[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 3, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E99]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            WORLD SCIENTISTS' WARNING OF A CLIMATE EMERGENCY

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                         HON. PETER A. DeFAZIO

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 3, 2021

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, climate change is an existential threat 
to all of humanity, and it is essential that we start acting--now--to 
stop and reverse the destructive effects of climate change.
  In 2020, my constituent Oregon State University Professor Dr. William 
Ripple, and colleagues published ``World Scientists' Warning of a 
Climate Emergency'' which has been endorsed by more than 11,000 
scientists from 153 countries. They presented six transformative steps 
we can take to effectively combat climate change.
  I urge my colleagues to read their report and join me in acting 
before it is too late.

                      [From Bioscience, Jan. 2020]

            World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency

  (By William J. Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas M. Newsome, Phoebe 
 Barnard, William R. Moomaw, and 11,092 scientist signatories from 153 
                               countries)

       Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity 
     of any catastrophic threat and `tell it like it is.' Based on 
     this obligation and the data presented below, we herein 
     proclaim, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from 
     around the world, a clear and unequivocal declaration that a 
     climate emergency exists on planet Earth.
       Exactly 40 years ago, scientists from 50 nations met at the 
     First World Climate Conference (Geneva, 1979) and agreed that 
     alarming trends for climate change made it ``urgently 
     necessary'' to act. Since then, similar alarms have been made 
     through the 1992 Rio Summit, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the 
     2015 Paris Agreement, as well as scores of other global 
     assemblies and scientists' explicit warnings of insufficient 
     progress. Yet greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are still 
     rising, with increasingly damaging effects on the Earth's 
     climate. An immense change of scale in endeavors to conserve 
     our biosphere is needed to avoid untold suffering due to the 
     climate crisis.
       Despite 40 years of global climate negotiations, with few 
     exceptions, we have generally conducted business as usual and 
     have largely failed to address this predicament. The climate 
     crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most 
     scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, 
     threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity. 
     Especially worrisome are potential climate tipping points and 
     nature's reinforcing feedbacks that could lead to a 
     catastrophic ``Hothouse Earth'' and cause significant 
     disruptions to ecosystems, society, and economies, 
     potentially making large areas of Earth uninhabitable.
       To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. 
     Economic and population growth are among the most important 
     drivers of increases in CO2 emissions from fossil 
     fuel combustion; thus, we need bold and drastic 
     transformations regarding economic and population policies. 
     We suggest six critical and interrelated steps that 
     governments, businesses and the rest of humanity can take to 
     lessen the worst effects of climate change. These are 
     important steps, but are not the only actions needed or 
     possible.
       1) Energy. The world must quickly implement massive energy 
     efficiency and conservation practices, replace fossil fuels 
     with low carbon renewables and other cleaner sources of 
     energy. We should leave remaining stocks of fossil fuels in 
     the ground, and carefully pursue effective negative emissions 
     using technology such as carbon extraction from the source 
     and capture from the air, and by enhancing natural systems 
     (Step 3). Wealthier countries need to support poorer nations 
     in transitioning away from fossil fuels. We must swiftly 
     eliminate subsidies to fossil fuel corporations and use 
     effective and fair schemes for steadily escalating carbon 
     prices to restrain the use of fossil fuels.
       2) Short-lived pollutants. We need to promptly reduce 
     emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, including 
     methane, black carbon (soot), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). 
     Doing this could slow climate feedbacks and potentially 
     reduce the short-term warming trend by >50% over the next few 
     decades while saving millions of lives and increasing crop 
     yields due to reduced air pollution. The 2016 Kigali 
     amendment to phase down HFCs is welcomed.
       3) Nature. We must protect and restore Earth's ecosystems. 
     Phytoplankton, coral reefs, forests, savannas, grasslands, 
     wetlands, peatlands, soils, mangroves, and sea grasses 
     contribute greatly to sequestration of atmospheric 
     CO2. Marine and terrestrial plants, animals, and 
     microorganisms play significant roles in carbon and nutrient 
     cycling and storage. We need to quickly curtail forest and 
     biodiversity loss, protecting the remaining primary and 
     intact forests, while accomplishing reforestation and 
     afforestation where appropriate at enormous scales. Although 
     available land may be limiting in places, up to a third of 
     emissions reductions needed by 2030 for the Paris agreement 
     (<2 deg.C) could be obtained with these natural climate 
     solutions.
       4) Food. Eating mostly plant-based foods while reducing the 
     global consumption of animal products, especially ruminant 
     livestock, can improve human health and significantly lower 
     GHG emissions (including methane in step 2). Moreover, this 
     will free up croplands for growing much needed human plant 
     food instead of livestock feed, while releasing some grazing 
     land to support natural climate solutions (step 3). Cropping 
     practices such as minimum tillage that increase soil carbon 
     are vitally important. We need to drastically reduce the 
     enormous amount of food waste around the world.
       5) Economy. Excessive extraction of materials and 
     overexploitation of ecosystems, driven by economic growth, 
     must be quickly curtailed to maintain long-term 
     sustainability of the biosphere. We need a carbon-free 
     economy that explicitly addresses human dependence on the 
     biosphere and policies that guide economic decisions 
     accordingly. Goals need to shift from GDP growth and the 
     pursuit of affluence toward supporting ecosystem and human 
     wellbeing by prioritizing basic needs and reducing 
     inequality.
       6) Population. Still increasing by roughly 80 million 
     people per year or >200,000 per day, we must stabilize and 
     ideally gradually reduce the world population within a 
     framework that ensures social integrity. There are proven and 
     effective policies that strengthen human rights, while 
     lowering fertility rates and lessening the impacts of 
     population growth on GHG emissions and biodiversity loss. 
     These policies involve making family planning services 
     available to all people and achieving full gender equity, 
     including primary and secondary education as a global norm 
     for all, especially girls and young women
       Mitigating and adapting to climate change while honoring 
     the diversity of humans entails major transformations in the 
     ways our global society functions and interacts with natural 
     ecosystems. We are encouraged by a recent surge of concern. 
     Governmental bodies are making climate emergency 
     declarations. Schoolchildren are striking. Ecocide lawsuits 
     are proceeding in the courts. Grassroots citizen movements 
     are demanding change, and many countries, states and 
     provinces, cities, and businesses are responding.
       As an Alliance of World Scientists, we stand ready to 
     assist decision makers in a just transition to a sustainable 
     and equitable future. The good news is that such 
     transformative change, with social and economic justice for 
     all, promises far greater human wellbeing in the long run 
     than does business as usual. We believe that prospects will 
     be greatest if decision makers and all of humanity promptly 
     respond to this warning and declaration of a climate 
     emergency, and act to sustain life on planet Earth, our only 
     home.

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