[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 52 (Tuesday, March 26, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1989-S1991]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. HIRONO:
  S. 868. A bill to address the disparate impact of climate change on 
women and support the efforts of women globally to address climate 
change, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to denounce the 
majority leader's sham debate on the Green New Deal.
  Let's be clear. The majority leader did not call up this resolution 
for a vote because he thinks climate change is an urgent threat to our 
country. In fact, he has opposed nearly every congressional effort to 
combat the climate crisis.
  The Republican Party's political and financial ties to the fossil 
fuel industry are well known. This latest effort to attack Senators 
demanding action on climate change with cries of socialism is 
reminiscent of the Red Scare, in my view.
  Give me a break. The Green New Deal is an aspirational plan to combat 
climate change, create high-paying jobs, and develop a more sustainable

[[Page S1990]]

economy that allows communities, families, and individuals to thrive. 
This isn't radical. This isn't socialism. This is basic common sense. 
The truly radical position is the majority leader's insistence that we 
stick our heads in the sand, follow the lead of corporate-backed 
interests funding Republican campaigns, and do nothing to tackle 
climate change.
  The status quo might benefit the majority leader, the Republican 
Party, and their allies in the fossil fuel industry, but it is deeply 
dangerous for our country. Climate change is already impacting our 
lives and damaging our economy.
  Annual weather-related natural disasters have more than tripled 
worldwide since the 1960s, when scientists at the Mauna Loa Observatory 
on the big island of Hawaii first confirmed that carbon dioxide levels 
in the atmosphere were steadily rising due to the burning of fossil 
fuels. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, NOAA, the United States has sustained 139 weather and 
climate disasters--beginning with Hurricane Katrina in 2005--where 
damages exceeded $1 billion. The total cost of these 139 disasters? 
Nearly $1.1 trillion.
  Last year, in 2018, the United States experienced the fourth highest 
number of weather disasters in our history at the tremendous costs of 
247 lives lost and $91 billion in damages. In Hawaii last year, we 
registered recordbreaking flooding on Kauai and Oahu that resulted in 
more than $125 million in damages. That storm generated the largest 24-
hour rainfall accumulation in American history at nearly 50 inches on 
Kauai's North Shore in a very short period of rainfall time.
  Residents of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands also 
felt the devastating impact of Typhoon Yutu--the worst storm to hit any 
part of the United States since 1935. It certainly isn't a coincidence 
that 2018 was also the fourth hottest year on record, surpassed only by 
2016, 2015, and 2017.
  We have already seen the devastating cost of climate-driven disasters 
in the first 3 months of 2019. Eleven days ago, Tropical Cyclone Idai 
devastated Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, killing hundreds of 
people. It is already being called one of the worst weather-related 
disasters ever in the southern hemisphere.
  Closer to home, the Missouri River has already set record levels of 
flooding in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. Under current estimates, 
this historic flooding in the Midwest will cost at least $3 billion in 
damages to roads, farms, homes, and businesses. According to Texas A&M 
University climate scientist Andrew Dessler, climate change is 
exacerbating the flooding. He said: ``You can think of climate change 
as steroids for these rain events.''
  More is on the way. According to the spring weather outlook NOAA 
released last Thursday, more than 200 million Americans are at risk for 
some kind of flooding, with 13 million of them at risk of major 
inundation.
  Given the increasing intensity and frequency of severe weather 
events, many more States and communities will need disaster relief, 
something we are about to vote on later this week. Disaster relief is 
something we cannot, and should not, play politics with. Every 
community impacted by natural disasters should receive assistance in 
the upcoming supplemental appropriations bill, including Puerto Rico, 
the Northern Mariana Islands, and other territories.
  While these extreme weather events will continue to impact local 
communities and the American economy, climate change also threatens our 
national security. Like a large majority of the American people, senior 
national security and Department of Defense officials understand we 
can't just follow the majority leader's example and stick our heads in 
the sand to avoid the painful truth of climate change.
  In 2017, for example, then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis told the 
Senate Armed Services Committee: ``Climate change is impacting 
stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating.'' He 
also stated that ``climate change is a challenge that requires a 
broader, whole-of-government response.''
  In February, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats issued a new 
worldwide threat assessment that concluded that climate hazards like 
extreme weather, wildfires, droughts, and acidifying oceans are 
``threatening infrastructure, health, and water and food security'' 
around the world. This means there will be more threats to our national 
security in an increasingly unstable world environment.
  Faced with a global problem that threatens our national security, 
President Trump, with the support of Republicans in Congress, announced 
he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. He 
has, in effect, abdicated America's global leadership role in the 
climate crisis, alienated our allies, and created new opportunities for 
near-peer competitors like China. At the same time as the United States 
embraced climate denial on the international stage under Donald Trump, 
China has stepped up to fill the diplomatic void.
  After the latest round of international climate talks in November, 
Canada's Minister of Environment, Catherine McKenna said:

       When the U.S. stepped back, China decided to step up. The 
     role China plays around the negotiating table can't be 
     underestimated.

