[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 186 (Tuesday, November 27, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7136-S7138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE RESOLUTION 708--EXPRESSING THE NEED FOR BOLD CLIMATE ACTION IN 
RESPONSE TO THE RELEASE OF THE UNITED NATIONS REPORT ENTITLED ``GLOBAL 
   WARMING OF 1.5 C, AN IPCC SPECIAL REPORT ON THE IMPACTS OF GLOBAL 
    WARMING OF 1.5 C ABOVE PRE-INDUSTRIAL LEVELS AND RELATED GLOBAL 
 GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSION PATHWAYS, IN THE CONTEXT OF STRENGTHENING THE 
     GLOBAL RESPONSE TO THE THREAT OF CLIMATE CHANGE, SUSTAINABLE 
DEVELOPMENT, AND EFFORTS TO ERADICATE POVERTY'' AND THE FOURTH NATIONAL 
  CLIMATE ASSESSMENT REPORT ENTITLED ``VOLUME II: IMPACTS, RISKS, AND 
 ADAPTATION IN THE UNITED STATES'' BY THE UNITED STATES GLOBAL CHANGE 
                            RESEARCH PROGRAM

  Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. Markey, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Van Hollen, 
Mr. Udall, Mr. Blumenthal, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Booker, Ms. Hirono, Ms. 
Smith, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Wyden, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Schatz, Mrs. 
Feinstein, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Reed, Mrs. 
Gillibrand, Ms. Cantwell, Ms. Harris, Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Hassan, and 
Mr. Bennet) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on Environment and Public Works:

                              S. Res. 708

       Whereas, on October 8, 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on 
     Climate Change released a report entitled ``Global Warming of 
     1.5 C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global 
     warming of 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels and related 
     global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of 
     strengthening the global response to the threat of climate 
     change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate 
     poverty'' (referred to in this preamble as the ``IPCC 
     report'') in response to an invitation from the United 
     Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;
       Whereas the IPCC report was written by 91 authors and 
     review editors from 40 countries, including the United 
     States, and was reviewed by thousands of expert and 
     government reviewers from around the world;
       Whereas, on November 23, 2018, the United States Global 
     Change Research Program delivered its congressionally 
     mandated Fourth Annual Climate Assessment report entitled 
     ``Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United 
     States'' (referred to in this preamble as the ``NCA 
     report'');
       Whereas the NCA report represents the findings of over 300 
     Federal and non-Federal experts and was reviewed by the 13 
     Federal agencies that comprise the United States Global 
     Change Research Program;
       Whereas the IPCC report found that--
       (1) increases in global temperature above pre-industrial 
     levels are overwhelmingly the result of anthropogenic sources 
     of atmospheric carbon and other greenhouse gases;
       (2) the last 50-year period in the Northern Hemisphere had 
     the warmest average temperature of any 50-year period in the 
     last 500 years;
       (3) Earth is already experiencing the consequences of 1 
     degree Celsius warming above pre-industrial levels in the 
     form of extreme weather, rising sea levels, longer and more 
     severe droughts, diminishing Arctic sea ice, and diminished 
     glacial and snow cover, among other impacts;
       (4) as the global temperature continues to rise, the 
     impacts of a warming atmosphere increase in severity;
       (5) the difference between warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius 
     and 2 degrees Celsius is substantial, and limiting warming to 
     1.5 degrees Celsius is affordable, feasible, and necessary to 
     protect people from the worst impacts of climate change, 
     including extreme heat, drought, floods, and increased 
     poverty and instability;
       (6) compared to warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius, warming at 
     or above 2 degrees Celsius could--
       (A) result in a global sea level rise of an additional 10 
     centimeters and substantially more summers without Arctic sea 
     ice;
       (B) worsen impacts to terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and 
     marine ecosystems; and
       (C) increase the risk of species loss and extinctions;
       (7) warming at or above 2 degrees Celsius could also lead 
     to--
       (A) a loss of greater than 99 percent of all coral reefs on 
     Earth; and
       (B) mass migration from regions most affected by 
     atmospheric changes;
       (8) at a rise in temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius, the 
     global population exposed to water stress could be 50 percent 
     lower than if the global temperature rises by 2 degrees 
     Celsius;
       (9) the number of people exposed to extreme heat waves 
     would rise substantially with an increase in global 
     temperature of 2 degrees Celsius rather than 1.5 degrees 
     Celsius;
       (10) at current rates of greenhouse gas emissions, Earth 
     will warm by 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels 
     by 2040; and
       (11) to avoid the effects of a rise in global temperature 
     of 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2040, net global greenhouse gas 
     emissions must be reduced by 45 percent below 2010 levels by 
     2030 and 100 percent below 2010 levels by 2050;

