[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3889]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              CARBON DIOXIDE CONTRIBUTES TO CLIMATE CHANGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Burgess). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I did not come here to talk about 
veterans, but I will add my voice to the chorus of voices tonight to 
endorse the legislation put forth by the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. 
Bereuter) and state that veterans deserve fundamental, sound health 
care in this country. Veterans' families also need that kind of health 
care because veterans fought for their families in foreign wars. As we 
move forward with health care, remember the veteran, remember the 
veteran's mother, remember all those in rural areas that we can work 
collectively to find ways to manage health care in urban, suburban and 
rural areas.
  However, I came here tonight to talk about this lump of coal. This 
lump of coal and coal throughout the world for the last several hundred 
years has provided heat, warmth, security and in recent times electric 
power which has transformed civilization. Coal has fueled the modern 
era. Coal is made up mostly of something called carbon. Coal has been 
developed on our planet naturally by geologic forces over millions of 
years. As the carbon on the surface in the form of animals, plants, 
vegetation, rocks, you name it, gradually deteriorated, was forced 
underground, in some cases in mountainous areas, in other cases, flat 
areas, but basically was forced underground, sometimes 100 feet, 
sometimes miles.
  When this lump of coal, which is made mostly of carbon, was locked up 
underground over a long period of time, it took an element out of the 
atmosphere called carbon dioxide, CO2, and locked it away. 
Over eons of time, these geologic forces, whether there was a lot of 
CO2 in the atmosphere or much less CO2 in the 
atmosphere, the geologic forces changed the climate.
  Now the most recent climate change came about 10,000 years ago when 
the Ice Age ended. As the Ice Age ended, we moved into a warming trend. 
Over the last 10,000 years, the rate of warming has been about 1 degree 
centigrade every 1,000 years on a steady rate. That is 1 degree 
centigrade every 1,000 years.
  Since we have been burning coal, which is carbon and then it turns 
into CO2, we have been releasing into the atmosphere the 
amount of CO2 in decades what it took nature to lock up over 
millions of years.
  So in the last 150 years, the earth has warmed about 1 degree 
centigrade. Previous to that time, the earth had been warming 1 degree 
centigrade every 1,000 years. Since we have been burning fossil fuel, 
we have been warming the surface of the earth's temperature, reducing 
glaciers, thinning the ice cap in the Arctic Ocean by about 40 percent. 
The American Geophysical Union, the National Academy of Sciences, a 
group of scientists which President Bush appointed, has confirmed that 
the earth from human activity has been warming fairly significantly 
over the last 100 years, but especially over the last 50 years.
  Carbon is locked up in this piece of coal. When this piece of coal 
burns, it releases carbon dioxide which is one of those elements 
naturally occurring in the world, naturally occurring in the atmosphere 
that balances the heat for the climate. When we infuse a significant 
amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the climate begins to 
warm faster. In fact, the EPA and other scientific institutions in the 
United States say that over 90 percent of the CO2 released 
in the United States comes from burning fossil fuel.
  What I would like to point out, Mr. Speaker, is this chart that 
actually goes from 1750 up to the year 2000. We can see from 1750, 
1800, 1850, burning fossil fuel was minimal, so we do not increase 
CO2 in the atmosphere very much. But once we get into the 
1900s, especially 1950, CO2 increases in the atmosphere from 
burning fossil fuels has had a dramatic effect. CO2 is a 
naturally occurring element in the world. When we increase that element 
by the magnitude that we have, we have the potential for climate 
change.

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