  In addition to its diplomatic efforts, China has made significant 
policy changes to reduce its coal use from its 2013 peak and to scale 
up low carbon alternatives. China is now the world's leading producer, 
exporter, and installer of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and 
electric vehicles.
  China isn't the only country on the global stage acknowledging the 
reality of climate change and taking steps to combat it. German 
Chancellor Angela Merkel, for example, has said: ``Climate action is a 
matter of both ecological necessity and economic rationality.''
  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said:

       The effects of climate change are everywhere, and they are 
     a constant reminder of the need to act now. While climate 
     change is the biggest challenge of this generation, it also 
     provides the opportunity to do better while growing the 
     economy.

  Under the previous 2 years of their unified control of the White 
House and Congress, Republicans have repeatedly blocked any efforts to 
combat climate change. With Democrats now in control in the House, I am 
looking forward to working with like-minded colleagues to demonstrate 
there are those of us ready and willing to act.
  Today, I am joining Representative Barbara Lee of California to 
introduce the Women and Climate Change Act of 2019. This bill 
recognizes that while the negative impacts of climate change often 
impact women the most, they too often don't have a seat at the table 
when it comes to developing policy.
  Our bill creates a Federal interagency working group that will 
collect data and develop policies and strategies to address the effects 
of climate change on women both at home and abroad. We need to empower 
women to tackle climate change. They need seats at the table.
  So long as Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress 
obstruct meaningful debate and action, States and local communities are 
taking their own decisive steps to combat climate change.
  Almost every State in the country has begun to experience the impact 
of climate change. But as an island State, Hawaii is poised to 
experience some of the harshest consequences of climate change. Rising 
sea levels, combined with increased storm runoff, will increase coastal 
flooding and erosion, damaging sensitive ecosystems, infrastructure, 
and agriculture.
  According to research from the University of Hawaii Sea Grant 
Program, 70 percent of beaches in Hawaii are eroding and 13 miles of 
public beaches that once were present no longer exist. Waikiki Beach 
alone generates $2.2 billion of Hawaii's economy every year and could 
be completely submerged by the end of the century. A warming ocean will 
increase bleaching and disease outbreaks on coral reefs, which 
currently support $360 million in economic activity each year.
  For Hawaii, a sea level rise of 3.2 feet--which could happen as early 
as 2060--will result in $20 billion in damage, the chronic flooding of 
38 miles of major roads, 25,000 acres of land, 6,500 structures 
rendered unusable or lost, and 20,000 residents displaced.
  The prospect of such widespread climate change-driven devastation has 
spurred the State of Hawaii to action.

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We have made a commitment to become carbon-neutral and generate 100 
percent of our electricity from renewable energy sources by 2045, and 
we became the first State to separately ratify the Paris climate 
agreement. Eighteen States and Puerto Rico have since followed suit.
  In addition to efforts at the State level, local communities, 
families, and landowners are taking their own steps to cope with the 
threat of climate change and adapt as necessary. Last week, I met with 
National Park Service officials, members of the Ala Kahakai Trail 
Association, local government representatives, nongovernment 
organizations, and community partners, including Native Hawaiian lineal 
descendants, to learn what they are doing to lead community-based 
approaches to trail management and how the issue of climate change is 
threatening national treasures on our coasts in Hawaii.
  During my visit, members of the Kailapa Community Association created 
a plan to cope with decreased rainfall, coastal erosion, and other 
impacts on the ahupua'a--or division of land--that they have lived on 
for more than 12 generations. Families and communities in Hawaii who 
understand the threat of climate change are demanding that we take 
divisive action to combat it.

  Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress should muster the political 
courage to do the same, but that is not happening anytime soon--quite 
the contrary. Instead, as with so many ideas they oppose, Republicans 
have resorted to mocking and distorting what the Green New Deal does. 
They are doing it by their tried-and-true method--by scaring people.
  Donald Trump and the majority leader have invested a lot of time in 
attempting to justify their claim that the Green New Deal is going to 
ban air travel. What?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Ms. HIRONO. Let me conclude by saying that the Green New Deal is 
aspirational. To say that it is going to result in forcing everyone to 
stop eating meat--it is like, what the heck? What these so-called facts 
opponents and the climate change deniers are saying about the Green New 
Deal is laughable, coming from the very people who deny the scientific 
fact of climate change.
  I could go on, but obviously my time is up. I will have more to say 
as we continue this so-called sham debate. But let's not continue to 
stick our heads in the sand.
  I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record a letter written by 
an 11-year-old girl in Hawaii who spoke at a climate change rally in 
Hawaii. She was so articulate. She said: You know, this is like 
experiencing world war III for the young people.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Ms. HIRONO. They demand that the adults in the Senate to do something 
about it and address climate change in an appropriate way.
  Thank you.
  On Sunday, I received a letter from Mesina--an 11-year-old girl--who 
spoke at a March 15th climate action protest in Hawaii, and she wrote:

       ``I hope that all of our eyes are open now. Floods are 
     demolishing people's homes, forest fires are killing people 
     and singeing acres of land. Sea creatures are dying. Oceans 
     are rising. How can we deny climate change and the science 
     that supports its human cause?''
       ``We are experiencing World War III, except in this war, we 
     are all on the same side. We can all agree on clean air, 
     clean water, and a clean earth. As a child that is going to 
     inherit our Earth, I beg you please do everything in your 
     power to protect my generation's future and the generations 
     to follow.''

  Mesina is asking us to step up. It's past time to take urgent action 
to combat climate change.

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