[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16345-16346]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     CLIMATE CHANGE AND ADAPTATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, this morning, the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration announced that last month was the warmest 
September in recorded history. Our reality can no longer be ignored. 
Climate change is here, and communities across the country--and the 
world--are feeling its effects. Just take the events we have seen 
unfold in 2015 as an example.

[[Page 16346]]

  In April, drought-stricken California witnessed a snowpack with 
virtually no snow. On the other side of the country, Boston recorded 
its snowiest year with 110 inches between July 2014 and June 2015. 
Boston had so much snow, it did not melt until mid-July. 2015 also 
brought us the wettest months ever recorded in the U.S. within the 121 
years of NOAA's recordkeeping; and this year, Tropical Storm Ana became 
the second-earliest tropical storm in history to make landfall in the 
U.S., in early May.
  So what does all of this mean?
  It means that we are no longer at a place where talking about climate 
change is enough. We need to act, and we need to act now.
  I am proud that we have a President who is taking actions like 
reducing dangerous greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change. 
Altering our current policies and enacting new ones will help reduce 
the impacts of climate change in the future. But mitigation is only one 
piece of the solution. We also need to adapt our policies to handle the 
effects of our already-changing climate in the present.
  Climate change is already happening; and adaptation to climate change 
is the only way we can help protect the people, the infrastructure, 
businesses, and ecosystems that are already threatened. We know that 
societies have adjusted to and have coped with changes in climate with 
different degrees of success; but our modern life is tailored to the 
stable climate we have been accustomed to. As the President recently 
pointed out, our climate is changing faster than we are adapting to it.
  While climate change is a global issue, it is often felt on a hyper-
local scale, so our cities have to be at the front line of adaptation. 
We need communities that have better flood defenses, plans for dealing 
with higher temperatures and heat waves, as well as better management 
of our water storage and use. Some cities are already taking steps to 
create these adaptation plans. Roughly 20 percent of cities around the 
globe have adopted adaptation strategies. My city of Chicago is 
included on that list.
  The most obvious changes that Chicago is dealing with are hotter 
summers and more intense heat waves. Increased temperatures are leading 
to countless unforeseen consequences, such as heat-related illness and 
a deterioration in air quality. Higher temperatures are also boosting 
the demand for electricity, placing stress on our power plants. Heavy 
rains and snow are becoming more frequent in winter and spring. 
Increasing downpours make travel more dangerous, pollute our drinking 
water, damage crops, and disrupt infrastructure and transportation 
across the city.
  But adaptation means more than protecting our cities. We must also 
protect our national defense. Many of our most critical military 
installations are already at risk.
  A 2011 National Research Council report found that 128 U.S. military 
sites could be impacted by a sea-level rise of just 3 feet. Of those 
128 sites, 56 are naval facilities valued at $100 billion. Recent 
hurricanes have pushed water levels to dangerous heights in Norfolk, 
Virginia, threatening the largest naval base in the world. As sea 
levels rise and storms intensify, climate change threatens to require 
the relocation of that naval base.
  This proves that local and State efforts are simply not enough. We 
need congressional action to produce lasting solutions that address the 
root causes of climate change and to prepare us for a very different 
future.
  In closing, I defer to Charles Darwin, who said, ``It is not the 
strongest of the species that survives nor the most intelligent; it is 
the one that is most adaptable to change.''
  I urge my colleagues to heed this warning and adapt to the reality in 
front of us.

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