test welcome everyone this is a hearing of the select committee on energy independence and global warming we welcome you all to this very important hearing today over the course of the past year  the select committee has investigated numerous impacts of global warming from the melting of the greenland ice cap to the drying out of the amazon rainforest to the sliding of alaskan villages into the sea but the impacts on land are only the tip of the melting iceberg of a potential climate catastrophe oceans cover seventy percent of our planet and they are also feeling the heat of global warming their own earth's history the ocean and the atmosphere have worked together to regulate the climate the ocean serves as a sponge soaking up excess carbon and heat from the air above it carbon dioxide dissolve seawater where plants and animals of all shapes and sizes it is convert it into their own protective coverings although many of these creatures are too small to see with the naked eye the result of their work can be monumental as witnessed by the white cliffs of dover and the ancient reefs that are now the mountains of west texas but the burning of fossil fuels has released increasing amounts of ancient carbon back into the atmosphere and the oceans are over worked during the past forty years the ocean has absorbed ninety percent of the estimated increase in earth's heat content from human activities like sweeping dirt under the rug the oceans have protected us from feeling the full heat of global warming pollution while many of the ocean changes may be out of our sight we must not put them out of our mind warming is causing an underwater heatwave and the rising ocean temperature impacts sea life at all depths many marine species thrive in only a narrow temperature range and this heat stress forces them to move away from their traditional feeding and breeding areas in search of cooler waters but not all marine life can simply shift with changing sea temperatures coral reefs have nowhere to go when the water around them heats up instead they expel their life giving colorful algae once reefs experience such a bleaching episode they often never recover warmer oceans pose another threat rising sea level as water heats up it expands during the last forty years this expansion has contributed to twenty five percent of the observed sea level rise rising sea levels already cause harm in coastal communities around the world increasing their vulnerability to stomp and threatening their drinking water as global temperatures continue to rise so too will sea levels reshaping  contours of the world's coasts impacts on the ocean go beyond warmer waters the rising carbon dioxide concentration in the air alters the fundamental chemistry of the ocean as sea water absorbs more and more c o two the water becomes relatively more acidic this ocean acidification can prevent coral reefs from growing stop shellfish from developing their protective outer layer and inhibit the growth of tiny shell plumbing plants and animals that form the foundation of much of the ocean food chain the oceans have been taking on the burden of the planet's fever recent evidence suggests that oceans are losing their efficiency as a sink for the emit if we reduce the oceans ability to help us handle the global warming burden we may face the impacts of global warming sooner than predicted today we hear from some of the world's foremost ocean researchers they have seen firsthand many impacts from global warming that those of us above the surface will never see their testimonies will convey the consequences of our out of sight out of mind strategy like an iceberg most of the problem lies beneath the surface of the ocean what lurks below whole serious consequences and if we refuse to change course we will run into a problem far larger than it first appeared at this hearing we will demonstrate through our witnesses that we need a sea change in our energy and climate policy if we want to avoid an actual catastrophic change in our seas and now i would like to turn and recognize the ranking member of the gentleman from wisconsin mr sensenbrenner very much mr chairman the topic of today's hearing is yet another reason why i believe technological development is one of the most crucial steps in the effort to confront global warming rising c o two levels and increasing temperatures will have an impact on the oceans some prospects are unnerving like the dying of the coral reefs others can be approached through adaptations such as a rise in the sea levels energy is the lifeblood of our economy right now much of the energy is generated create c o two but there are already exist some technologies that generate and energy without emitting c o two into the atmosphere and if congress acts wisely there could be more on the way one of these technologies nuclear power which generates great amounts of energy without producing any c o two whatsoever another technology that is on the horizon is carbon capture and storage which has the potential to alabi us to continue to use our vast coal reserves to generate energy but with only a fraction of the c o two emissions renewable energy technologies and gains in energy efficiency also stand to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and we should strive to achieve all of these key technological improvements nuclear power and carbon capture and storage or technologies not only would go a long way toward reducing c o two emissions but they also help ensure the energy security of the united states and if the u s can't be secure in its energy supply it certainly can't be secure in its account of me these days anyone pumping gas into their car knows this that's why