Speeches & Testimony

I rise in support of my amendment to H.R. 9, which would recognize the importance of the oceans to our global climate system and the international efforts under way to include our oceans in nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, under the Paris Agreement.

When we talk about the impacts of manmade climate change, we focus on  the worlds of our lands and air, but we tend to forget the largest world of all, our oceans. Yet, some of the foremost negative consequences of climate change, as well as the positive vital processes that have kept our climate on an even keel until recently and can continue to do so, lie in the ocean.

We cannot forget the oceans. No climate change solutions can work if our oceans are not in the room.

The ocean covers more than 70 percent of the Earth and directly affects weather around the globe. The temperature and currents of the ocean determine storm patterns and strength.  We have seen increases in measures of intensity, frequency, and duration, as well as the number of the strongest--category 4 and 5--storms since the 1980s.

The ocean also absorbs many of the most immediate consequences of carbon pollution, buffering us from some of its most damaging impacts. The ocean has absorbed 93 percent of the total excess heat energy taken up by greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Additionally, the ocean is the largest sink for anthropogenic carbon dioxide, or CO2, absorbing roughly one-third of CO2 emissions.

The increase in temperature and carbon in the atmosphere and oceans are directly impacting communities throughout the world. According to the 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment, or NCA, released by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, made up of 13 Federal agencies: ``Human-caused carbon emissions influence ocean ecosystems through three main processes: ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation.''

Additionally, the NCA states: ``The social, economic, and environmental systems along the coasts are being affected by climate change. Threats from sea level rise are exacerbated by dynamic processes such as high tide and storm surge flooding, erosion, waves and their effects, saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers and elevated groundwater tables, local rainfall, river runoff, increasing water and surface air temperatures, and ocean acidification.''

In just one compelling instance of many from around the world, my State of Hawaii's oceans and coastlines are on the front lines of dealing with the impacts of climate change in our oceans and coasts. For example, the Honolulu tide gauge, a constant for over a century now, has measured a sea level rise of nearly half a foot since 1905.

Over 70 percent of our beaches in Hawaii are in a state of chronic erosion, likely caused by a combination of shoreline hardening and ongoing sea level rise.

The frequency of high tide flooding in Honolulu since the 1960s increased from 6 days per year to 11 per year.

We have also seen in Hawai'i sea level rise impact traditional and customary practices, including fishpond maintenance, cultivation of salt, and gathering from the nearshore fisheries.

About 550 cultural sites, 38 miles of major roads, and more than $19 billion in assets will be vulnerable to chronic flooding resulting from a 3.2-foot increase in sea level. Such widespread flooding will change the character of the islands by affecting cultural heritage and daily commerce and lifestyle, and this is chronic throughout the entire Pacific.

We also, in Hawai'i, face just one example of the impacts of ocean warming, acidification, on our reefs.

We have seen globally averaged sea surface temperature increase by 1.8 percent Fahrenheit over the past 100 years.

We have seen over nearly 30 years of oceanic pH measurements, based on data collected from Station ALOHA, Hawaii, show a roughly 8.7 percent increase in ocean acidity over this time.

We have seen increased ocean acidification reduce the ability of marine organisms to build shells and other hard structures, adversely impacting coral reefs and threatening marine ecosystems.

We have seen extended periods of coral bleaching, which did not even occur first until 2014 but now are becoming much longer.

This is, again, true throughout the entire Pacific Ocean. And we are not alone, because the ocean is interconnected throughout our world, and we are a clear example of what the world is facing.

These impacts are happening all over the world and our country.

Madam Chair, 39 countries--conspicuously, not including the U.S.-- have embraced the challenges and promise of our oceans in facing climate change by signing the Because the Ocean initiative, which has encouraged progress on the incorporation of the ocean in climate change policy debate, with a special focus on the inclusion of ocean action into nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. The efforts of these countries and their partners will be invaluable as we face the crisis of climate change.