[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 32 (Wednesday, February 25, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1124-S1125]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLIMATE CHANGE

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I am here for the 90th time to urge my 
colleagues in the Senate to take action on climate change. The science 
is clearly worthy of our trust, and it is indeed time to wake up.
  The human contribution to climate change is no longer up for 
legitimate debate. We know that carbon pollution accumulates in the 
atmosphere. We know that carbon dioxide traps the sun's heat. We have 
actually known that since Abraham Lincoln was President. We know that 
the atmosphere and the oceans are heating up. We can measure that.
  Ocean acidification and sea level rise are also measurable, and they 
are caused by carbon pollution. These risks to our environment, to our 
health, to our economy, and to our national security are every week 
more apparent.
  News this week from New York City was that an advisory panel of 
scientists, engineers, and risk management experts just reported that 
the sea level rise along that city's shoreline--approximately 12 inches 
since 1900--may have expanded Superstorm Sandy's flood area by as much 
as 25 square miles, flooding the homes of some 80,000 people. That is 
pretty real.
  The report's prognosis for the future puts the city in pretty deep 
water. New York City expects its local sea levels to rise by 11 to 21 
inches more by 2050 and as much as 6 feet by 2100.
  When he was mayor, Michael Bloomberg began in the wake of Hurricane 
Sandy an ambitious plan to shore up New York with levees, with storm 
barriers, and with other coastal defenses to make that great city more 
resilient in the face of rising seas. That plan is estimated to cost 
nearly $20 billion to fortify just one city, albeit a great one--New 
York City--against rising seas.
  Let's look south to another major American metropolitan area, Miami-
Fort Lauderdale, which also faces daunting projections of rising sea 
levels.
  This map I have in the Chamber shows 3 feet of sea level rise in 
Miami-Dade County. This is before. This is after. As we can see, they 
have lost acres. All of this back to the coast is gone, acre upon acre 
of that city. This nuclear power station right here, Turkey Point, and 
this sewage treatment plant which serves that municipal area have both 
become islands.
  I visited Florida last year to hear firsthand about the threats that 
climate change poses to the Sunshine State. I met Glenn Landers, a 
senior engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Everglades 
Division. He has worked on water resources and restoration projects in 
Florida for nearly 20 years. This is the map he used to show me what 
just 2 feet of sea level rise would mean for South Florida. There is a 
lot less of it.
  Like New York, they have measured almost 1 foot of sea level rise in 
South Florida in the last 100 years. And like New York, the Southeast 
Florida Regional Climate Compact--which is a bipartisan coalition of 
four South Florida counties--once we get away from this building, it 
turns out this can actually be a bipartisan issue; that cloud of 
special interest money that wraps the Congress isn't as apparent when 
you get to Florida counties. That bipartisan coalition predicts, like 
New York, again, continued sea level rise. Indeed, the waters around 
southeast Florida could surge up to another 2 feet in less than 50 
years. As we can see, most of the iconic Everglades--which is the 
largest tract of wilderness east of the Rocky Mountains and home to 
some of the most rare and endangered species in America--will be under 
seawater.
  Now, there is some resemblance between New York and Florida in the 
threat of sea level rise. But the resemblance to New York diverges when 
we look at some of the unique features of the Florida peninsula.
  First is its low elevation. Miami is just 6 feet above sea level. Six 
feet of sea level rise goes a long way.
  Second, southern Florida, as the Army Corps of Engineers constantly 
attests, rests on porous limestone. In New York, levees and dams can be 
built that will hold the ocean back. They can fortify New York City and 
wall it in like Holland. In Miami, they would be building those 
structures on a geological sponge. The rising water will just seep 
right under. And even in the higher areas that might still stay dry, 
saltwater will infiltrate the underground drinking water.
  Of all the people and all the homes in the Nation at risk from rising 
seas, an estimated 40 percent are in the State of Florida. The Risky 
Business Project estimates that between $127 billion and $150 billion 
worth of property in Florida will be under the mean high tide by 2050. 
You might want to be careful where you buy in Florida these days if you 
plan to be around a while.
  If we take into account damage from coastal storms, Florida could 
face an additional $4 billion in damage per year.
  Luckily, Florida is home to a number of the country's leading 
research institutions. Scientific experts at Florida universities are 
actively researching and trying to plan for the State's changing 
climate.
  Professor Harold Wanless of the University of Miami puts it pretty 
bluntly:

       Everyone wants a nice happy ending. But that's not reality. 
     We're in for it. We have really done a job warming our ocean, 
     and it's going to pay us back.

  The Florida Climate Institute is a network of universities and public 
organizations that provides Florida policymakers and businesses with 
reliable, region-specific, factual information. The group includes the 
University of Florida, Florida State, the University of Miami, Florida 
A&M, the University of Central Florida, Florida Atlantic University, 
the University of South Florida, and Florida International University.

