And three times as fast as the global average over the past, 100 years eighty two thousand 14 Union of concerned scientists report warns that the rocky mountains will quote become even hotter and drier leading to increased wildfire reduce snowpack and declines and the keystone trees that define the rocky mountains for us, it recent study by us forest service and oregon state University researchers found that she's like the pygmy rabbit wolverine Canada links and snowshoe hair that have specific habitat requirements We'll be particularly vulnerable, some mountain amphibians or even at risk from heart, harmful invasive. Fungus that thrives in these warmer temperatures increase spread of disease and in vase of species, is a recurring theme of climate change and I'm also implants already stressed from depleted food and changing temperatures are more susceptible to disease and stressed ecosystems, leave openings for innovative species to move in and take over after hitting you Shores in the early two thousands in wood packing materials, the in vase of an injury, reus emerald ash borer has spread to around 30 States and destroyed tens of millions of ash trees and it's wake in July. My rhode island Department of environmental management, discovered this innovative species in our state. We look forward 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 20 second and that's just the ones whose bodies came ashore locals and Risks alike are greeted with decaying Marine life along the docks and beaches and air tainted with the algae toxins. Quartz rights that this year is Red tide in Florida doesn't just make the issue of global warming visible. It is in all out sensory onslaught, though algae blooms occur annually in Florida. This years 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 hospital Toxic algae, 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 and Sea level rise expands the area of shallow coastal waters were warm temperatures and ample sunshine bolster growing algae the oceans are experiencing Green heat ways according to a recent review in the prestigious scientific Journal nature. These extended periods of elevated Sea surface temperatures and I quote here, have caused changes in biological production toxic algae. Blooms regime shifts in reef communities, Mass coral bleaching and mortality of commercially important fish species with cascading impacts on economies and societies that's science ease for April A tough formula for coastal communities indeed a Marine heatwave, is responsible for the dramatic coral bleaching that occurred in the great barrier reef killing about half of the reef since two thousand 16 in recent weeks San Diego recorded its highest Sea water temperature around eighty degrees. Fahrenheit since measurements started in 19 hundred and 16 the nature study attributed eighty seven percent of modern Marine heat waves to human caused climate change, their Warning 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. The oxygenation and changes in ocean circulation and tournaments and you are looking at a perfect storm for coral reef fisheries and oceans and wildlife Marine Heat waves are contributing also to the rapid opening of arctic Sea ice. The iconic images of starving polar bears have brought this concern home for many, but also provides protection for narwhals hosts algae that feed arctic cod in wales and provides an interstate highway of sorts for wolf and Fox populations. It is a crux of the arctic ease ecosystem. This ice and it is falling apart for the first time Since scientist started monitoring the arctic in the 19 70 s the waters, North of greenland are breaking through the usually permanently frozen ice cover. This area until now had been assumed to be the arctic ice stronghold. The strongest and oldest ice plain in the arctic, but spikes of warm temperature. Earlier this year allowed the weakened eyes to be pushed from shore, leaving it vulnerable to wind and waves Doctor Walt meyer, with the us National snow and ice data Center called this loss of a pretty dramatic indication of the transformation of the arctic Sea ice. An arctic climate air researcher with the norwegian media logical Institute put it even simpler calling it nice and scary to President. I will not 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 manifestation from North to South from All to pull and from the depths of the Sea to our highest mountain tops. It on the floor Mister President, the senator from new Mexico, mister President, thank you for the recognition and I ask unanimous consent that uh luca law bio and christina yoon congressional fellows in my office be granted for floor. Privileges for the remainder of the hundred and fifteenth Congress without objection. Thank you, Mr President, and Mr President, I just wanna tell you how proud I am to join senator whitehouse today on the floor and I wanna thank the senator from rhode island uh for his continue To bring the urgency of combatting climate change to the attention of this body in admire his passion and his intellectual cloud which has been brought specifically to climate change in number of times here on the floor of the United States Senate and he has been a great advocate for his state of rhode island where um we all know they're going to be very serious impact Sea level rise. One of the major ones, but many others, as result of how climate change and global worn globally Warming or playing out, let's, let's uh estate several things here that are clear and one is the science is clear. The Earth atmosphere is warming at an alarming rate. Human activity is the principal cause. What we see with our own eyes everyday extreme weather events around