       At our family farm in Beaufort, I've watched over the last 
     50 years as sea levels have risen and affected salt edges of 
     the farm. I applaud Senator Whitehouse for getting people 
     together in the Lowcountry today to discuss this problem, and 
     while we would likely approach solutions differently, 
     building the conversation is a necessary first step.

  That is a helpful opening, and I appreciate that.
  Jim Gandy, chief meteorologist for WLTX Columbia, has been 
forecasting South Carolina weather for 28 years. He is affectionately 
known as South Carolina's weatherman. Jim was at the White House this 
week to interview President Obama about the National

[[Page S2774]]

Climate Assessment. Through his blog, ``Weather and Climate Matter,'' 
and his broadcasts, Jim makes weather and climate understandable for 
his viewers. I spoke with him while I was in South Carolina, and I 
learned that his TV station thought it may actually take some heat for 
Jim's discussing climate change on the air, and they were braced for 
the flow back. It never came. South Carolinians have their eyes open. 
It is only taboo here in Washington.

  I continued down into Georgia, to the heart of the Savannah Historic 
District. Audrey Platt, the former vice-chair of the Garden Club of 
America's Conservation Committee, invited me to her historic home in 
Savannah for a local meeting of the Garden Club joined by Savannah 
Mayor Edna Jackson. Also there was Reverend Mary Beene from the Faith 
Presbyterian Church who talked about the M.K. Pentecost Ecology Fund 
they run for ecological stewardship of natural resources.
  We headed out to Fort Pulaski and Tybee Island. There is a tide gauge 
at Fort Pulaski. It takes measurements. It is not complicated. It 
produces clear, irrefutable facts, not theories. At Fort Pulaski, NOAA 
measures that sea level has risen over eight inches. Projections for 
2100 put most of this region under water. This chart shows that sea 
level rise of 3 feet will devastate the area.
  Here is Fort Pulaski, GA, and the coast around it. That is what is 
left with 3 feet of sea level rise.
  On Tybee Island I had lunch with city officials and council members, 
representatives of the Georgia conservancy, NOAA scientists, Georgia 
Garden Club members, and local sustainability directors. The message 
was clear: Sea level is rising. Oceans are warming. Infrastructure and 
ecosystems that Georgians depend on are being threatened. One example: 
According to a University of Georgia biologist, sea level rise will 
affect the State's oyster crop. The oysters in Georgia thrive at the 
tidal edge, sometimes above water, sometimes below water, as the tide 
goes up and down. As rising sea levels come up, it will cause the 
oyster habitat to shift or leave them vulnerable to predation as they 
spend more time under water. Being out of the water actually protects 
them from underwater predators.
  The people of Tybee Island are preparing. Councilman Paul Wolff 
showed me the storm-water tide gate, which the City of Tybee put in 
place to accommodate higher tides and rising seas. He explained to me 
that the road out to Tybee Island--Tybee Road--which is, by the way, 
the island's only access road, will be flooded as much as 45 times per 
year with just one foot of sea level rise, and the city has already put 
in place a short-term plan for 14 to 20 inches of sea level rise by 
2060. What does that do to an island's economy if, 45 days of the year, 
people can't get there?
  Down the coast, I visited the University of Georgia's Marine 
Institute at Sapelo Island and its director Dr. Merryl Alber. Sapelo is 
a barrier island off the coast of Georgia managed by the Georgia 
Department of Natural Resources. The Marine Institute is a world 
renowned field station for research into coastal ecosystems. Here I 
learned how they measure what they call blue carbon, the amount of 
carbon stored in the salt marsh. They are doing that as part of the 
National Science Foundation's long-term ecological research program.
  Salt marsh, as it turns out, are huge carbon sinks. They absorb 
massive amounts of carbon. But the carbon that is stored there may be 
returned to the atmosphere and add to the climate problem if salt 
marshes succumb to sea level rise and have nowhere to migrate. We also 
heard how the intruding salt water is changing local marsh ecosystems 
and jeopardizing fresh water supply.
  Georgia actually runs a Coastal Management Program Coastal Incentive 
Grant Program to increase knowledge about sea level rise. If Georgia 
runs a Coastal Management Program Coastal Incentive Grant Program on 
sea level rise, how can people who represent Georgia in Washington 
pretend this isn't occurring?
  I ended the day in Georgia out on the water with Charlie Phillips, 
who is a terrific character, a great guy to be with--a local, very 
successful clammer. We went out on his air boat over the marshes that 
he built himself. He is also very knowledgeable. He is a member of the 
South Atlantic Fishery Management Council that runs the regional 
fishery. He has been an outdoorsman his whole life, and he needs fresh, 
clean water for his Georgia clams. Unfortunately, Charlie says that 
changes in climate are hurting the ecosystem that supports his 
livelihood--his and his employees. He worries about the future of his 
business.
  This is South Carolina and Georgia. When you actually go there, what 
do you find? Business owners, researchers, faith leaders, and elected 
officials, all responding to changes that they are witnessing. They 
understand. They see the risks that climate change poses, and they hope 
their representatives in Congress will wake up to the danger of climate 
change, the home-State danger that their constituents are already 
seeing happening right around them.
  After seeing the beauty of both South Carolina and Georgia along 
those lovely coasts, it is painful to see there the early warning 
symptoms of climate change. It called to mind President Theodore 
Roosevelt's message from more than 100 years ago to America's 
schoolchildren. It is sort of old fashioned language, but that was 
1907. He said this:

       [I]n your full manhood and womanhood, you will want what 
     nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly 
     destroyed. And because of that want, you will reproach us, 
     not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted. . . . 
     [A]ny nation which in its youth lives only for the day, reaps 
     without sowing, and consumes without husbanding, must expect 
     the penalty of the prodigal. . . .

  The people I met in South Carolina and Georgia, along with a huge 
majority of Americans nationwide, know that climate change is real. 
They see it happening in their lives, and they want us to take action. 
It is time for Congress to listen to their voices. It is time for 
Congress to listen to the fishermen who see the fisheries moving around 
and the oceans warming. It is time for us to listen to the clammers at 
the seashore who see the changes in the sea level and know what it 
means for them. It is time for us to listen to the foresters who see 
the pine beetle killing forests by the hundreds of square miles, and 
the firefighters who fight fires in those forests who see the fire 
season expanding by 60 days. It is time for us to listen to the farmers 
who see unprecedented drought and flooding. It is time for Congress to 
listen to the voices of their constituents before we all, in our 
foolishness and in our folly, must pay the penalty of the prodigal. 
Indeed, it is time for Congress to wake up.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.

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