       Whereas the NCA report found that, in the United States--
       (1) rising sea levels caused by a changing climate already 
     threaten infrastructure and ecosystems; and
       (2) warming at or above 2 degrees Celsius will cause--
       (A) over $500,000,000,000 annually in lost economic output 
     from crop failure, lost labor, and damages related to extreme 
     weather;
       (B) crop yields of corn and soybeans to fall an average of 
     15 percent;
       (C) wildfires to burn at least twice as much forest area 
     annually;
       (D) an additional 2,000 premature deaths annually from 
     higher temperatures in the Midwest; and
       (E) sea levels to continue to rise, threatening public 
     infrastructure and coastal real estate valued at 
     $1,000,000,000,000;

       Whereas the United States is--
       (1) a global leader;
       (2) a member of the global community and is affected by 
     climate impacts such as those outlined in the IPCC report; 
     and
       (3) already suffering from the impacts of climate change;

       Whereas it is possible and economically beneficial to 
     transition to a low-carbon emission economy that would not 
     contribute to global climate change and would result in 
     sustainable economic growth; and
       Whereas the Government of the United States has failed to 
     enact policies to effectively transition to a low-carbon 
     emission economy or to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 
     line with scientific recommendations to reduce global 
     temperature changes: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) recognizes and accepts the findings of the 
     Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the report of 
     October 8, 2018, entitled ``Global Warming of 1.5 C, an IPCC 
     special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 C 
     above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas 
     emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global 
     response to the threat of climate change, sustainable 
     development, and efforts to eradicate poverty'';
       (2) recognizes and accepts the findings of the Fourth 
     National Climate Assessment report entitled ``Volume II: 
     Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States'' by the 
     United States Global Change Research Program; and
       (3) expresses that it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (A) reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with the 
     recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 
     Change and the United States Global Change Research Program 
     would help avoid the most devastating climate change impacts 
     and would be good for all people of the United States; and
       (B) immediate action by Congress and the executive branch 
     is needed to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 
     45 percent below 2010 levels by 2030 and 100 percent below 
     2010 levels by 2050.

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, the most important words of our 
Constitution are the first three: ``We the People.'' These words were 
written in supersized font so that anyone standing across the room 
would know exactly what the vision of our Constitution is all about: 
government of, by, and for the people, as Abraham Lincoln put it--not a 
nation by and for the privileged, not a nation by and for the powerful, 
but for the people.
  Unfortunately, we see too much today of our government being taken 
over by the powerful. We see the use of gerrymandering, which has 
totally corrupted the distribution of power in the House of 
Representatives just down that hallway. We see the use of voter 
suppression in State after State. My colleague from Illinois just 
pointed out that a man nominated to be a judge here in the United 
States of America was a key advocate, a key participant, a key 
architect of voter suppression. That should deeply trouble every Member 
of this body because if you believe in the vision of our Constitution, 
you

[[Page S7137]]

