Senate Resolution 708--Expressing the Need for Bold Climate Action in Response to the Release of the United Nations Report Entitled ``Global Warming of C, An Ipcc Special Report on the Impacts of Global Warming of C Above Pre-Industrial Levels and Related Global Greenhouse Gas Emission Pathways, in the Context of Strengthening the Global Response to the Threat of Climate Change, Sustainable Development, and Efforts to Eradicate Poverty'' and the Fourth National Climate Assessment Report Entitled ``Volume Ii: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States'' By the United States Global Change Research Program

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, the most important words of our Constitution are the first three: ``We the People.'' These words were written in supersized font so that anyone standing across the room would know exactly what the vision of our Constitution is all about: government of, by, and for the people, as Abraham Lincoln put it--not a nation by and for the privileged, not a nation by and for the powerful, but for the people.

Unfortunately, we see too much today of our government being taken over by the powerful. We see the use of gerrymandering, which has totally corrupted the distribution of power in the House of Representatives just down that hallway. We see the use of voter suppression in State after State. My colleague from Illinois just pointed out that a man nominated to be a judge here in the United States of America was a key advocate, a key participant, a key architect of voter suppression. That should deeply trouble every Member of this body because if you believe in the vision of our Constitution, you would be a full-on advocate for voter empowerment, not voter suppression.

We see this played out in all kinds of different policies. We saw it played out in 2017 when the powerful drove through this body a $1.5 trillion theft of Federal resources and distributed it to the richest Americans. That is what happens in corrupt countries far overseas. But it happened right here, right in this Chamber--a theft of $1.5 trillion out of our Treasury, distributed through that tax bill to the richest Americans. I can tell my colleagues after having done 360 townhalls in my home state, 220 of them in very red counties, no one has ever come up to me--not from the left or the right or the center--and said: I have a great idea. Let's raid the Federal Treasury and distribute it to the richest people among us. Yet that is what we see with government by and for the powerful, as demonstrated right now, here in this U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives down the hall.

I will tell you where else we see it. We see it in the neglect of our responsibility to care for our beautiful blue-green planet. All across the land, we are seeing the devastating consequences of carbon pollution and the heat that it is trapping and the consequences that is driving. Yet here in this Chamber, on this most important responsibility, we do absolutely nothing. In fact, we make it worse, with the majority serving simply as the implementers of whatever version of fossil fuel special favor, special interest, powerful interest policy they can possibly think up--more and more for fossil fuels, more and more damage to our country.

This, certainly, is a situation we are in where we are seeing our land pillaged and polluted. That is a battle we have been waging for many years, but this last week we had a powerful reminder of just how much trouble we are in. Just last week--last Friday--the Trump administration released the ``Fourth National Climate Assessment,'' and what it has to say is frightening. It is shocking. Realize that this is not some environmental group; this is not some leftwing think tank; this is the Trump administration releasing this report.

This is what it has to say. It says that our climate is changing, that its impacts are being felt all around us because of human activity and the carbon pollution being released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. This report was written by 13 Federal agencies, and it reiterates this point time and again, and it has the following sentence: ``Earth's climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities.''

This is the statement from the Trump administration's 13 agencies that came together to alert us to exactly where we stand.

What does this mean in real terms? Well, it means we are going to see many more extremely hot days and far fewer cold days. We are going to see more extreme weather events, like the recordbreaking heat waves, like the extensive wildfires out West, like the intensified and deadly hurricanes that have been crashing on our shores.

We are also going to see the impact in our economy. The report estimates that within our children's lifetime, climate chaos will cost our Nation upward of one-half trillion dollars each year in crop damage, in lost labor, and in extreme weather damage to public infrastructure and that we will lose another $1 trillion each year in lost wealth and real estate along our coasts because of rising sea levels and because of more powerful hurricanes--hurricanes that remind us of Michael, Harvey, Irma, and Maria over the last 2 years.

We will also see an impact on winter tourism because of lower snowpack in the mountains, which means less skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling.

Back home in Oregon, when the snow level drops, we see a dramatic drop in snow tourism. We don't just think of it as tourism; we also think of it as our joy of being able to participate in these activities in our beautiful Cascade Mountains. Of course, that smaller snowpack means warmer, smaller streams--not too good for fishing--and it certainly means less water for irrigation.

The report--again, the Trump administration report--estimates that in parts of the Midwest, farmers will be able to produce less than 75 percent of the corn they produce today, with a similar impact on soybean yield, and corn and soybeans make up the vast majority of the 127 million acres of the Midwest's agricultural production. That area, in fact, is one of the most intense areas of agricultural production in the world, responsible for $76 billion per year in economic activity. So when it takes a big hit, the economy of the Midwest takes a big hit. That means a lot of farmers losing their farms.

Then we have the health impacts that are laid out in this report-- again, the Trump administration report. It lays out that there will be an estimated 2,000 additional premature deaths per year from extreme temperatures and unsafe breathing conditions. Within our child's lifetime, the report says, Chicago could resemble Phoenix, with up to 2 months of over-100-degree days, and scorching temperatures could make Phoenix practically uninhabitable for up to 5 months of the year.

