Global Warming
Floor Speech
GLOBAL WARMING -- (House of Representatives - June 07, 2007)
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Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Washington for all the work that he has done on this very important issue.
I agree with Mr. Inslee that this problem we face is not irreversible. However, time is not on our side. Almost exactly 7 days ago, I was in Greenland, and on the front page of today's Washington Post is a picture of a harbor at Illulissat, Greenland. This is about 170 miles north of the Arctic circle. And for those who might want to go to the Washington Post Web site or if you have a Washington Post, you will see blue waters.
Now, on the surface, pardon the pun, it would appear that this is normal. However, the Greenlanders explained to our delegation, which was led by Speaker Pelosi, that under normal circumstances at this time of the year this area is completely frozen. In fact, they say that their ancestors at this time of the year would get on the water, which was, of course, frozen solid, and go to Canada to get lumber to bring back to build houses. And they would travel on the water that is frozen with their dogs pulling their sleighs.
Now, I went out in a boat out to an iceberg which was melting. There are 53,000 people who live in Greenland. I did not have the opportunity to speak with 53,000, but I can tell you with no fear of contradiction that every person we spoke with from Greenland spoke to us about their fear of what is happening to their native land. These are not politicians. These are not scientists. These are not college professors. All they know is that never during their lifetime have they seen the kinds of things that they are witnessing now.
For example, they speak now of the fact that their animals can actually graze longer. Now, I never saw a tree in the entire country of Greenland, but at a very short period of time during the summer grass does grow. Greenery does appear on the landscape. And what the natives are telling us, the Greenlanders, is that their animals can graze much longer today than their ancestors and the ancestors before them had ever reported. So this means that something dramatic has happened to the climate.
I was told that just 15 or 20 years ago at this time of the year people who had automobiles could drive out into the harbor and drive around to other villages along the coast of Greenland. Today, it is blue water. This is blue water.
Well, maybe to people who are watching they are saying, well, so the water is blue around Greenland. Well, the danger, of course, is that the fact that we are seeing a melting down of the Greenland ice sheet means that the sea levels would inevitably, unavoidably, predictably rise; and when that happens, it means that coastal areas, including the United States, are jeopardized.
Now, to the Greenlanders, it means a lot of other things, all of them bad. For example, they are noticing fish coming into the waters around Greenland that are not native there. In fact, many of the people who have never left Greenland, they were born there, they fished there, they killed whales. They also, by the way, wanted to make sure that they told us that they never killed whales or caught fish for sport, that when they killed whales they did it in order to eat and survive.
But they say that now they are noticing large numbers of cod coming into the waters. What does that mean? It means that they are running away from the area, fish that are native to that area, because of course they are also predators. So we are finding that the entire environment is now being altered because of global warming.
As I mentioned earlier, they know nothing about the debate that's going on in the United States. They know nothing about the charges that this is some kind of hoax. All they know is that it's getting warmer.
One of the most amazing things I saw in Greenland was a fly. Now, remember that the temperature where we were was in the 20s. This is Greenland. And my wife and I go to the window and look out, and there is a fly trying to get outside. Now, as I reported that to others, they certainly shrugged their shoulders and said, yeah, that's another example of what is happening. Twenty degree weather, which means it's warmer than usual, and flies are coming around.
And so, Mr. Inslee, I am very pleased that you brought this matter to the floor because of its significance. And if we experience any kind of jolt to the Gulf Stream, it can alter weather throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
I think that all Americans should be concerned. Because it is clear from what I saw that people all over the world are concerned, perhaps much more so than we are here. People in Greenland are concerned. The 27 Nations of the EU are very concerned.
I was in Brussels, and they were having a presidential legislation. And as I was asking questions about the election, I was told, Mr. Speaker, that the person who won the election would be the one who convinced the public that he was greener because of the significance of this issue. If you are running for president, you've got to convince the voting public that you are aware of the climate change and that you are willing to do something about it. Unfortunately and tragically and embarrassingly, we can't say that here at home.
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Mr. CLEAVER. There is a great deal of movement toward wind energy in Missouri and in the State of Kansas. In fact, one of our colleagues who is serving here with distinction, Mr. Carnahan, has a brother, Tom Carnahan, who does this full time. He actually has a windmill farm not far outside of Kansas City, Missouri.
One of the things I think is extremely worth noting, particularly as the three of us speak about this subject, is that some people are nervous about discussions that we are having with regards to the changes that need to be made in this country. They falsely believe that we are going to reduce the quality of life, that we are going to damage industry. And what I have said is that if we will unleash this incredibly creative American creativity and ingenuity, that we will be able to transform our energy use in a way that we would create new jobs.
