VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/senatortomudall/videos/2185954934953135/
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) delivered a speech on the Senate floor to outline the disastrous consequences of climate change for New Mexico and the nation, and call for bipartisan action to address its effects. Udall joined U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on the Senate floor, who also spoke as part of his “Time to Wake Up” series on the threat of climate change.
Udall highlighted the devastating effects of climate change being felt throughout New Mexico and the Southwest, including reduced snow pack, severe droughts, catastrophic wildfires and ever-increasing temperatures. He warned that failing to adequately confront these effects would severely jeopardize our environmental health, economic prosperity, and national security for generations to come.
Udall urged both Democrats and Republicans to step up and take action to tackle the threat of climate change, cut carbon emissions and invest in renewable energy. He also discussed the potential role of New Mexico and the West as leaders in harnessing solar, wind and geothermal power for the new global clean energy economy.
“The American people want Congress to meet the challenges of climate change,” Udall said . “They want to protect future generations – their children, their grandchildren. We can do this. But we must do it now. And we must – as our late and very great colleague from Arizona [John McCain] urged us – do this on a bipartisan basis.”
“Let us all commit to doing what it takes to reduce our carbon emissions, to meeting the goals of the world of nations,” Udall continued . “To increase renewable energy to its fullest potential. And, most importantly, to do right by our children, our grandchildren, and beyond.”
The full text of Udall’s remarks as prepared for delivery is below.
Mr. President. I’m proud to join Senator Whitehouse today. Thank you, Senator, for continuing to bring the urgency of combatting climate change to the attention of this body.
Mr. President. The science is clear: the Earth’s atmosphere is warming at an alarming rate. Human activity is the principal cause.
What we see with our own eyes every day – extreme weather events around the globe – is clearer.
But worse -- and most clear -- is the harm being done to of millions of Americans and people all around the world as a result of the destructive 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 2017, roughly 68.5 million people were climate refuges -- and that number is expected to double to over 140 million by 2050.
Hundreds of thousands are losing their very lives. The official death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria is now 2,975. And there are even higher estimates.
Climate change is the most pressing moral issue of our time. It is an existential threat. As the people in Puerto Rico know all too well.
Yet, in the words of the late and great Senator John McCain -- “We are getting nothing done, my friends. We’re getting nothing done.”
John gave us a deserved chewing out on the Senate floor on July 25th of last year for not working together, for not working in a bipartisan fashion.
And on climate change, we are certainly not getting anything done. We are not working across the aisle – as John told us, now over a year ago.
The West -- that John McCain so loved and worked to protect -- is getting hit hard.
We have less precipitation, less snow pack. And the snow pack we have is melting earlier. Rivers and reservoirs are running at historic lows. Some river segments are drying.
We now have abnormally dry conditions in every western state. And, we have extreme drought in parts of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, and even Oregon. In my home state of New Mexico, every single county is in abnormally dry or drought conditions.
Here are drought maps of the West – from last week and from the same time of year in 2000, when the federal government first began keeping track. The contrast is stark.
These dry conditions are creating more wildfires, that are burning more acreage, and threatening more homes – and lives.
In California, the Mendocino Fire Complex is the largest fire that state has ever experienced. Since it began, in late July, it’s burned over 450,000 acres, taken one fire fighter’s life, and destroyed 157 homes. After two months, it’s still not fully contained.
In my home state of New Mexico, about 20 miles of the Rio Grande -- south of Albuquerque and through the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge – were already dry in May – months earlier than in typical years.
Two weeks ago, farmers in the Middle Rio Grande area in my state started getting notified that the water stored for their crops was almost gone -- months before irrigation season’s end in October.
And, as of two days ago, Elephant Butte Reservoir was only 4.6 percent full. Four point six. Back in the 1990s, the reservoir was 27 miles in length. Today, it’s about 10.
Here are aerial maps of Elephant Butte from 1994 and 2013. These photos show climate change is here and now in my home state.
The Elephant Butte Reservoir provides water to over 90,000 acres of farmland in southern New Mexico and west Texas. It’s an economic engine for Sierra County, the rural county where it’s located. We can’t afford for this reservoir to be at 4.6 percent.
