Climate Change is A Global Problem

Floor Speech

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Madam Speaker, today we are convening our monthly special order hour of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to talk about a pressing issue to our Nation, to our planet, in fact, and especially to communities of color.

Climate change is a real global problem. It is affecting folks around the world contributing to natural disasters and droughts that lead to immigration and increased conflict.

We have seen how the Caribbean, which stands in the pathway of natural disasters, has been hit time and time again from Superstorm Maria to Hurricane Irma to the recent earthquakes in Puerto Rico. We have seen how this region of the world, the Caribbean, which is our third border, continually gets hammered by natural disasters.

In fact, just 2 days ago, the National Security, Military and Intelligence Panel of the Center for Climate and Security, a nonpartisan security policy institute, released a damning report. Within the report it said that higher levels of warming will pose a catastrophic and likely irreversible global security risk over the course of the 21st century.

Last September, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released yet another dire warning that the effects of climate change are already irreversible, and we only have just about a decade to act before it is too late.

One thing that is important, though, about climate change is the disproportionate impact it has on communities of color. This is called environmental injustice, and that is why it is important that we address this from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus perspective, the perspective of those representing communities of color.

Climate change affects our everyday lives in big ways and small ways. Take my grandson, for example. He suffers from asthma and acute allergies, and other health issues that a lot of our kids have that are worsened by air pollution.

The issue is communities of color are not the biggest contributors to the pollution of climate change. In fact, they contribute less but are disproportionately hurt by climate change. We take public transportation. We don't fill our streets with very expensive polluting cars, but we bear the greatest burden from this and many other pollutants. This is also called environmental injustice.

That is why I have introduced a resolution on environmental justice to ensure that the government acknowledges and addresses the disproportional harm that climate change has on our community and communities of color.

Let me just take a moment to talk about some of my other work on this issue, because I believe it is a good summary of aspects that need to be addressed.

I was proud to support H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act, which passed the House last year and will keep the U.S. in the historic Paris climate accord. I was able to include an amendment to that bill stating that climate justice and environmental justice must be included in our efforts to meet the Paris Agreement and mitigate and adapt to climate change.

When we apply funding and when we allocate funding to address climate change, those communities in crisis must be given the funding first. This must be a core tenet of our policies to address climate change. Every law we pass and every action we take to mitigate and adapt to climate change must include acknowledgment and protections for marginalized and frontline communities who bear the burden of climate change.

One of my predecessors in the U.S. Congress, the late, great Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., one of the great civil rights leaders of our times, led year after year his Powell amendments to ensure Federal funding did not support segregation. Every time he introduced the amendments, they would be voted down. They would be systematically shut down. But yet he continued to present them year after year after year. Finally, during the 1960s in the middle of that decade when the civil rights legislation was drafted and passed, that legislation which still benefits many of us across America, it was the Powell amendment that was included in civil rights legislation.

Environmental justice is my Powell amendment, and I believe we must work to ensure that in every bill this House considers environmental justice is upheld and advanced.

I have also introduced the Green Climate Fund Authorization Act which commits the United States to provide climate finances to keep the planet under 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming.

The Green Climate Fund is an independent, multilateral fund established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to help developing countries limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.

We often read about the migration dynamic playing out on our southern border, and we think very often that those families are fleeing violence. That may be the case for some families, but many of them are also fleeing food security issues manifesting themselves in the triangle countries because of a horrible drought caused by climate change.

Developing countries have limited capacity to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and through the Green Climate Fund, the U.S. can contribute our fair share to enable mitigation and adaptation activities that uphold environmental justice across the globe.

Because it is these exact nations that are also on the front line of climate change, though they have contributed the least to these causes. Yet, one of the most important new approaches to combating climate change that has received a lot of traction and attention in the past year is the Green New Deal. I was proud to be an early supporter of this bold proposal, and many of my colleagues have since signed on to it and support it as well.

The Green New Deal pushes us to reach net-zero emissions and a 100 percent renewable economy to stop polluting our planet and ensure a safe climate for generations, for all of us, to come. It epitomizes environmental justice for frontline communities, especially underresourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children, and seniors.

The Green New Deal calls for a just transition for communities and workers to ensure that there are jobs and training for a clean economy. The Green New Deal will save American families money with investments in weatherization, public transportation, and modern infrastructure.

We often talk about the infrastructure bill. Whether it is $1 trillion or $2 trillion, it must be built green.

It recognizes that combating climate change is an important intersection for promoting clean air and water and providing nutritious food, affordable and safe housing, and high-quality healthcare and jobs.

The Green New Deal recognizes that we need to build resiliency in the face of worsening and more frequent climate-related disasters and that marginalized communities often bear the brunt of these disasters.

Arguably, the most important aspect about the Green New Deal is that it forces us to think about combating climate change, not just in a singular policy aimed at emissions, but with all the policies we consider here in Congress, whether it is energy, education, the economy, jobs, or infrastructure.

We need serious investments to mitigate and adapt to climate change, but it will cost us more in the long term if we do not act now, financially and existentially. Climate change, ultimately, is an existential threat to all of us across America and across the planet.

By the time a child born today retires, in 2085, the U.S. will be spending $300 billion each year on climate resiliency.

The time to invest is now. In fact, the time to invest was two decades ago.

But here we are. We need serious investment in our infrastructure and our transportation systems. We need to invest in green roof technology and innovative urban agriculture to address not just the carbon emissions of the agricultural field, but also to address intersectional issues of food security and climate change.

Earlier this year, our Democratic majority, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio, released a framework for infrastructure investment that takes many components of the Green New Deal into account.

It makes bold investments in public transportation systems to harness zero-emission technology and reduce congestion. It ensures that newly proposed transit projects are judged on their capacity to reduce emissions and congestion.

