[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14611-14613]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             CLIMATE CHANGE

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. My topic had been the acidification of our oceans as 
a result of carbon pollution now up 30 percent in acidity and projected 
to increase 160 percent in acidity at unprecedented rates in millions 
of years. It has been 50 to 300 million years since we have seen this 
kind of dramatic change in ocean acidity. For species that use calcium 
carbonate to create their shells and skeletons, such as oysters, crabs, 
lobsters, and the little plankton that so many other species depend on 
as the base of the food chain, it becomes harder for these species to 
thrive.
  These unprecedented changes I am talking about in ocean acidity are 
not

[[Page 14612]]

happening alone, they are happening on top of dramatically changing 
ocean temperature that is also driven by carbon pollution.
  Just this week on the surface of the Earth, we experienced one of the 
hottest summers on record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration released this statement about the northeast shelf large 
marine ecosystem, which extends from the Gulf of Maine down to Cape 
Hatteras. Here is what they said:

       During the first 6 months of 2012, sea surface temperatures 
     . . . were the highest ever recorded. Above average 
     temperatures were found in all parts of the ecosystem, from 
     the ocean bottom to the sea surface and across the region . . 
     . The annual 2012 spring plankton bloom was intense, started 
     earlier and lasted longer than average. This has implications 
     for marine life from the smallest creatures to the largest 
     marine mammals, like whales. Atlantic cod continued to shift 
     northeastward from its historic distribution center.

