[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 120 (Monday, July 17, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4019-S4020]
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 is the most significant test that human 
civilization on our planet has faced, and there are a lot of questions 
about how we are going to be able to come together as a community of 
nations and community of cultures to address this very significant 
threat to our beautiful blue-green planet.
  It affects everything from our farms to our forests to our fisheries. 
We see the impact in terms of disappearing glaciers, shrinking ice 
sheets, melting permafrost and dying coral. We see the impact on our 
farms, our trout streams, and our forests. We see the impact with 
migrating animals, migrating insects, and more powerful storms.
  In response, communities across the globe are taking action. They are 
transforming their energy economies. They are developing aggressive 
strategies to save energy in their buildings, in their vehicles, and in 
their appliances. They are working to replace their fossil fuel energy 
supplies with clean and renewable energy.
  How much do you know about the changes underway? Let's find out. 
Welcome to episode 3 of the Senate Climate Disruption Quiz. The first 
question we have is, Why did American Airlines cancel 57 flights 
between June 20 and 22? Was it extreme temperatures? Was it a pilot 
strike? Was it severe storms? Was it a fuel shortage? The answer is A, 
extreme temperatures.
  How is that the case?
  When air gets hotter, it gets thinner. Thinner air provides less lift 
for planes to take off, and eventually the runway isn't long enough for 
the plane to go fast enough to get enough lift to clear the runway. 
Therefore, all of these flights got canceled.
  It is not the first time it has happened. It happened in 2013 in 
Phoenix, with 18 flights canceled, but this was a pretty dramatic 
incident attributable to very extreme temperatures.
  Let's turn to question No. 2. How long was the recent streak of 
record-setting monthly temperatures--meaning, for example, that a given 
month like May was the hottest May ever, June was the hottest June 
ever, and July was the hottest July ever? How many months in a row did 
this happen? Did it happen for 6 months in a row? Or for 12 months in a 
row? Is it conceivable that this streak extended beyond a year to 16 
months or perhaps even for 2 years, to 24 months? Lock in your answer.
  The correct answer is C, 16 months. From May 2015 through August 
2016, each and every month was the hottest month on record. In 
September, 2016, the streak was broken, but only by a few hundredths of 
a degree. In fact, in September 2016, the temperature was still 1.6 
degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average.
  I have a math question to put in here. If you had climate data and 
temperature data for 50 years, what are the odds that, by chance, 16 
months in a row would be the hottest--each one the hottest among the 50 
previous months? What are the odds of that? Pull out your calculators, 
and take 1 out of 50, and take it to the 16th power. What do you get? 
You get that the odds are less than 1 out of a trillion trillion. That 
is the odds. In other words, this didn't happen by chance.
  Let's turn to question No. 3. Where in the world is the largest 
floating solar project? Maybe you have never even heard of a floating 
solar project. There is one. In fact, there are several. Where is the 
world's largest? Is it in China? Is it in Brazil? Is it in India? Or is 
it in Australia?
  By the way, here is a hint. All four of these actually have floating 
solar projects. Lock in your answer. Here is the answer.
  The answer is A, China.
  India has a small floating solar project, and it generates about 100 
kilowatts. Australia's is 40 times larger, at 4 megawatts, and it is 
roughly the equivalent of two wind turbines. Brazil's is yet larger, at 
10 megawatts. The largest floating solar project by far is in Liulong, 
China. The 40-megawatt solar plant is able to provide enough energy to 
15,000 homes. Because it floats, it uses less energy than most solar 
farms because the water acts as a natural coolant.
  There is something very symbolic about this largest-in-the-world 
floating solar project, and that is that it sits on a lake caused by 
the collapse of abandoned coal mines. It is as if it is saying to us: 
Let's transition from a fossil fuel economy to a clean, renewable 
energy economy, like electrons produced by solar power.
  Question No. 4, last year plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles 
made up less than 1 percent of global car sales. It is a very small 
amount. What was the percentage in Norway?
  Was it half a percent behind the world average? Was it 15 percent? 
Was it 37 percent? Or, perhaps, was it even more than one out of two 
cars sold in Norway? Lock in your answer.