The framework includes provisions like those in the Transportation Alternatives Enhancement Act, which will prioritize projects that promote biking, walking, and other alternative, cleaner forms of transportation and infrastructure. The plan will boost investment in resiliency and green infrastructure to a degree that we have not yet seen before. It will make improvements in regional water resources to protect local ecosystems across the Nation.

In short, Democrats are proud to put forward proposals that will not only protect our planet but will invest in America's communities, invest in American workers, and invest in America's youth and future generations so we are prepared to tackle this momentous task in the decades to come. And the Green New Deal is one of the ways we are doing just that.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Barragan), my colleague, the second vice chairperson of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Ocasio-Cortez), my colleague.

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from the great State of New York, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, and the 98 Members who are cosponsors of the Green New Deal.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, allow me to thank the gentleman from New York for his friendship and for the recognition that the clarion call has to be called.

Let me thank my colleague and friend from New York as well, from the great borough of the Bronx, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for her clarion call.

I want to take this from a perspective of civil rights and the idea that, most often, civil rights are defined by the movement of the 1960s, framed around the marches of poor people led by Dr. King and many others who saw the inequities dealing with the treatment of African Americans and others in the social justice system.

One might not think that that movement ties directly to where we are today. As a cosponsor of the Green New Deal, I see this as a question of social justice. When the foot soldiers marched, many did not understand why they were attempting to change the way people had lived for decades and, yes, centuries. They didn't fully understand that the unequal treatment under the law was oppressive and denied families, children, regions of the country the ability to reach their highest dream.

I represent, still, the many communities that are experiencing inequities. When I held a meeting some weeks ago to deal with what we call cancer clusters, I had a thousand people at a townhall meeting. A chemical, creosote, had gotten into the soil of neighborhoods, which, in Texas, with your patches of land, front yard or back yard, you plant your fruit trees and other garden vegetables.

I asked: ``If you have cancer or your relatives have cancer, would you stand up?'' Two-thirds of that audience stood. Today, I am still getting calls from people in surrounding neighborhoods, talking about that chemical.

When you begin to look at purifying and cleaning, making sure the air quality is clean, making sure the soil quality is clean, it is looking at ways not to diminish people who are working in industries, who are in hardworking, blue-collar jobs, but to expand their vision of what can happen if you commit to the reasonable policies of the Green New Deal that speak to bringing everyone to the table and addressing this as a civil rights moment, not judging it on the inequities of race but on the inequities of the quality of your neighborhood and the quality of your life.

As I listened to the reading of the legislation, there is room at the table for everyone. There is room at the table for scientists. I was a member of the Science Committee for a good number of years. I believe in good science.

There is room at the table for technicians, people who are embracing technology.

There is room at the table for primary and secondary students who can learn what climate change has done and what the impact is, and how science is connected to a green economy.

There is room at the table for elected officials.

There is room at the table for large industries that have in their companies huge departments dealing with the environment.

The sadness is that that information is not given to all of those who look at these companies and see a particular purpose, but they don't know that they are working on environmental issues. My argument would be about education and information, and understanding that there is so much about quality of life that is tied to the quality of the air and water.

Now, just one moment of deviation, as a member of the Homeland Security Committee, as one of the first Members who went to her district to speak about the coronavirus, asking why the administration had done nothing and had not given information to the American public, who said that it was urgent that they give this information. Unfortunately, in a presentation which we have seen when we deal with climate change or the Green New Deal, it was reported to us, Members of Congress, that there was nothing to worry about; it wouldn't get here to the United States.

Well, I dealt with H1N1 as a Member of Congress, and the Ebola virus, which hit Dallas, Texas. I am in Houston, and before we understood what it was, various providers had treated the individual but had already left the State. Information can save lives.

Just recently, before I left Houston, I had a press conference to at least share with the community the various documents and handouts about how one should react to any signs of a flu-like symptom, not to diagnose yourself, but to get to a health provider. In the Green New Deal, it talks about access to healthcare.

Many of my constituents died from creosote because they had no access to healthcare. When I say creosote, the ramifications--cancer, respiratory illnesses.

I rise today to join my colleagues in a clarion call. I am supposed to be at the Homeland Security Committee right now, but I really wanted to join in this commitment that we need to inform, educate, and activate so that we can begin to be on the journey in America, the greatest Nation in the world.

In fact, the United States of America is the Nation now that is being looked on to bring relief on the coronavirus. And we are still missing a team or a plan.

But the greatest Nation in the world can now be at the forefront of leading the idea that green is real and right, and it is good for the American people, good for our families, good for our children, good for the leadership that we must give to developing nations and other nations around the world.

I rise to join my colleagues and thank them again for their leadership.

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee from the State of Texas, Congresswoman Nanette Barragan from the State of California, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the grea State of New York for bringing important facts to the table that will dispel the scare tactics that are being deployed and peddled across America about this Green New Deal. It will save lives.

I represent the district that has one of the highest asthma rates in the State, Harlem. There is a significant number of bus depots in Harlem polluting the air. In East Harlem, the children have one of the highest levels of respiratory diseases and asthma. Washington Heights is cut right through its heart by a polluting railway called the Cross Bronx Expressway. We are surrounded by highways, and we are surrounded by pollution, leading to a very low quality of air, which leads to disease and leads to death.

This has been an enlightened conversation about the Green New Deal. I hope America understands the particulars behind it and that we are better equipped and better informed to make the right decisions in support of this lifesaving piece of legislation.

Madam Speaker, I thank you for this opportunity to allow the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to talk about the importance of protecting our planet in the way in which the Green New Deal will do, while we are also making our Nation better.

I thank everyone who was able to participate, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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