[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 12, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2222-S2223]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 552

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, here is a simple truth: Climate change 
is real.
  Earlier this year, I came to the floor and asked my colleagues if 
they could all agree on this simple scientific fact. This being the 
Temple of Mammon, run by fossil fuel, to no one's surprise, they could 
not.
  So I hoped that if I broke down the reality of climate change into 
smaller simple truths, we could then find areas of agreement. But 2 
weeks ago, when I asked on the floor if we could all agree to the 
simple truth that sea levels are rising, I was once again met with an 
objection.
  So let's give it another go. Today's simple truth: The oceans are 
warming. Can we agree on that?
  I have come to the floor several times to talk about the fact that 
the oceans are heating by the zettajoule. So let's talk for a minute 
about what a zettajoule is.
  A joule is the standard unit of energy--heat energy. A zettajoule has 
21 zeroes behind it. It is a spectacularly enormous number.

[[Page S2223]]

  In the past, I have reported that our oceans are measured absorbing 
around 14 zettajoules of excess heat every year. If you want a 
comparison, you can image that that is the equivalent of seven 
Hiroshima atomic bombs detonating in the ocean every second. That is 
the size of the heat transfer, and, indeed, that is the number in this 
resolution.
  Sadly, since we introduced this resolution, that measure has 
increased. Our oceans now are warming by 23 zettajoules a year. We are 
breaking the ocean heat content record for the ninth consecutive year.
  To put that in context, the total energy consumption of all humankind 
on planet Earth is about one-half of a zettajoule per year--all of it, 
every turbine, every boiler, every engine. All of our energy is one-
half of a zettajoule.
  That means that, for the fossil fuel component of that one-half of a 
zettajoule that human beings create, we add 23 zettajoules of excess 
heat to the oceans. It is a 50-to-1 magnification, nearly, and it is 
driving ocean temperatures skyward.
  Since 1955, the top 2,000 meters of the global ocean have gained 
approximately 372 zettajoules of heat. And, as you can see, the 
trajectory is that things are going to get a lot worse.
  By 2100, it is projected that the rate of ocean warming will be 
somewhere between two and six times greater than the rate of warming at 
the 14-zettajoule level of annual excess heat. A world in which the 
ocean is warming at six times 14 zettajoules of excess heat every year 
rapidly becomes an unlivable world for a great many human beings.
  This amount of heat has horrific effects on biodiversity and sea 
life, happening already--happening already. Fisherman know that fish 
populations are moving across international boundaries or out into the 
high seas, causing economic uncertainty and harm for fishermen.
  Warming sea surface temperatures shrink populations of the world's 
most abundant phytoplankton, significantly damaging the ocean food webs 
on which so many humans ultimately depend. Warming and acidification 
combined prevents species from being able to create their calcium 
carbonate shells.

  I have often spoken on the Senate floor about the humble pteropod--a 
species that I think nobody cares very much about here, but they are 
enormously abundant in the oceans. They have been measured as suffering 
extreme shell damage in the oceans. And they are not a very long 
trophic hop from things we do care about, like salmon. When you kick 
the foundation out from under a food chain, it collapses.
  Harmful algal blooms grow in warmer water and become more and more 
severe, taking a toll on fisheries, on public health, on recreation and 
tourism. If you want a description of what rotting algae on beaches 
does to tourism, just look at the stories about what Florida has 
experienced.
  Warmer oceans increase evaporation rates, which increases atmospheric 
humidity, which fuels extreme precipitation and stronger hurricanes. 
Those stronger, wetter storms and other climate change-induced threats 
crashing into insurance markets pose a roughly $25 trillion risk to the 
global housing market over the next 25 years. When the climate risk 
gets so severe that it crashes insurance markets, that cascades into 
mortgage markets, and that cascades into property values. That is where 
the $25 trillion estimate comes from. If you want to look more locally, 
Florida now leads the country in property value loss as the first and 
worst exposed to this climate risk.
  The threats don't end there. The risks that stronger, wetter storms 
pose to agriculture and food production, insurance, tourism, 
infrastructure, the energy sector, and more are very, very real. Mature 
and responsible warnings abound.
  As we noted in my last resolution, 30 percent of Americans live in 
coastal areas. Ten trillion dollars of goods and services are produced 
in coastal counties across the United States each year. There is a lot 
in jeopardy due to our warming oceans.
  It is the simple truth: Climate change is real. Sea level rise is 
real. Ocean warming by the zettajoule is real. And all of it is already 
disrupting American lives, pocketbooks, and families, and it is getting 
steadily worse.
  Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 
XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation be discharged from further consideration and the 
Senate now proceed to S. Res. 552; further, that the resolution be 
agreed to, that the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. JOHNSON. I am here to object. I will keep it short.
  I was down here a couple weeks ago when the Senator from Rhode Island 
had a similar type of what he called a simple-truth resolution, but it 
is not that simple.
  The purpose of his putting forth this resolution is he wants to do 
something about it. I am not a climate change denier. I am just not a 
climate change alarmist. I am not subscribing to Chicken Little scare 
tactics here.
  The problem with trying to do something about climate change is there 
is nothing we can really do to impact it. We have spent, according to 
testimony in the Budget Committee when the Senator from Rhode Island 
was chair, $5 to $6 trillion globally. I saw a recent speech given by 
Secretary of Energy Wright saying that we had spent about $10 trillion 
trying to hold back the tides, trying to address this climate change 
emergency--which, by the way, two Nobel laureate physicists, Dr. Ivar 
Giaever and Dr. John Clauser, signed on to a ``World Climate 
Declaration: There is no Climate Emergency.'' There isn't.
  What we have done, though, is we have taken a $6 to $10 trillion 
cost--the largest malinvestment in human history--and we obviously 
haven't even dented climate change because we still have the Chicken 
Littles here claiming a climate change emergency.
  So, again, this isn't a simple truth. The simple truth is, yes, 
climate has always changed. It always will. And I would argue the 
simple truth is there is not much we can do about it. There is no 
consensus in terms of the extent that man may impact the climate. We 
certainly can impact the environment, and we all are--from my 
standpoint, we are all environmentalists. We want a clean environment. 
But just think what we could have done with that $6 to $10 trillion 
rather than spending it--wasting it--trying to hold back the tide.
  So for those reasons, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I would just note for the record that 
the University of Wisconsin in the good Senator's home State teaches 
the science of climate change, teaches courses with names like 
``Climate and Climate Change,'' ``Climate Change, Human and Planetary 
Health,'' ``Climate Change Ecology,'' ``Ice and Climate Dynamics,'' 
``Climate Change and Health Disparities,'' ``Soils and Climate 
Change,'' ``Climate Change Medicine,'' ``Climatic Environments of the 
Past,'' ``Agricultural Weather and Climate,'' ``Climate Action 
Planning: Sustainable Transportation,'' ``Case Studies Exploring 
Infrastructure, Sustainability and Climate Change,'' ``Climate Change 
Governance,'' ``Climate Change, Sustainability, and Education,'' and as 
a lawyer, I would add ``Climate Change, Human Rights, and the 
Environment.''
  I would strongly recommend that all of my colleagues who are 
unfamiliar with what is happening in the real world with climate change 
go to their home State universities that teach the stuff and listen to 
what their home State universities have to say.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.