would be a full-on advocate for voter empowerment, not voter 
suppression.
  We see this played out in all kinds of different policies. We saw it 
played out in 2017 when the powerful drove through this body a $1.5 
trillion theft of Federal resources and distributed it to the richest 
Americans. That is what happens in corrupt countries far overseas. But 
it happened right here, right in this Chamber--a theft of $1.5 trillion 
out of our Treasury, distributed through that tax bill to the richest 
Americans. I can tell my colleagues after having done 360 townhalls in 
my home state, 220 of them in very red counties, no one has ever come 
up to me--not from the left or the right or the center--and said: I 
have a great idea. Let's raid the Federal Treasury and distribute it to 
the richest people among us. Yet that is what we see with government by 
and for the powerful, as demonstrated right now, here in this U.S. 
Senate and the House of Representatives down the hall.
  I will tell you where else we see it. We see it in the neglect of our 
responsibility to care for our beautiful blue-green planet. All across 
the land, we are seeing the devastating consequences of carbon 
pollution and the heat that it is trapping and the consequences that is 
driving. Yet here in this Chamber, on this most important 
responsibility, we do absolutely nothing. In fact, we make it worse, 
with the majority serving simply as the implementers of whatever 
version of fossil fuel special favor, special interest, powerful 
interest policy they can possibly think up--more and more for fossil 
fuels, more and more damage to our country.
  This, certainly, is a situation we are in where we are seeing our 
land pillaged and polluted. That is a battle we have been waging for 
many years, but this last week we had a powerful reminder of just how 
much trouble we are in. Just last week--last Friday--the Trump 
administration released the ``Fourth National Climate Assessment,'' and 
what it has to say is frightening. It is shocking. Realize that this is 
not some environmental group; this is not some leftwing think tank; 
this is the Trump administration releasing this report.
  This is what it has to say. It says that our climate is changing, 
that its impacts are being felt all around us because of human activity 
and the carbon pollution being released into the atmosphere from the 
burning of fossil fuels. This report was written by 13 Federal 
agencies, and it reiterates this point time and again, and it has the 
following sentence: ``Earth's climate is now changing faster than at 
any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result 
of human activities.''
  This is the statement from the Trump administration's 13 agencies 
that came together to alert us to exactly where we stand.
  What does this mean in real terms? Well, it means we are going to see 
many more extremely hot days and far fewer cold days. We are going to 
see more extreme weather events, like the recordbreaking heat waves, 
like the extensive wildfires out West, like the intensified and deadly 
hurricanes that have been crashing on our shores.
  We are also going to see the impact in our economy. The report 
estimates that within our children's lifetime, climate chaos will cost 
our Nation upward of one-half trillion dollars each year in crop 
damage, in lost labor, and in extreme weather damage to public 
infrastructure and that we will lose another $1 trillion each year in 
lost wealth and real estate along our coasts because of rising sea 
levels and because of more powerful hurricanes--hurricanes that remind 
us of Michael, Harvey, Irma, and Maria over the last 2 years.
  We will also see an impact on winter tourism because of lower 
snowpack in the mountains, which means less skiing, snowboarding, and 
snowmobiling.
  Back home in Oregon, when the snow level drops, we see a dramatic 
drop in snow tourism. We don't just think of it as tourism; we also 
think of it as our joy of being able to participate in these activities 
in our beautiful Cascade Mountains. Of course, that smaller snowpack 
means warmer, smaller streams--not too good for fishing--and it 
certainly means less water for irrigation.
  The report--again, the Trump administration report--estimates that in 
parts of the Midwest, farmers will be able to produce less than 75 
percent of the corn they produce today, with a similar impact on 
soybean yield, and corn and soybeans make up the vast majority of the 
127 million acres of the Midwest's agricultural production. That area, 
in fact, is one of the most intense areas of agricultural production in 
the world, responsible for $76 billion per year in economic activity. 
So when it takes a big hit, the economy of the Midwest takes a big hit. 
That means a lot of farmers losing their farms.
  Then we have the health impacts that are laid out in this report--
again, the Trump administration report. It lays out that there will be 
an estimated 2,000 additional premature deaths per year from extreme 
temperatures and unsafe breathing conditions. Within our child's 
lifetime, the report says, Chicago could resemble Phoenix, with up to 2 
months of over-100-degree days, and scorching temperatures could make 
Phoenix practically uninhabitable for up to 5 months of the year.