the globe is clear and clear, but, worst and most clear is the harm being done to millions of Americans and people all around the world as a result of the destruction Give effects of climate change people are losing their homes, their lands, their farms. We now have a new kind of refugee climate refugees, displaced from their homes by catastrophic weather disasters, including drought and floods in 20 17 roughly 68 point five million people were climate refugees and that number is expected to double to over 100 and 40 million by 20 50 hundreds of thousands of We're losing their lives, the official death toll in Puerto Rico from hurricane muddy up is now two thousand 900 and 75 and there are even higher estimates that have been done about those losses in Puerto Rico, climate change is the most pressing moral issue of our time. It is an excess potential threat as the people in Puerto Rico know all too well as the people of rhode island. No well as the people of new Mexico in all of our States and Stories yet in the words of the late, great senator John Mccain and I'm quoting here as the presiding officer, knows he was always outspoken gentlemen. Uh we are we are getting nothing done. My friends were getting nothing done and quote and I know that senator whitehouse uh was an honorary pall bearers at senator mccain's ceremony here at National cathedral and we have four days celebrating uh the the John Mccain that spoke up about core issues that America really faced John gave us that deserved chewing out that I just mentioned. They're on the Senate floor on July. 20 -fifth of last year for not working together and for not working in a bipartisan fashion for not reaching across the aisle here and on climate change we're. Certainly not getting anything done and we're not working across the aisle, as John told us to The West, the John Mccain so loved and work to protect is getting hit hard. We have less precipitation, less snowpack and the snow pack. We have is melting earlier rivers and reservoirs are running at historic lows. Some River segments our drawing. We now have a normally dry conditions in every Western state and we have extreme weather drought in parts of new Mexico Arizona, California utah Colorado and even organ in my home state of new Mexico Every single County is in abnormally dry or draught conditions here are the draft maps of the West from the last week and from the same time, of year in two thousand, when the federal government first began keeping track. This is the map here of two thousand first federal government's first keeping track and now, let's look at the contrast which is very, very stark on the first map. We didn't see The extreme form an exceptional drought at all and here eighteen years later, we can see very very stark contrast in just eighteen years. These dry conditions are creating more wild fires that are burning more acreage and threatening more homes and threatening more lives in California the mendocino fire complex is the largest fire that state has ever experience since it began and July it's burned over 400 and 50000 acres taking one firefighters life and destroyed a hundred and 57 homes after two months. It's still not fully contained in my home state of new Mexico about 20 miles of the real Grand South of albuquerque and through the apache National wildlife refuge were already dry and may months earlier than in typical years, two weeks ago, farmers in the Grande area in my state started getting notified that the water stored for their crops was almost gone months before irrigation seasons in in October and as of two days ago, elephant butte reservoir was only four point six percent full. Four point six back in the 19 nineties the reservoir was 27 miles in length today. It is about Ham here are the aerial maps of the elephant, butte from 19 94 and 20 13. These photographs show that climate change is here and now here you can see elephant butte in 19 94 and here they very dramatically shrunk an elephant. Butte in 20 13 Elephant, butte provides water to over 90000 acres of farmland and southern new Mexico and West Texas. It's an economic engine for sierra County and the rural County, where it's located, we can't afford for this reservoir to be at four point. Six percent. John mccain's beloved Arizona is in its 20 first Of trout we've measured the animus River in Colorado for a hundred and six years two weeks ago and or wrangle it was at its lowest measured point for this time of year ever ever you toss temperatures warm two degrees. Fahrenheit over the last century. The States one point three billion dollars key industry is seen warmer winters, less snow. Pack, less powder ski resorts that have never had to makes no have to make it now alaska's under Threat award winner atmosphere is rapidly melting. The melting the arctic snow pack and glaciers the seas are rising to unprecedented levels. Animals that depend on ice to survive. The like the polar bear on the Wall versus are struggling to survive. The iconic polar bear has been listed as a threatened species since two thousand eight a direct result of climate warming during the last Past half century, alaska's warm twice, as fast as the global average native villages along the Syria under siege there are at least 31 Alaska towns and cities at imminent risk of destruction to native villages, voted to relocate annuity talk in a native village along the River that feeds to the barren Sea is literally collapsing into the water and it's already relocating their relocation will call Cost 100 million dollars this year Congress gave them 15 million toward that effort. The fact is native Americans and other marginalized populations are more vulnerable to