[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             CLIMATE CHANGE

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                            HON. PETER WELCH

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 28, 2014

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a member of the Safe Climate 
Caucus to address the issue of climate change.
  Global warming means that the planet on average is getting warmer. 
The evidence here is indisputable.
  Global warming is also causing freak weather events that just aren't 
normal. These include hurricanes, typhoons and droughts. They also 
include the brutal cold fronts that are sweeping the country.
  Some climate deniers have used this as an opportunity to assert that 
the overwhelming science behind global warming is wrong. The irony in 
this assertion is that while the U.S. has extreme unusually cold 
temperatures, current temperatures in the Arctic are above average.
  NOAA recently confirmed that 2013 was the fourth warmest year on 
record. All 13 years of the 21st century rank among the 15 warmest 
since records began 134 years ago. On average, spring weather arrives 
ten days earlier than it used to in the Northern Hemisphere. While many 
states in the Midwest and Northeast have exceptionally cold 
temperatures, Alaska is experiencing unusually warm weather and 
California is going through a record-breaking drought. Average daily 
highs in Alaska are 11 degrees greater than the historical average for 
January.
  These unusual weather events are doing real economic harm and are 
hurting American families. Congress needs to tackle this problem of 
man-made climate change head on and not just bury our heads in the 
snow.

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