[[Page S1125]]

  Let me focus on Florida International University in Miami. FIU leads 
the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research Program to 
study the effect of climate change and human activity on freshwater 
availability in the Everglades. FIU hosts the International Hurricane 
Research Center on its campus and recently established the Extreme 
Events Institute, devoted to making communities more resilient to 
extreme weather.
  Institute director Richard Olsen, who is an international expert on 
disaster response and resiliency, has called sea level rise ``a slow 
onset disaster'' for South Florida.
  Four professors of FIU's School of Journalism and Mass Communication 
set up a media outreach initiative called Eyes on the Rise. Students in 
this program have produced documentaries to air on local television 
about the effect of sea level rise on local communities, on real estate 
prices, and on economic growth in southern Florida.
  FIU is a member of the American College and University Presidents' 
Climate Commitment, a network of schools taking action to reduce 
greenhouse gas emissions and promote climate research. FIU has adopted 
a plan to bring emissions 25 percent below 2007 levels before 2030.
  On my Florida visit, Dr. Mike Heithaus, a marine scientist and dean 
of the College of Arts and Sciences at FIU, said:

       We're really standing here at ground zero. There's just 
     about nowhere else on the planet where there is more at risk 
     from sea level rise so fast.

  He gets it. They get it. That is why Florida International University 
is at the fore of climate research and education, particularly as it 
affects the State of Florida.
  But there is another member of that faculty who doesn't seem to get 
it, one of our Senate colleagues, the junior Senator from Florida. He 
teaches political science part time at FIU. Last month, however, that 
junior Senator from Florida voted against amendments to the Keystone XL 
bill stating that climate change is real and that humans contribute to 
it. Apparently the message from experts across Florida and frankly from 
experts across campus that manmade climate change, especially sea level 
rise, is a big problem for southern Florida--well, apparently that 
message hasn't gotten through.
  What are Florida's other elected officials doing? Fort Lauderdale 
mayor Jack Seiler is working with NOAA, State and Broward County 
officials, and the South Florida Regional Planning Council to protect 
his city from flooding and climate change. Miami Beach mayor Philip 
Levine showed me the huge pumps his city has installed to pump out the 
flooding that comes in on high tides and from storms. Republican mayor 
Sylvia Murphy of Monroe County, which covers all of the Florida Keys 
and some of the Everglades, is a remarkable lady, and she has put 
climate and energy policy at the heart of her 20-year growth plan for 
the county. She is going to lose a lot of her county if we don't get 
ahead of this. And the senior Senator from Florida, my friend Bill 
Nelson, is an outspoken advocate for preserving the Florida coast and 
the Florida economy in the face of climate change.
  The Miami Herald recently wrote:

       South Florida owes Senator Nelson its thanks for shining a 
     bright light on this issue. Everyone from local residents to 
     elected officials should follow his lead, turning awareness 
     of this major environmental issue into action. It is critical 
     to saving our region.

  So said the Miami Herald.
  Unfortunately, the junior Senator does not seem to have followed his 
senior colleague's lead either in shining a bright light on this issue 
or in turning awareness into action.
  It is a little bit surprising that, according to a recent New York 
Times poll, an overwhelming majority of Americans support us taking 
action on climate change, including half of Republicans. Again, this is 
not that partisan of an issue once you get away from the polluter money 
that surrounds this building. Two-thirds of respondents said they would 
be more likely to vote for a candidate for President or for the Senate 
who explicitly campaigned on a platform of climate action.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to continue for an additional 
2 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. That includes 48 percent of Republicans as opposed to 
only 24 percent of Republicans who said they would be less likely to 
vote for such a candidate. So even among Republican voters, the balance 
tips in favor of climate action. If you look at young Republican 
voters--as I have said over and over on this floor--under the age of 
35, they think climate denial is ignorant, out of touch, or crazy. 
Those are the words they selected in the poll, not my words.
  Let's move west to Arizona. The folks at NASA--a pretty reputable 
organization--have a rover driving around on Mars right now that they 
control. These are people who know something about what they are doing, 
and the folks at NASA have made understanding our planet and its 
systems their life's work. This month their researchers released a 
study showing an 80-percent chance of a decades-long what they call 
``megadrought'' in the American Southwest, a multi-decade drought 
between 2050 and 2099 unless we act aggressively to mitigate the 
effects of climate change. Arizona could see half as much precipitation 
in the second half of the century as it did in the second half of the 
last century. It is a call to arms to protect the State of Arizona.
  Finally, here is this morning's newspaper headline: ``As ice melts, 
the future fades. Climate change may force Alaska natives to abandon 
their village.'' Lisa Murkowski, the Senator from Alaska, is quoted 
here. Senator Murkowski acknowledges the impacts of climate change on 
Alaska's coastal community.
  So maybe we are beginning to make some progress, but all around the 
country these effects are ones we have to begin to take more seriously. 
It is indeed time to wake up.
  I yield the floor.

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