  Here is the right answer. The answer is C, 37 percent. When the world 
average is under 1 percent, it is pretty impressive that Norway is at 
37 percent.
  In 2016, plug-in hybrids and fully electric cars made up 37 percent 
of the new car sales in Norway. That is a huge increase in just a 
couple of years. Three years earlier, the electric vehicles--the plug-
in hybrids and fully electric vehicles--accounted for only 6 percent of 
Norway's sales. In a short 3 years, it went from 6 percent to 37 
percent. This growth is a combination of fees on gas-powered and 
diesel-powered cars and subsidies for electric vehicles.
  Let's look at what else is happening with cars in the world. Volvo 
has announced that all of its new models from 2019 forward will have 
some form of electric drive. Then you see the growth of companies like 
Tesla, which only produces electric cars. It is becoming increasingly 
clear that the future of the global auto industry is electric.
  Let's turn to question No. 5, our final question. This one hits close 
to home for me as a Senator from Oregon. What killed billions of baby 
oysters in Oregon in 2007 and 2008? Was it red tide? Red tide occurs 
when an algae blooms, and it is a red bloom. It discolors the water, 
turns it red, and releases toxins that are absorbed by the clams and

[[Page S4020]]

other sea life, so that we can't go out and dig up our clams and eat 
them for fear of getting poisoned.
  Was it red tide that killed the oysters? Or was it the POMS virus, or 
the Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome virus, which affects Pacific 
oysters and can cause up to 100 percent mortality within days of 
initial detection? Was it sea lice--tiny jellyfish larvae that are 
tiny, almost invisible specks that are no larger than a grain of 
pepper? Or was it rising ocean acidity, caused by the emission of 
billions of tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the 
air that get absorbed by the ocean through tidal action? Lock in your 
answer.
  The correct answer is D, rising ocean acidity. How is this possible? 
How can you stand on the coast of Oregon and look out at the Pacific 
Ocean and envision that humankind has burned so much fossil fuel--so 
many fossil fuels--and that it has created so much carbon dioxide in 
the air and tidal action has absorbed that into the ocean and turned it 
into carbonic acid that it has changed the acidity of the ocean? It 
seems completely impossible. Yet over the last 150 years, the burning 
of fossil fuels by human civilization has increased the acidity of the 
ocean by 30 percent.
  In 2007, when I was running for the U.S. Senate for the first time, 
the oysters started dying. The scientists got involved. They said: What 
is going on? They said: Is it a virus? Is it a bacterium?
  It wasn't a virus. It wasn't a bacterium. After some time, they 
nailed it down simply to that the ocean water had become too acidic, 
that there was too much carbonic acid in the ocean from carbon dioxide 
pollution in the atmosphere. Where did that come from? From the burning 
of fossil fuels.
  Now, the water comes into the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in a 
very large pipe, and then it has to be buffered; that is, the acidity 
has to be decreased before that water continues into the vats with the 
baby oysters. For all we know, they will have to do this forever more, 
until we can turn the clock back on global climate disruption.
  If the oysters are being affected, what else is going to be affected 
in the sea chain? What is the impact on our coral reefs, which provide 
the foundation for many of the world's fisheries? That is something 
that we should rightly be very concerned about.
  There you have it, folks, episode 3 of the Senate Climate Disruption 
Quiz. How did you do? How many of those questions did you get right? 
The facts on the ground are changing very quickly as climate disruption 
increases and communities across the globe respond. Together we are 
racing the clock, and there is no time to spare. So stay engaged in the 
fight.
  In the near future, I will bring you episode 4 of the Senate Climate 
Disruption Quiz. In the meantime, if you have a good idea for a climate 
disruption question, please tweet that question to me at 
@SenJeffMerkley, using the hashtag ClimateQ4Jeff. Together, let's keep 
fighting to save our planet.
  Henry David Thoreau said: What use is a home if you don't have a 
tolerable planet to put it on?
  Let's work together to make sure we have a tolerable planet, a 
healthy planet, not just for this generation but for our children and 
our great-grandchildren and the generations to follow.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.