[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 599-601]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. The Senator from Florida is welcome. It was one of my 
great pleasures to sit next to him on the Intelligence Committee for 
these many years. To tell a brief story, whenever Senator Nelson said, 
Well, I am just a country lawyer from Florida, everybody on the 
committee perked up, because they had learned from experience that one 
of the more withering and devastating cross-examinations of a witness 
was about to ensue. It is always my pleasure to extend courtesy to the 
Senator from Florida.
  I am here once again to talk about climate change. Alarms are 
ringing, including the voices of the overwhelming majority of 
scientists, and indeed the voices of the overwhelming majority of 
Americans. But here in Congress, it is still time for us to wake up.
  Climate change is not a problem that will go away; human activity is 
driving global change. Climate change is not a problem that can wait; 
we see its effects all around us. But climate change is a problem that 
can be solved.
  We can and we must leave a healthy environment and clean energy 
sources to our children and grandchildren. The missing piece is 
Congress. Congress is sleepwalking through history. It is time to wake 
up.
  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has confirmed 
that 2012 was the hottest year in the contiguous United States on 
record, ever. This one wasn't a close call; it did not come down to the 
wire; 2012 was a full degree Fahrenheit higher than the previous record 
year--a full degree Fahrenheit higher than the previous record year. To 
put that into context, 1 degree may not sound like a lot, but when you 
average it across an entire year, it is a huge shift. The previous 
warmest U.S. year on record, 1998, was 4.2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer 
than the coldest year on record, 1917. If you take the warmest year on 
record--1998 until now--and you take the coldest year on record--1917--
the entire span between them is only 4.2 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a 
jump of a full degree in Fahrenheit in just 1 year. By the way, 2.1 
degrees Fahrenheit over 2011 is a seriously big change.
  We are just starting to heat up. The most optimistic estimate for the 
end of the century is a 2-degrees-Fahrenheit increase. That is the most 
optimistic estimate. More likely scenarios--ones that assume continued 
current levels of greenhouse gas emissions--project for the continental 
United States an increase of between 4 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit. 
Worldwide, last year was the 36th year in a row with an annual global 
temperature above the 20th-century average--36 straight years above 
average. In fact, the 12 years of this century, of the 21st century, 
2000 to 2012, every single one of them is in the top 14 warmest global 
averages on record. Mr. President, 12 for 12, they are in the top 14 
warmest global average years on record. Since 1970, global average 
temperatures have increased more than one-quarter of a degree 
Fahrenheit every decade.
  As the vast majority of climate scientists have confirmed, natural 
climate forces alone simply do not explain this global temperature 
trend,

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nor do they explain regional temperature trends. They do not explain 
the land surface temperature trends. They do not explain the ocean 
surface temperature trends. Only models that include the greenhouse 
effect caused by carbon dioxide emissions explain these trends. When I 
use the word ``explain,'' I use it in its scientific sense--i.e., 
establish a significantly, statistically meaningful correlation between 
the two.
  The United States does a regular national climate assessment. The 
assessment is based on scientific, peer-reviewed research and technical 
reports from top scientists at Federal agencies such as NOAA and NASA, 
the Departments of Agriculture and Energy, and the U.S. Geological 
Survey. Now, bear in mind that NASA scientists have just put a rover on 
to the surface of the planet Mars. These aren't people who get things 
very badly wrong.
  The recent draft assessment paints a clear picture of what is 
happening in America right now. It says:

       U.S. average temperature has increased by about 1.5 degrees 
     Fahrenheit since 1895; more than 80 percent of this increase 
     has occurred since 1980. The most recent decade was the 
     nation's hottest on record.

  The National Climate Assessment is also required by law to project 
what is to come. The draft assessment says:

       U.S. temperatures will continue to rise, with the next few 
     decades projected to see another 2 degrees Fahrenheit to 4 
     degrees Fahrenheit of warming in most areas. The amount of 
     warming by the end of the century is projected to correspond 
     closely to the cumulative global emissions of greenhouse 
     gases up to that time: roughly . . . 5 degrees Fahrenheit to 
     10 degrees Fahrenheit . . . assuming continued increases in 
     emissions.