John McCain’s beloved Arizona is in its 21st year of drought.
We’ve measured the Animas River, in Colorado, for 106 years. Two weeks ago, in Durango, it was at its lowest measured point for this time of year -- ever.
Utah’s temperature has warmed 2 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century. The state’s $1.3 billion dollar ski industry is seeing warmer winters, less snow pack, less powder. Ski resorts that have never had to make snow, have to now.
Alaska -- is under singular threat. A warmer atmosphere is rapidly melting the Arctic’s snowpack and glaciers. The seas are rising to unprecedented levels. Animals that depend on ice to survive – like polar bears and walruses – struggle to survive. The iconic polar bear has been listed as threatened since 2008 – a direct result of climate warming.
During the past half-century, Alaska has warmed twice as fast as the global average. Native villages along the sea are under siege. There are at least 31 Alaskan towns and cities at imminent risk of destruction. Two Native villages have voted to relocate. And Newtok – a Native village along a river that feeds to the Bering Sea – is literally collapsing into the water . . . and is already relocating.
Their relocation will 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 the devastation of climate change. But no one is immune.
Mr. President. I could recite a thousand statistics that show how climate change is hurting the American West, its people, and its lands.
The statistics are there. The science is there. The American people are 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 chronicled that, between 1979 and 1989, we came to understand the causes and dangers of the “greenhouse effect.” During that decade, we had the opportunity to take action to dramatically reduce carbon emissions. But we failed.
In 1988 -- one of the leading climate scientists then and now – James Hansen, working for NASA – told Congress that it was 99 percent certain that 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 that climate change was here.
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 as 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 2000’s for Congress to act. John McCain wanted us to. But we didn’t.
As chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, he held groundbreaking hearings in 2000 on climate change. He brought the science of climate change 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 Lieberman forced a vote on the floor of the Senate on their legislation in 2003.
John began his speech on the floor in support of his bill quoting from Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro: “Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called . . . the House of God.” He warned then, in 2003, all too presciently, that the snow on Kilimanjaro may be someday relegated to the realm of fiction.
Some Senators who sit today voted on the McCain-Lieberman bill. The bill had a chance to succeed. But it failed, 43 to 55.
Kilimanjaro’s glaciers in fact have receded dramatically since that vote. The ice sheets depend on snowfall, which is affected by Indian Ocean currents. The Indian Ocean’s warming -- due to climate change – has changed moisture delivery to Kilimanjaro, 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 Republican Representative Tom Petri. But after the McCain-Lieberman bill and those efforts failed, we turned to the Obama Administration to take on climate change in earnest.
The Obama Administration passed 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 methane -- a super potent greenhouse gas – from oil and gas operations. Joined with 190 countries in executing the Paris agreement.
All these initiatives are now under assault by the Trump Administration and industry. The U.S is alone -- as the only country in the world who 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 scare resources create conflict. The U.S. military – especially the Navy – recognize the threat. That’s why they created the MEDEA program in the early 1990’s to analyze the security threats of climate change. That’s one reason John McCain once worked toward a bi-partisan solution to climate change.
Neither party can claim they have done enough to tackle global warming. But climate action demands that Republicans step up like Senator McCain once did.
The destruction to property and lives wrought by climate changes does not distinguish between parties. This is a bipartisan problem that demands bipartisan solutions. Now.
Mr. President. The West is right in the bull’s eye of climate change.
But the West has great potential to be part of the solution. The West’s potential to generate renewable, clean energy – through solar, wind, and geothermal -- is immense.
New Mexico, California, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada have some of the highest potential for solar generation in the country.
New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado , Alaska, California, Oregon, and Washington have some of the highest potential for wind generation.
And virtually all the western states have immense potential for geothermal power.
We should be harnessing this potential. Creating sustainable jobs. Growing our rural Western economies in industries that are the future. Industries that will help tackle the greatest challenge humanity faces.
The American people want Congress to meet the challenges of climate change. They want to protect future generations – their children, their grandchildren.
We can do this.
But we must do it NOW. And we must – as our late and very great colleague from Arizona urged us – do this on a bipartisan basis.
Let all of us show the 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.
Mr. President. I yield the floor.
