[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 115 (Monday, July 10, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S3888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CLIMATE DISRUPTION

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, climate disruption is the seminal 
challenge of our generation. It affects everything from our farming to 
our fishing to our forestry. We see the impact in disappearing 
glaciers, shrinking ice sheets, melting permafrost, dying coral reefs, 
more powerful storms, and migrating animals and insects.
  In response, communities across the globe are transforming their 
energy economies. They are increasing the energy efficiency of their 
buildings and their vehicles and their appliances, and they are 
replacing carbon-polluting fossil fuel energy with clean, renewable 
energy.
  How much do you know about the changes underway? Let's find out.
  Welcome to episode No. 2 of the Senate Climate Disruption Quiz.
  First question: Which car company announced just last week that all 
of its new models will have an electric motor starting in 2019? Was it 
Toyota, which has the Prius currently, the Prius plug-in? Was it Volvo, 
known for its safety, or Honda, which advocates its fuel efficiency, or 
Ford, which has the all-electric Focus?
  The answer is B: Volvo. On July 5, Volvo announced that beginning in 
2019, every new model in its fleet will have some form of electric 
propulsion. These cars will include so-called ``mild'' hybrids 
featuring regenerative braking like the Prius, plug-in hybrids like the 
Volt, and fully electric cars like the Tesla. Volvo intends to do all 
of these forms.
  Now with electric cars in mind, let's move on to question No. 2: 
Which European country plans to ban the sale of new diesel and gas 
vehicles by the year 2040? Is it France or Spain or the United Kingdom 
or Switzerland? The answer is France.
  Last week, on July 6, France's Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot 
announced a new environmental plan for his country to reflect France's 
commitment to the Paris climate agreement. Minister Hulot not only said 
that France will ban the sale of new diesel and gas cars starting in 
2040, but will seek to shut down all of its coal-powered electric 
plants over the next 5 years--by the year 2022--and to pursue a 
``carbon-neutral'' economy by the year 2050. That is the same as a net 
zero production of carbon dioxide.
  Let's turn to a different part of the world. Let's go to the Southern 
Hemisphere. A crack in the Antarctic ice shelf will soon create an 
iceberg of what size? Will it be the size of Oregon, my home State, 
which is roughly 100,000 square miles; or the size of the Superdome in 
New Orleans, about 6 acres; or how about the size of Manhattan, 23 
square miles; or Delaware, which is much larger, at about 2,000 square 
miles? The answer is D, Delaware.
  The crack in this ice shelf will create an iceberg about the size of 
Delaware.
  This is Antarctica's fourth largest ice shelf. The crack is now 120 
miles long, and in some spots now it is 2 miles wide, and there are 
just 3 miles left in which it is attached to the ice shelf. So given 
the stresses that are being applied to that vast sheet of ice, the 
break is expected to happen in the next couple of weeks. When that 
happens, we will have an iceberg larger than 2,000 square miles--about 
the size of Delaware--and this will be such a large iceberg that it 
will contain roughly 1 trillion tons of ice.
  Question No. 4: Global production of what fossil fuel fell by 6.2 
percent in 2016? Was it coal or was it oil or was it natural gas?
  The answer is A: coal. According to British Petroleum's annual 
report, global coal production fell by over 6 percent last year--the 
largest decline since they started keeping statistics in 1950. What is 
driving the decline? It is shrinking coal production in both the United 
States and in China.
  What is happening in the other two sectors--oil and gas? There was a 
slight increase in the production of oil last year, and the production 
of natural gas was basically flat.
  Now, compare these to renewable energy, which grew very quickly last 
year. Global wind energy grew by more than 15 percent in a single year, 
but that is a small amount compared to global solar energy, which grew 
by almost 30 percent--in a single year, almost a one-third increase in 
global production. And renewable energy is now taking up a larger share 
of the primary energy production worldwide.
  Finally question No. 5: How many U.S. cities have joined the ``We Are 
Still In'' coalition? That is the coalition that was formed after 
President Trump announced he was going to withdraw the United States 
from the Paris accord. Is it 15 cities, 125 cities, 500 cities, or just 
100 cities?
  The correct answer is B, and of course the number is increasing even 
as we speak. President Trump announced on June 1 that he would pull the 
United States out of the Paris accord and, in just that short period 
since--a little over 5 weeks--125 cities, 9 States, 900 businesses and 
investors, and 183 colleges and universities have declared that they 
are committed to the vision of the Paris Agreement and to taking steps 
to be part of obtaining and securing that vision. Together, this 
coalition represents 120 million Americans and a $6.2 trillion share of 
the U.S. economy.
  It includes cities from the West, like Los Angeles, and the East, 
such as Baltimore. It includes cities in red States, like Houston, TX, 
and Tucson, AZ. It includes cities from the Southwest and Southeast, 
like Santa Fe, NM, from the Southwest, and Charleston, SC, in the 
Southeast.
  These are just a few of the 125 cities--cities led by Democrats and 
Republicans--because the fact is, the threat of climate disruption to 
our planet is not a partisan issue. It is not a red issue or a blue 
issue; it is an issue that impacts everyone on this globe, regardless 
of political ideology.
  So there you have it, folks. Episode No. 2 of the Senate Climate 
Disruption Quiz--questions ripped right from the headlines. How did you 
score?
  Every week we have surprising new facts--new facts on the ground 
about the changes in the environment and new facts about the response 
of communities across the globe.
  There is no question that we are racing the clock to take this on as 
human civilization, and there is no time to spare. So stay engaged in 
the fight.
  In the near future, I will bring you Episode No. 3 of the Senate 
Climate Disruption Quiz to present some of the new issues that will 
unfold in the coming days. If you are following this quiz at home and 
have a good idea for a climate disruption question, please tweet it to 
me at @SenJeffMerkley on Twitter, using the hash tag ClimateQ4Jeff.
  Let's fight together and save our beautiful blue-green planet.
  I yield the floor.

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