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[Pages H17-H18]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CLIMATE CHANGE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the impending
impacts of climate change on our planet and the unquestionable impact
that all of us are aware of.
Over the world, we see prolonged droughts fueling disastrous fires.
Over the last 6 months we have watched horrific bushfires in Australia
with tremendous losses. People have died, half a billion animals have
been lost, and millions of acres of land have been swallowed up by
flames.
As a lifelong resident of California, I have witnessed similar
devastation in
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our own communities as a result of climate change. The past 2 years
alone were the two worst fire seasons on record. Climate change has, no
doubt, heightened the impact of these fires which is why we are
witnessing these horrific impacts, and they are so difficult to manage.
Climate change is happening now and we must do more. For starters, we
must continue to make significant efforts to reduce our carbon
footprint. We must continue to invest in clean air and affordable
transportation made more readily available to all of our communities
throughout the country.
Last year, the House took strong steps to protect our planet in the
future by passing H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act. H.R. 9 confronts
the climate crisis by keeping us in the Paris Agreement, and demanding
a plan of action from the administration to participate in a meaningful
fashion. But that bill, along with hundreds of others, are currently
sitting on Senator McConnell's desk collecting dust, sadly.
These current events have made it clear that we have an imperative
need to act on this climate crisis. And while we wait for the Senate to
act, I am doing all that I can to make a difference in California as it
relates to our air quality, transportation, and our water needs that
are impacted.
As a member of the State legislature, years ago, I created the San
Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to help monitor and
reduce pollution in the valley and improve our air quality, and we have
made progress.
I am also the cosponsor and helped to introduce the Clean Corridors
Act and the Clean School Bus Act that also reduced greenhouse gases.
We have also helped kick-start California's High-Speed Rail project
which will get millions of drivers out of their cars and into cleaner,
more accessible transportation, along with our inner-city
transportation, our intermodal concept to use all of the modes of
transportation more effectively for cleaner air quality.
I am also working on water legislation that will help improve
conservation and work toward a sustainable water supply for our farmers
and cleaner water for our communities throughout California.
California's broken water system is not suited to deal with the
increased volatility caused by climate change.
For those of you who are unaware, California gets most of its water,
its moisture, between November and March. The rains are important. They
are critical, and the snow in the mountains are Mother Nature's icebox.
With climate change, we see the droughts have become longer and more
intense, and the storms that we rely on for the snowpack are fewer and
are at a higher elevation, which means this incredible water system
that we have created over the last 100 years has to adapt to those
changes.
Food is a national security issue, not only in California, but in
America and throughout the world. Without a reliable supply of water,
we cannot grow food, not only for our Nation but for the planet, and so
this is a critical issue.
We need to understand that for 7 billion people on the planet in the
last 2 years--suggested to increase to 9 billion by the middle of this
century--the ability to provide a sustainable water supply for the
entire world and for us to grow food to feed our people in this country
is absolutely critical.
Therefore, we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of this
planet that we call home for ourselves and for the future generations
to come.
As we begin the new year, let's work together now to find bipartisan,
commonsense solutions to help us pass along a better planet for future
generations to come. This, among all of the other difficult issues we
face, I believe, is the primary challenge of the 21st century.
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