  Human health will also be affected with an expansion of mosquito-
borne and tick-borne illnesses and water-borne disease, as well as 
ailments related to air contamination from wildfire smoke. This isn't 
just some future challenge; it is a challenge we have today. In both of 
the last two summers, a good portion of my State was covered by smoke 
from wildfires, and the result was that a lot of people had breathing 
difficulties and more intensified breathing difficulties, and a good 
number ended up in the hospital. A lot of asthma was triggered by that 
smoke. A lot of people cancelled their outdoor activities during the 
time of year when we most value the opportunity to be on the beach, in 
the mountains, on the hiking trails, and at the lakes.
  Certainly, we saw economic consequences. Many of our outdoor concerts 
and venues, including festivals, had to cancel performances. I talked 
to the owner of a furniture store who said that even he was impacted 
because of the taint from the smoke smell. Certainly, our wine 
producers were concerned about what that might do to the taste of 
Oregon's fantastic pinot noir--the world's best, the best on the 
planet--pinot noir wine.
  So who will bear the brunt of these health emergencies? Is it the 
powerful and privileged, who are driving the policies to keep burning 
as much fossil fuels as they possibly can to turn their 
multimillionaires into multibillionaires? No. The powerful and 
privileged, living in their gated communities, with their air-filtered 
and air-conditioned mansions, will protect themselves. They will move 
to where the impacts are the least. Who will bear the brunt? The young 
and the old, whose immune systems are more susceptible to health 
problems; low-income and middle-income Americans, who can't afford to 
move to where there are fewer consequences, whose jobs are most likely 
to be impacted by the economic consequences of climate chaos.
  I know President Trump wanted to ignore his own report and put it out 
on Black Friday because he figured that the day after Thanksgiving is 
the day when the fewest Americans would pay attention. That is why I am 
on the floor right now to draw attention to this report, the Trump 
report, on the devastating consequences of continuing to burn fossil 
fuels.
  Everything we saw laid out in this ``National Climate Assessment'' 
from the Trump administration was echoed by the international report 
from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was released 
last month. That report summarized that within the next 12 years--we 
are not talking 12 centuries or 12 decades but 12 years--we are going 
to start feeling intensified effects of climate chaos on top of what we 
have already experienced. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 
report was put together by 91 researchers in 41 countries. They 
summarized that we have already passed the 1-degree centigrade warming 
mark, which is almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit. They said we are well on 
our way to the 2-degree mark, which means catastrophic climate chaos.
  If you were in the middle of the fires in Oregon, if you were in the 
middle of the fire in Paradise, CA, if you were in the path of 
Hurricanes Irma, Maria, or Michael, you might already say we have 
catastrophic climate chaos, but

[[Page S7138]]

they are using the term to describe a significant amplification from 
what we are seeing right now. They are ringing a five-alarm fire bell 
to say: This is the moment to wake up.
  Wake up, America. You are a democratic republic. You are supposed to 
be able to respond to the challenges that come before us. And we have a 
massive challenge: devastating consequences of carbon pollution. You 
must stop burning carbon. Find a path to change how we operate in 
transportation, how we operate in generating electricity. Address this 
issue. Hold every hearing, summon every scientist, ring every bell, and 
get to work. That is what these two reports are saying to us.
  So, colleagues, if you are sitting here asleep at the switch, you are 
not doing your job. If you are sitting here advocating for the fossil 
fuel industry, you are worse than not doing your job--you are helping 
to damage the land across this great Nation for all Americans. So wake 
up and get to work.
  This isn't a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, a blue county or 
red county. In fact, the biggest impacts are felt in our red counties, 
where the foundation of the economy is farming, fishing, and forestry, 
and every one of those is being impacted by this effect. So we, as 
representatives in our democratic Republic, with our ``We the People'' 
Constitution--it is our job to operate for the people, not for the 
powerful, not for the privileged.
  I will be introducing a resolution that recognizes and accepts the 
findings of these reports, acknowledges the expertise from 91 
scientists in 41 countries and 300 scientists in 13 Federal agencies, 
the combined efforts of these two reports that say that we are in 
trouble and we must act, and we must act in partnership with the world.
  We need to act here. We need to say to Trudeau of Canada: You want to 
be a climate leader. You claim you are a climate leader. Why are you 
tripling the size of the pipeline that serves the tar sands?
  We need to say to the leadership of Australia: Your outback is on 
fire during your winter. Your coral reefs are dying. The Great Barrier 
Reef has died in the last 10 years. Why are you doubling down on coal?
  We need to say to Japan: Don't base your energy future on liquefied 
natural gas, which is simply another fossil fuel strategy.
  We need to say to Germany: Why do you want this gas pipeline from 
Russia as a foundation for your energy future?
  Let's all be in this together because if any nation acts by itself, 
we can't change the course--the big course, the big picture--of the 
damage carbon pollution is doing. We have to work together. That means 
we now pivot and say: Let's recognize that renewable energy is now the 
cheapest energy. It is less expensive to generate a kilowatt hour of 
electricity from renewable energy, from solar wind, than it is from 
fossil fuels. Let's not just realize that carbon is doing all this 
damage; let's also recognize that the strongest economy will be built 
on the cheapest energy, which is renewable energy. So we have every 
reason to act.
  Let's remember that we were founded as a ``we the people'' vision, 
and let's honor that vision.

                          ____________________