[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 187 (Wednesday, November 15, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7267-S7268]
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 farms to 
our forests, to our fisheries. We are seeing huge impacts around the 
world: disappearing ice in the Arctic, melting permafrost, dying coral, 
raging fires, more powerful storms. Everywhere you look it is having an 
impact, and it is certainly an impact we need to pay a great deal of 
attention to because it is hurting human civilization, and the impacts 
are just beginning. They are going to become worse over time.
  In response, communities across the globe are transforming their 
energy economies. They are certainly making their energy economies more 
efficient, from increasing insulation in buildings to improving vehicle 
mileage, to greater efficiency in appliances and in replacing fossil 
fuel energy with clean renewable energy.
  How much do you know about the changes underway, about the dramatic 
modifications of our energy economy and the impacts of climate 
disruption? Let's find out. Welcome to episode 8 of the Senate Climate 
Disruption Quiz. Here we go.
  First question. Researchers predict there will be an ice-free Arctic 
by the summer of what year?
  Will it be the year 2020, 3 years from now; the year 2030, the year 
2075, or will it be 2100, the end of the century?
  Lock in your answers.
  Here is the correct answer. That is B, the year 2030. Researchers say 
that as early as 2030, the Arctic Ocean could lose all of its ice 
during the year's warmest months.
  We see here a map of what has been happening in the past. The red 
outlines, in addition to the white, represents where the ice was in 
1980. In 1998, less area is covered; in 2012, even less area is 
covered; and in the last two summers, the Northwest Passage has been 
free of ice, and that has enabled a ship called the Crystal Serenity to 
move up and essentially take tourists through the Northwest Passage, 
where you can see it was ice-covered in 1980. So that is a big change.
  If we have an effort to address the improvements made in Paris, then, 
yes, there would still be ice here in that year of 2030, in an area 
about the size of India, but you can see it is really shrinking 
quickly.
  OK. On to our second question. Over the next decade, the number of 
U.S. wind energy technicians is expected to decline by 10 percent; grow 
by over 100 percent, which is to double; remain about stable; or 
disappear entirely?
  Lock in your answers.
  The correct answer is B, grow by over 100 percent. In other words, it 
will double. These are good jobs. Last year, less

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than 100,000 people were employed in some manner by the wind industry, 
and the median pay was about $51,000 a year--a good middle-class job. 
We are seeing the jobs grow as the demand for wind energy grows 
throughout the country. The American Wind Energy Association says that 
in just the first 3 months of 2017, 2,000 megawatts of wind power were 
added, which is almost a fourfold increase over what happened in the 
first 3 months of 2016. So big changes are happening quickly.
  Question No. 3. President Trump's administration released a study in 
November, the National Climate Assessment. Did President's Trump's 
study attribute the major cause of climate disruption to volcanic 
activity, or did his study say that the major cause was natural cycle, 
human activity, or solar activity?
  Lock in your answers.
  The answer is, on this study from President Trump's team, not 
volcanic activities, not solar activity, and not a natural cycle. It 
was, in fact, human activity.
  This is a study from the Trump administration. They produced a chart 
that looked at the temperature increase and measured how much can be 
attributed to human-caused activity. You can see the chart here, how 
much was attributed to solar--very little impact--and how much can be 
attributed to volcanic activity, and that was actually negative. So the 
Trump administration has produced a huge statement that human activity 
is causing the increase of the temperature of our planet.
  Question No. 4. Why did India shut down New Delhi's schools--that is 
4,000 schools--why did they shut down New Delhi's schools for several 
days in November? Was it, A, lead in the water; B, religious tensions; 
C, record air pollution; or, D, population explosion?
  Lock in your answers.
  The correct answer is, in fact, record air pollution. This can be 
measured, but you can also see it. I will put up a picture of that 
pollution in New Delhi. Now we can barely see these people from a short 
distance away riding a motorcycle. The father is clamping his hand over 
his son's face to help reduce the impact of the air pollution on the 
children.
  This air pollution was considered to be equivalent to smoking 50 
cigarettes a day. The doctors are saying kids coming in who should have 
pink lungs have dark lungs--gray, black lungs. So it is having a huge 
health impact.
  The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi measures the air quality by a category 
that is known as particulate matter, PM2.5. It refers to miniscule 
particulate matter of diameters of 2.5 micrometers or less. These are 
the very tiny particles that can lodge deep in the lungs and cause all 
kinds of problems in the lungs as they are absorbed into the 
bloodstream.
  The EPA standard--the Environmental Protection Agency standard--
considers anything between 151 and 200 as unhealthy. What they 
registered on this day was 1,000. It topped the 1,000 mark. You can 
understand then how dangerous that is. This is from burning fossil 
fuels causing this pollution and specifically burning coal.
  That brings us to our final question, Question No. 5. What percent of 
American voters support staying in the Paris Agreement? This, of 
course, is the international agreement in which every country in the 
world is now involved. Recently, there were two countries that had not 
signed up, and that was Nicaragua and Syria, but they now have both 
signed up. President Trump has said he plans to leave. Technically, we 
are still signed up because he can't leave under the agreement until 
November 2020. Still, because he said we are planning to leave, it has 
produced a lot of reaction by American citizens and those for and 
against.
  What percent of American voters support staying in? Is it zero; 15 
percent, a little more than one out of eight; or 45 percent, just shy 
of half; or 70 percent?
  Lock in your answers.
  Well, the Yale Program on Climate Communication did a poll which was 
released earlier this year, and the answer is that 70 percent, 7 out of 
10 Americans, say stay in. Now this support for the Paris Agreement is 
more than half for every party, including the unaffiliated or 
independent voters. It is very high among Democrats, 86 percent; among 
Independents it is 61 percent; but 51 percent, more than one out of 
every two Republicans say, yes, stay in. They also took a look at self-
identified voters for President Trump, and, there again, more than one 
out of two, a majority of them, said to stay in.
  So there you have it, folks. Episode 8 of the Climate Disruption 
Quiz, issues ripped from the headlines on the most important issue 
facing the survival of humankind on this planet.
  Carbon dioxide levels are accelerating and running through the roof. 
The temperature of our planet is accelerating. Our planet has caught a 
fever, and there is no doctor for the planet. We have to address it. We 
have to act. We are the first generation to experience the impacts and 
the last generation that can head off catastrophic consequences.
  We are racing with the clock. There is no time to spare. So stay 
engaged, and in the future, I will bring you episode 9 of the Senate 
Climate Disruption Quiz.
  Thank you.

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