For example, there is a plant in China that produces most of the highly efficient light bulbs. They don't use them in China. We buy them here. And there is not a single plant in the United States that manufactures this particular light bulb. So I think we have the capacity to make alterations without damaging our economy, by not even causing a dent.
Let me just say that, in having had the opportunity to meet with some of the MPs in London, I found out that a bill was introduced March 13, 2007, to the Parliament.
Members from three of the parties were in the dialogue. They said, without any reservations, the bill is going to pass. There is no question. It is going to pass. Now, these are people who don't agree about much else. They agree on one thing, that we are in the midst of climate change, and, number two, they have to do something about it.
So the bill that was introduced is aimed at moving the United Kingdom to a low carbon economy. It would require a mandatory 60 percent cut in the UK's carbon emissions by 2050 compared to the base level, which was 1990, with an intermediate target of 26 to 32 percent by the year 2020.
The EU has also agreed to cut by 20 percent emissions by the year 2020 and by 30 percent if it is a part of an overall agreement that will include the United States. I will just say what we heard over and over again was, what is the United States going to do? The United States is the leader.
In Parliament, as we were talking about the need for us to work together, one of the members of Parliament became quite agitated and said to us, well, it is good you guys are coming over here talking to us about this, but we had a meeting with a Member of Congress. I am not going to call the Member's name. It is not that important. But he said, we had a meeting with a Member of the United States Congress who told us that this was a hoax. Of course, we sat there, and Speaker Pelosi, as she did throughout the trip, made sure that they understood that we were a delegation, it was a bipartisan delegation, that we were not there to cast aspersions on any of our colleagues, that we do have a deliberative body, that there are some people who have not quite caught on yet to what the rest of the world seems to have caught on to. But it is my hope, it is my prayer, that this body will realize what the rest of the world already realizes, that there is climate change and that there is no need to debate the science, only what we are going to do as a result of it.
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Mr. CLEAVER. Well, I am wondering whether or not either of you, and I don't know if you are into horror movies, and there is enough horror going on without having to watch it on television, but there is a movie starring Kurt Russell, and I imagine the movie is 15 years old, maybe older. The movie is called ``The Thing.'' It is a movie about a group of scientists and military people out in Greenland at a facility. At the end, of course, they kill this thing that has been frozen under the ice for perhaps a millennium, and the movie ends with all is well.
The movie was actually based on the Swiss camp which is a real camp that is out in the middle of Greenland where scientists stay out all year long measuring temperatures, measuring the melting snow. They have concluded that the temperature has risen 11 degrees over the last 10 years.
What happens is many of the natives who used to make money by taking tourists out on 12-day excursions on the ice can no longer do that because the ice is melting. You might go somewhere you have routinely gone, and now the ice is cracking and your dogs fall into the water, so that doesn't happen.
I always believe there is a solution, and I think there are a number of things, as Mr. Inslee has mentioned, with regard to capping trade, which I think is, as he said, a part of the solution. There are probably going to be a potpourri of things that we change and implement in order to bring the CO
2 level down.
But it occurred to me, because I am a United Methodist pastor in my real life, that if people believe it is the government prodding them, pushing them, maybe even beating them into changing, there will be some resistance. But if, on the other hand, they understand that one of the responsibilities of the human race is to be good stewards of the world that God made for them, then it is easier for them to look at their activities, their actions, and make modifications.
In the book of Genesis, we are told that the Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and then God says to mankind, humankind, go out and subdue it. Now he did not say go out and undo it, but rather subdue it.
If you look at the word ``subdue,'' break it down, it actually means taking care of. So we have to take care of it. The good news is on this Thursday evening there is a growing phalanx of legislators in this House who believe that a change is not only necessary but that it is going to come.
One final thing on this, although it is not really all that related.
I have a mobile Fifth District office that we use in my district in and around Kansas City, Missouri. It runs on grease, and the technology is probably not as good as it will be because sometimes, if you stay in it all day, you do smell like a Big Mac. However, it is demonstrating that we can make changes and that the Congress must show the way. As opposed to having one of those big gas guzzlers, we, with great intentionality, had a van designed to use grease.
I have a bill which will require, if approved, that all Members of Congress who lease automobiles with taxpayer money must lease an energy efficient car. I think, as Ghandi said, we must be the changes we preach. I think Congress can show the way; and, in fact, I think Congress is showing the way.
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