Climate Change

Floor Speech

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I am very grateful to my colleague from New Mexico, Senator Udall, for joining me today for my 218th ``Time to Wake Up'' speech. Senator Udall is a formidable advocate for conserving public lands and protecting endangered species--helping to ensure that future generations will inherit a healthy and beautiful planet. These lands and creatures Senator Udall fights so hard to protect are under direct attack from the current administration and the heavy hand of industry that guides it both through regulatory rollbacks and other efforts to weaken protections for special places and special wildlife. These species and places are also under siege from the consequences of climate change.

Just last week, both the Washington Post and The Atlantic reported on a recent study in the prestigious journal Science. The titles of their articles were foreboding--``Climate change could render many of Earth's ecosystems unrecognizable'' from the Washington Post and ``No Ecosystem on Earth Is Safe from Climate Change'' from The Atlantic. The study looked at historic vegetation and temperature records to predict how global warming will transform our world.

Dr. Stephen Jackson, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and the lead author, told The Atlantic:

Anywhere on the globe, the more you change climate, the more likely you are to see major ecological change. Having this kind of change occur at such a massive scale in such a short period of time is going to create unprecedented challenges.

Dr. Dorothy Peteet, a researcher with NASA who commented on the article, said: ``There are notable effects of climate change we are seeing today . . . and they will probably be much more exacerbated in the future.''

From the mountains to the sea, from the North Pole to the South, climate change is wreaking havoc on our natural systems and the living creatures that rely on them for survival. A study from Global Change Biology earlier this year found ``a strong association between rapid climate warming and declines of bird and mammal populations . . . showing that population declines have been greatest in areas that have experienced most rapid warming.''

Birds are often seen as sentinels of an ecosystem's health and are especially vulnerable to climate change. In particular, migratory birds, some of which travel thousands of miles each year to breed, rely on a delicate balance of temperature cues and food availability to successfully make their impressive journeys.

Here on the east coast, Delaware Bay enjoys an annual visit from the rufa red knot, a bird with a body not larger than a teacup but whose wings carry it on a more than 9,000-mile journey from Tierra del Fuego on the southern tip of South America to the Canadian Arctic. After spending the summer nesting in the north, they make their return trip back south to winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

On the northward journey, the red knots make a straight leg from the coast of Brazil to Delaware Bay. Think about that. These tiny birds take off from the coast of Brazil, and they fly all the way to Delaware Bay. They lose as much as half their body weight on this arduous trip, but Mother Nature provides a bounty for them upon their arrival.

Delaware Bay is the largest horseshoe crab spawning area in the world, and each May, millions of horseshoe crabs take part in a mating ritual that predates the dinosaurs. Each female horseshoe crab can lay up to 90,000 eggs, and horseshoe crab eggs make excellent fuel for little birds relishing a pause in their long journey. But warming waters and shifting seasons threaten to knock the timing of both species' cycles out of whack. If the environmental signal comes too early or too late and these little birds fly all that way and they get to Delaware Bay and the horseshoe crabs aren't there, that will shake the species.

Predictability in seasonal changes affects the survival of much of the world's wildlife. In 2014, the National Audubon Society published a comprehensive review of how climate change would affect the ranges of nearly 600 North American bird species. More than half of the species studied are at risk of losing more than 50 percent of their current range to climate change by 2080. Around a quarter of the species studied could see their range shrink that much by 2050.

Mr. President, may I interrupt my remarks for a moment? I see the minority leader on the floor. If he seeks recognition, Senator Udall and I have time to do a pair of climate speeches. I am more than happy to interrupt and have him do what he needs to do.

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, as I resume my remarks, we head westward to the tallest peaks of the Rockies, where, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Northern Rocky Mountains have been warming more than three times as fast as the global average over the past 100 years.

A 2014 Union of Concerned Scientists report warned that the Rocky Mountains will ``become even hotter and drier,'' which will lead to increased wildfire, reduced snowpack, and declines in the keystone trees that define the Rocky Mountain forests.

