[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5109]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                   EARTH DAY 2015 RAPIDLY APPROACHING

  (Mr. GARAMENDI asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, Earth Day 2015 is rapidly approaching.
  I would like to draw the attention of the House and the American 
citizens to the reality of climate change. Global warming is real.
  Take a look at California. We are in the midst of the fourth year of 
a very severe drought. You can debate whether the drought is or is not 
the result of climate change; but you cannot debate the fact that 
CO2 in our atmosphere is approaching 400 parts per million, 
the highest it has ever been in over 800,000 years.
  You cannot debate the fact that it is a heck of a lot warmer in 
California in the last decade than it has ever been in recorded time, 
and you cannot debate the fact that the snow level in California is 
rapidly rising up the Sierra Nevada and the Siskiyou Mountains, leaving 
us with an ever smaller snow reservoir.
  This is a real problem. We need to address it with very strong, 
powerful legislation here in Congress, most of which has not been done. 
We have a challenge out ahead of us. I hope and pray that we meet that 
challenge.




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