  I don't need to tell anybody in the Northeast how important the 
stability of the cod fishery is right now. That historic fishery is 
facing significant reductions in catch limits because the population is 
not rebounding as expected from the reduced catches that fishermen are 
already contributing to try to solve this problem. Something is causing 
that failure to rebound, and the unprecedented environmental changes 
occurring in the ecosystem can't be overlooked as the culprit behind 
this unexplained phenomenon of failure to rebound.
  NOAA cited a 2009 study published in Marine Ecology Progress Series 
that analyzed survey data in the region from 1987 to 2007. It found 
that about half of 36 fish stocks evaluated have been shifting 
northward for the past four decades, with some disappearing from U.S. 
waters as they move farther offshore.
  In Narragansett Bay, in my home State of Rhode Island, average water 
temperatures have increased by 4 degrees. This amounts to an ecosystem 
shift. In fact, the bay, once dominated by bottom-dwelling fish, such 
as winter flounder, is now more populated by open-water species, such 
as squid and butterfish.
  Let's look at winter flounder a little bit more closely. In the 
1960s, the biomass of winter flounder in Narragansett Bay was as high 
as 4,500 metric tons. By 2011, it was down to just about 900. This is 
the total estimated biomass on the blue line. The red line is the 
landmass. That is what the fishermen were able to catch and bring in. 
As my colleagues can see, it went from 1,000 metric tons up to 2,000 
metric tons and then, over time, it sagged and returned to 2,000 metric 
tons, and now it is left to virtually zero. This was a very productive 
fishery for Rhode Island fishermen and it is now virtually gone.
  Past overfishing had a role to play, but so too has the dramatic 
temperature change and the stock's ability to recover is made all the 
more difficult by ongoing temperature change as well as acidification.
  The changes facing our oceans do not stop at higher temperatures and 
greater acidity. I wish they did. But as average global temperatures 
rise, water expands. Water expands as it gets warmer, and new fresh 
water pours out of the snowpack and ice sheets of Antarctica and 
Greenland. Long-term data from tide gauges in our traditional sailing 
port of Newport, RI, show an increase in average sea level of nearly 10 
inches since 1930. At these tide gauges, measurements show that the 
rate of sea-level rise has increased in the past two decades compared 
to the rate over the last century. The increase is not just happening, 
it is speeding up. This is consistent with reports that since 1990, sea 
level has been rising faster than the rate predicted by scientific 
models used to generate the IPCC estimates.
  Global predictions for sea-level rise range from 20 to 39 inches by 
the year 2100, with recent studies showing that the numbers could be 
even higher than that due to greater than expected melting of glaciers 
and ice sheets.
  Our Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council has used these 
predictions to estimate that by 2100, the sea level in Rhode Island 
could rise approximately 2 to 5 feet. For our coastal ocean State, that 
is a dramatic threat.
  Sea-level rise and the increase in storm surges that will accompany 
it threaten at-risk coastal areas, whose roads, powerplants, wastewater 
treatment plants, and public facilities may need to be reinforced or 
relocated.
  The natural environment there--estuaries, marshes, and barrier 
islands--has a role. They act as natural filtration systems and they 
act as buffers against storms, and they are being inundated by rising 
seas. In Rhode Island, local erosion rates doubled from 1990 on to 
2006. Some of the freshwater wetlands near our coast are already 
transforming themselves into salt marsh as a result of this inundation.
  Our Coastal Resources Management Council has documented places such 
as a beach in South Kingstown, where 160 feet of shoreline has been 
lost to erosion since 1951 at a rate of 3 feet per year.
  In the small but vibrant coastal community of Matunuck, beaches have 
eroded 20 feet over the past 12 years. The town faces difficult 
decisions as the only road connecting the community and its restaurants 
and businesses is protected by less than a dozen feet of sand. The road 
provides access for emergency vehicles and it lies on top of the water 
main. These are not easy concerns for communities with limited 
resources and lives and livelihoods at risk.
  Geo-engineering solutions have been theorized to keep the temperature 
of the planet in check as a result of global climate change by blocking 
in various ways the heat of the Sun. These notions may seem somewhat 
farfetched, but even given that, they will not stop the chemical 
process of acidification of our oceans. Only curbing global carbon 
dioxide emissions can do that.
  Sadly, our government in Washington these days responds more to 
dollars than to truth, and the dirty energy dollars are on the march 
this campaign season. Over the weekend, the New York Times analyzed 138 
energy-related campaign ads aired on television. It estimated that over 
$153 million has been spent this year to promote coal, argue for more 
oil and gas drilling, and to attack clean energy. With nearly 7 weeks 
to go before this Presidential election, 2012 ads promoting fossil 
fuels are nearly 150 percent higher than 4 years ago, and that is with 
7 weeks to go, the peak buying season.
  Other disturbing details emerged from the New York Times article. 
Governor Romney, his PAC, and the RNC have received at least $13 
million in campaign contributions from fossil fuel industry executives 
or related groups. Governor Romney has accepted $3 million in 
contributions from Oxbow, a coal company controlled by William Koch, a 
brother of David Koch.
  Nature could not be giving us clearer warnings. Whatever higher power 
gave us our advanced human capacity for perception, calculation, 
analysis, deduction, and foresight has laid out before us more than 
enough information to make the right decisions. These God-given human 
capacities provide us everything we need to act responsibly if only we 
will.
  But the polluting special interests appear to rule here. The party of 
Theodore Roosevelt, the great conservationist; the party of President 
Nixon, who founded the EPA; the party of John Chafee of Rhode Island, 
who was instrumental in the passage of the Clean Water Act and the 
Clean Air Act; and the party of Russell Train who, as I mentioned 
earlier, died this week at the age of 92 after a distinguished career 
in environmental protection in the Republican Party--that party has now 
become the servant and handmaiden--perhaps ``paid consort'' would be a 
better way to say it given the money involved--of polluting special 
interests.
  All of this money can alter how Congress behaves, and all of this 
money can influence the laws we pass, but the laws of nature are not 
subject to repeal no matter how much special interest money flows into 
campaign coffers. The laws of chemistry don't care about the 
filibuster. The laws of physics don't care how Senators vote. Nature 
will work its will and one day there will be an accounting.

[[Page 14613]]

  Madam President, I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. McCaskill). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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