  I represent the Ocean State, Rhode Island. I see that the new senior 
Senator from Hawaii is presiding, and certainly he represents an ocean 
State too, so let's talk about oceans.
  Atmospheric warming brings sea level rise, and as global sea levels 
rise, storms, waves, and tides wash ever higher against the coast, 
putting our coastal infrastructure at greater and greater risk of storm 
surges, flooding, and erosion. Five million Americans live within 4 
feet of the high-tide line--it is not just us in Rhode Island, it is 
not just your folks in Hawaii--and it has real human consequences. 
Hurricane Sandy, I hope, reminded us of that.
  Already, sea level rise is up about 8 inches over the past century. 
These changes are very evident to Rhode Islanders. We have been 
monitoring the ocean for centuries. Just outside Narragansett Bay, the 
crew of the Brenton Reef Lightship took nearly 22,000 ocean temperature 
measurements between 1878 and 1942. We have been at this a while. 
Alarmingly, the modern temperature record from points around 
Narragansett Bay shows that since the 1960s, the annual temperature in 
Narragansett Bay has increased about 4 degrees Fahrenheit. This has 
real-life effect--crushing our winter flounder fishery, for instance. 
Long-term data from the tide gauges in Newport, RI, show an increase in 
average sea level of nearly 10 inches since 1930. The rate of sea level 
rise at Newport is accelerating too. In southern Rhode Island, local 
erosion rates doubled from 1990 to 2006. Some of our freshwater 
wetlands near the coast are already transitioning to salt marsh.
  Oceans warm and expand. Snow, glaciers, and icecaps melt into the 
sea. And the sea level is projected to rise between 1 and 4 feet by the 
end of this century.
  Deniers should look to the assessments of our defense and 
intelligence agencies. Diego Garcia, a small island south of India, is 
the home to a logistics hub for U.S. and British forces in the Middle 
East and to Air Force Satellite Control Network equipment. The average 
elevation of Diego Garcia is approximately 4 feet. This installation is 
threatened by inundation from slow, steady, sea level rise, set aside 
storms. Norfolk naval air station and naval base on the southern end of 
the Chesapeake Bay is the Navy's largest supply center and home to the 
U.S. Atlantic fleet. Eglin Air Force Base on Florida's gulf coast is 
the largest Air Force base in the world. Both bases are threatened by 
rising seas.
  The oceans are rising because they are getting warmer. Water expands 
as it warms. Warmer seas also threaten multibillion-dollar maritime 
industries here in our country, industries such as fishing, tourism, 
and energy. When water is too warm, it stresses fish, coral, and other 
sea life. As I said, the winter flounder catch in Rhode Island has been 
crushed by warming water. When water is too warm, it can't be used for 
cooling powerplants. That is what caused last summer's shutdown of Unit 
2 at the Millstone powerplant in Connecticut. The temperature of the 
water in Long Island Sound climbed to over 75 degrees Fahrenheit--too 
warm to cool a nuclear reactor.
  Carbon dioxide, of course, doesn't just warm the atmosphere and warm 
the oceans, carbon dioxide also gets absorbed into the oceans, and the 
oceans become more acidic. Carbon pollution by humans has caused a 
nearly 30 percent increase in the acidity of the ocean, and this ocean 
acidification is certainly caused by human activity.
  As the draft National Climate Assessment explains, ocean 
acidification harms species such as oysters, coral, and even the 
plankton--like the humble pteropod I have spoken about before on this 
floor--that comprise the base of the ocean food chain, a food chain to 
which humankind is inextricably linked.
  For my ocean State, carbon pollution presents a triple whammy from 
the sea: higher seas, warming seas, and more acidic seas. But the draft 
National Climate Assessment shows that you don't have to be an ocean 
State to be at risk. In the far North, Alaska is threatened by the loss 
of permafrost. Most of the permafrost in Alaska is tens of thousands of 
years old. It is a natural wonder whose loss threatens structures, such 
as buildings and roads, as well as plants and wildlife that over many 
centuries have adapted to that frozen tundra environment. In the 
Midwest, the draft assessment warns of ``the occurrence of extreme 
events such as heat waves, droughts, and floods. In the long term, 
combined stresses associated with climate change are expected to 
decrease agricultural productivity, especially without significant 
advances in genetic and agronomic technology.''
  The dangers of carbon pollution are bearing down on us all. In the 
face of the clear warning of this national assessment, there are some 
who counsel surrender. The oil industry-backed Institute for Energy 
Research says this:

       If the worst-case scenarios are correct, then even very 
     strong action by the Federal, State, and local governments in 
     the United States will do very little to alter the global 
     climate.

  The polluters deny the ability of the United States to lead. Well, 
they are wrong. They are wrong. They are very wrong. With our vast 
economy, with our ingenuity, and with the trust the rest of the world 
has put on our experiment in democracy, we can lead. We can lead the 
world toward a cleaner future. To do any less would be, as President 
Obama said in his inaugural address, to betray our children and future 
generations. I will not countenance that betrayal, and neither will 
most Americans. A recent poll conducted by Yale University and George 
Mason University found that a large majority of Americans--77 percent--
say climate change should be a priority for President Obama and for all 
of us here in Congress. Yet, for the last 2 years, opponents and 
skeptics, polluters and lobbyists, special interests and their paid-for 
front organizations have blocked Congress from acting to reduce carbon 
pollution and reduce the threat of climate change.
  Today, a very distinguished Member of the House of Representatives 
who has worked on environmental issues for 38 years in this building, 
Representative Henry Waxman, and I announced the formation of a 
bicameral House and Senate climate change task force to fight back. We 
welcome all Members of Congress, regardless of political party, who 
recognize the urgency of what is happening to our world all around us 
and who feel a duty to our descendents. We intend to focus sufficient 
attention on what is happening in the world around us to at last--at 
long last--reduce the carbon pollution that is causing it.

[[Page 601]]

  It is time to wake up. Carbon pollution from fossil fuels is 
threatening our future. Unless we take serious action to scale back the 
pollution, the consequences may well be dire. Congress is sleepwalking 
through history. It is time to hear the alarms, roll up our sleeves, 
and do what needs to be done. It is time to wake up.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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