A recent study by U.S. Forest Service and Oregon State University researchers found that species like the pygmy rabbit, wolverine, Canada lynx, and snowshoe hare, which have specific habitat requirements, will be particularly vulnerable. Some mountain amphibians are even at risk from a harmful, invasive fungus that thrives in warmer temperatures.

The increased spread of disease and invasive species is a recurring theme of climate change. Animals and plants that are already stressed from depleted food and changing temperatures are more susceptible to disease, and stressed ecosystems leave openings for invasive species to move in and take over. After hitting U.S. shores in the early 2000s in wood packing material, the invasive and injurious emerald ash borer has spread to around 30 States and has destroyed tens of millions of ash trees in its wake. In July, my Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management discovered this invasive species in our State.

We look seaward from Rhode Island, and coastal States like ours are facing a red menace in their waters--the harmful algae blooms known as red tide. Florida is battling a devastating toxic algae bloom that has, according to Quartz, ``killed masses of fish, 12 dolphins, more than 500 manatees, 300 sea turtles, countless horseshoe crabs, [and] a whale shark'' as of August 22. Those were just the ones whose bodies came ashore. Locals and tourists alike are greeted with decaying marine life along the docks and beaches and with air that is tainted with the algae's toxins. Quartz writes that this year's ``red tide in Florida doesn't just make the issue of global warming visible; it's an all-out sensory onslaught.''

Though algal blooms occur annually in Florida, this year's bloom is a harbinger of the shifting reality of climate change. The Washington Post notes: ``As air and ocean temperatures increase, the environment becomes more hospitable to toxic algal blooms.''

In addition to these warmer water temperatures, climate change also spurs heavy downpours, which wash more fertilizer from farms and lawns into the water, providing nutrients that spur the growth of the algae. Sea level rise expands the area of shallow coastal waters, where warm temperatures and ample sunshine bolster growing algae.

The oceans are experiencing ``marine heat waves.'' According to a recent review in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, these extended periods of elevated sea-surface temperatures ``have caused changes in biological production, toxic algal blooms, regime shifts in reef communities, mass coral bleaching, and mortalities of commercially important fish species, with cascading impacts on economies and societies.''

That is ``science-ese'' for a pretty tough formula for coastal communities.

Indeed, a marine heat wave is responsible for the dramatic coral bleaching that occurred in the Great Barrier Reef, killing about half of the reef since 2016. In recent weeks, San Diego recorded its highest seawater temperature, around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, since measurements started in 1916.

The Nature study attributed 87 percent of modern marine heat waves to human-caused climate change. They warn that these heat waves ``will become very frequent under global warming, probably pushing marine organisms and ecosystems to the limits of their resilience and even beyond.'' Couple these extreme heat spells with ocean acidification, deoxygenation, and changes in ocean circulation and currents, and you are looking at a perfect storm for coral reefs, fisheries, and ocean wildlife.

Marine and atmospheric heat waves are also contributing to the rapid opening of Arctic sea ice. The iconic images of starving polar bears have brought this concern home for many, but sea ice also provides protection for narwhals, hosts algae that feed Arctic cod and whales, and provides an interstate highway of sorts for wolf and fox populations. This ice is the crux of the Arctic ecosystem, and it is falling apart.

For the first time since scientists started monitoring the Arctic's sea ice in the 1970s, the waters north of Greenland are breaking through the usually permanently frozen ice cover. Until now, this area had been assumed to be the Arctic ice's stronghold--the strongest and oldest ice plane in the Arctic. But spikes of warm temperatures earlier this year allowed the weakened ice to be pushed from shore, leaving it vulnerable to wind and waves.

Dr. Walt Meier, with the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, called this loss of sea ice ``a pretty dramatic indication of the transformation of the Arctic sea ice and Arctic climate.'' A researcher with the Norwegian Meteorological Institute put it even simpler, calling it ``nice and scary.''

I will now yield to my friend the Senator from New Mexico in the hopes that at some point this body will find the sense and the courage to address this problem as we see its manifestations from north to south, from pole to pole, and from the depths of the sea to our highest mountaintops.

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