Human health will also be affected with an expansion of mosquito- borne and tick-borne illnesses and water-borne disease, as well as ailments related to air contamination from wildfire smoke. This isn't just some future challenge; it is a challenge we have today. In both of the last two summers, a good portion of my State was covered by smoke from wildfires, and the result was that a lot of people had breathing difficulties and more intensified breathing difficulties, and a good number ended up in the hospital. A lot of asthma was triggered by that smoke. A lot of people cancelled their outdoor activities during the time of year when we most value the opportunity to be on the beach, in the mountains, on the hiking trails, and at the lakes.

Certainly, we saw economic consequences. Many of our outdoor concerts and venues, including festivals, had to cancel performances. I talked to the owner of a furniture store who said that even he was impacted because of the taint from the smoke smell. Certainly, our wine producers were concerned about what that might do to the taste of Oregon's fantastic pinot noir--the world's best, the best on the planet--pinot noir wine.

So who will bear the brunt of these health emergencies? Is it the powerful and privileged, who are driving the policies to keep burning as much fossil fuels as they possibly can to turn their multimillionaires into multibillionaires? No. The powerful and privileged, living in their gated communities, with their air-filtered and air-conditioned mansions, will protect themselves. They will move to where the impacts are the least. Who will bear the brunt? The young and the old, whose immune systems are more susceptible to health problems; low-income and middle-income Americans, who can't afford to move to where there are fewer consequences, whose jobs are most likely to be impacted by the economic consequences of climate chaos.

I know President Trump wanted to ignore his own report and put it out on Black Friday because he figured that the day after Thanksgiving is the day when the fewest Americans would pay attention. That is why I am on the floor right now to draw attention to this report, the Trump report, on the devastating consequences of continuing to burn fossil fuels.

Everything we saw laid out in this ``National Climate Assessment'' from the Trump administration was echoed by the international report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was released last month. That report summarized that within the next 12 years--we are not talking 12 centuries or 12 decades but 12 years--we are going to start feeling intensified effects of climate chaos on top of what we have already experienced. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was put together by 91 researchers in 41 countries. They summarized that we have already passed the 1-degree centigrade warming mark, which is almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit. They said we are well on our way to the 2-degree mark, which means catastrophic climate chaos.

If you were in the middle of the fires in Oregon, if you were in the middle of the fire in Paradise, CA, if you were in the path of Hurricanes Irma, Maria, or Michael, you might already say we have catastrophic climate chaos, but they are using the term to describe a significant amplification from what we are seeing right now. They are ringing a five-alarm fire bell to say: This is the moment to wake up.

Wake up, America. You are a democratic republic. You are supposed to be able to respond to the challenges that come before us. And we have a massive challenge: devastating consequences of carbon pollution. You must stop burning carbon. Find a path to change how we operate in transportation, how we operate in generating electricity. Address this issue. Hold every hearing, summon every scientist, ring every bell, and get to work. That is what these two reports are saying to us.

So, colleagues, if you are sitting here asleep at the switch, you are not doing your job. If you are sitting here advocating for the fossil fuel industry, you are worse than not doing your job--you are helping to damage the land across this great Nation for all Americans. So wake up and get to work.

This isn't a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, a blue county or red county. In fact, the biggest impacts are felt in our red counties, where the foundation of the economy is farming, fishing, and forestry, and every one of those is being impacted by this effect. So we, as representatives in our democratic Republic, with our ``We the People'' Constitution--it is our job to operate for the people, not for the powerful, not for the privileged.

I will be introducing a resolution that recognizes and accepts the findings of these reports, acknowledges the expertise from 91 scientists in 41 countries and 300 scientists in 13 Federal agencies, the combined efforts of these two reports that say that we are in trouble and we must act, and we must act in partnership with the world.

We need to act here. We need to say to Trudeau of Canada: You want to be a climate leader. You claim you are a climate leader. Why are you tripling the size of the pipeline that serves the tar sands?

We need to say to the leadership of Australia: Your outback is on fire during your winter. Your coral reefs are dying. The Great Barrier Reef has died in the last 10 years. Why are you doubling down on coal?

We need to say to Japan: Don't base your energy future on liquefied natural gas, which is simply another fossil fuel strategy.

We need to say to Germany: Why do you want this gas pipeline from Russia as a foundation for your energy future?

Let's all be in this together because if any nation acts by itself, we can't change the course--the big course, the big picture--of the damage carbon pollution is doing. We have to work together. That means we now pivot and say: Let's recognize that renewable energy is now the cheapest energy. It is less expensive to generate a kilowatt hour of electricity from renewable energy, from solar wind, than it is from fossil fuels. Let's not just realize that carbon is doing all this damage; let's also recognize that the strongest economy will be built on the cheapest energy, which is renewable energy. So we have every reason to act.

Let's remember that we were founded as a ``we the people'' vision, and let's honor that vision.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source