devastation, to the devastation of climate change, but no one is immune from this. Mister President, I would aside a thousand statistics that show how climate change is hurting the American West, its people and its lands the statistics are there the science of Is there the American people is there Congress needs to get there. The New York times, magazine recently ran its longest article ever. It was on climate change entitled losing Earth the decade. We almost stopped climate change. The article show that between 19 79 and 19 eighty nine, we came to understand the causes and dangers of the greenhouse effect during that decade, we I had the opportunity to take action to dramatically reduce carbon emissions, but we failed in 19 90 81 of the leading climate scientist then and now James hansen working for Nasa, told Congress. It was 99 percent certain the globe, the global warming trend was not a natural variation but was caused by buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere he told Congress 30 years ago the climate change was here here and now, during that decade There was more opportunity for consensus than today. The oil and gas industry was more receptive to taking action. Politicians views weren't is set in concrete, but that generation failed to act on the science failed to protect present and future generations. There was another opportunity in the early two thousands for Congress stack John Mccain, wanted us to act but we didn't has chair of the Senate Commerce Committee He held groundbreaking hearings in two thousand on climate change. He brought the science of climate change in to light in the halls of the Senate. Then he and senator Joe Lieberman crafted the first major bipartisan climate change legislation cap and trade legislation. Modeled after similar and successful legislation to curb pollution from acid rain, senators, Mccain and And forced to vote on the floor of the Senate on their legislation in two thousand three John began his speech on the floor and support his bill quoting from hemingway's the snows of kilimanjaro and I quote here killing jars as snow covered mountain 19700 feet high and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its Western summit is called the House of God John Then, in two thousand three all to recently that snow on may, someday be relegated to the realm of fiction. Some senators who sit here today voted on the Mccain Lieberman bill. The bill had a chance to succeed, but failed 43 to 55 kilometers Charles in fact have received dramatically since that vote the ice sheets depend on Which is affected by the Indian ocean currents, the Indian ocean is warming due to climate change has changed moisture delivery to kill him in general and hemingway's snow is disappearing. Congress has had a few more bipartisan efforts at addressing climate change, including my own cap and trade bill in the House of representatives with the Republican representative Tom, try, but after the Mccain labor of them And those efforts failed, we turned to the Obama administration to take on climate change in earnest. The Obama administration pass the clean power plan to limit carbon emissions from power plants and put the brakes on new coal fired power plants passed regulations to control nothing. Ape, Super potent greenhouse gas from oil and gas operations joined with a hundred and 90 countries in executing the Paris agreement, all these initiatives are We're now under assault by the trump administration and industry, the us is alone in the us alone as the only country in the world walked away from the Paris accord. Turning our backs on climate change means ignoring the National security threat. It represents large groups of displaced people and scarce resources, create conflict the us military, especially the Navy recognize the threat that's why they created the program in the early 19 nineties to analyze the security threats of climate change and that's one reason John Mccain once work toward a bipartisan solution to climate change and either party can claim they have done enough to tackle global warming. But climate action demands the Republican step up like senator Mccain once did the destruction to Property and lives right by global warming does not distinguish between parties. This is a bipartisan problem that demands bipartisan solutions and demands them now. Mister President, the West is right in the bullseye of climate change, but the West has great potential to be part of the solution the West potential to generate renewable clean energy through solar, wind and geothermal ism and ps new Mexico California Colorado and nevada have some of the highest potential for solar generation in the country and virtually all the Western States have a men's potential for geothermal power. We should be harnessing this potential creating sustainable jobs growing our rural Western economies and industries that are the future industries that will help tackle the greatest challenge. Humanity faces the America When people want Congress to meet the challenges of climate change, they want to protect future generations. Their children and their grandchildren. We can do this, but me, we must do it now as we must has our light and very great colleague from Arizona, urged us. Do this on a bipartisan basis, but all of us the curve Courage resolve and independence of John Mccain and do right by today's generation and future generations. Let us all commit to doing what it takes to reduce our carbon emissions to meeting the goals of the world of Nations to increase renewable energy to its fullest potential and most importantly, to do right by our children, our grandchildren and beyond mister President Yield the floor