i don't support the array of policy proposals that unwisely seek to tax away carbon dioxide this won't work and it will slow the economy and eventually will end up being repealed the production of c o two through energy production is a factor in global warming but it's not the only factor there are many natural sources c o two that are emitted into the atmosphere there are still some scientific questions about how large a role humans play in global warming that raises some questions as to how much humans can do to stop these changes in the oceans and in the atmosphere even if by some divine intervention humans were able to completely stop emitting c o two tomorrow some of these changes would still occur therefore in some cases adaptation will be the only reasonable choice and that is something that people all over the world need to be ready to handle the witnesses today will present very interesting and well research testimony on the science our scientific topic which i'm sure will not only help educate all of us but will also help to strengthen my belief in the need for the development in advancement of energy technology and i think in general the gentleman 's time has expired will now turn to our witnesses aap first witness is dr sylvia earle explorer in residence for the national geographic society for decades dr earle has set herself apart as a world renowned oceanographer a pioneering explorer and as the first female chief scientist of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration her incredible work understanding and protecting our oceans and more than seven thousand hours conducting underwater research have earned her the title her deepness has been named a living legend by the library of congress and hero for the planet by time magazine we welcome you  earle whenever you feel comfortable please begin marcie for hosting us here all of you we were asked those of us who've been invited to comment to address several questions and let me start with that the first was what climate change is that we have personally observed as one who splashes around in the oceans of the world as often as possible for a number of years i have witnessed changes in the natural systems greatly changed over the period of time since i was a child and projecting forward if the pace of change continues our children are not going to have much in the way of stable ecosystems in their future the graded systems are more vulnerable to climate change or any other factors storms or diseases and what we have caused in the last half century through our actions what we put into the sea but we take it out of the ocean is causing profound changes in the nature of the ocean itself what are some of the initiatives we can take to conserve the oceans and work toward their long term health well look at what we're doing what we put into the ocean of what we're taking out of the sea both in excess and both causing the destabilization of these natural systems that if you really pull back and think about it this is our life support system the ocean governs climate and weather governs climate and weather churns out most of the oxygen in the atmosphere governs the chemistry of the planet it's the great thermal regulator for the earth i gave a talk recently at the world bank and i chose as my opening image to make my points an image that all of  now taken for granted well into the at the observations of astronauts that is earth from space the blue earth and i said there it is the world bank that's it those are the assets that is the source of all that we hold near and dear our economy our health our security actually the substance of life itself as to what we might be able to do about the situation first i think the greatest concern about climate change is that many people aren't taking it seriously and many others aren't taking it seriously enough to deal with the problem you first have to recognize that you've got one and generally speaking people are not acting or reacting as if we've got a serious problem well we do most worrisome perhaps is the accelerated warming trend caused by greenhouse gases and you representative markey have articulated most of what i would have otherwise said and done it very well putting on the balance sheet the issues that we now face including the acidification of the ocean and the warming the consequences of this warming trend with sea level rise but what we can we do about it as a nation but one thing we can do is certainly to support policies to swiftly and sharply increase protection for natural systems on the land and in the sea they are important for stabilizing the the destructive trends that we are seeing and of course we should also stop start at the source of those just destructive trends and and modify our behavior certainly the upstream issues are important protecting forests benefits watersheds and rivers that inexorably flow into the sea both your landscapes yield healthier sea states the united states can help by acknowledging the importance of methane in global warming and recognize the need to view climate change with an increased enhanced sense of urgency in the little submarine i've been out of the coast of mississippi one hundred miles down eight hundred feet beneath surface unseen methane bubbles burgling off up out of the seafloor and i wondered what would happen with even a modest increase in temperature which which would enhanced the release of methane which would increase the rate of global warming with a great and classic feedback mechanism sadly well the ocean provides the foundation for all of the planet's systems that i've already articulated driving climate and weather and taking up and holding carbon dioxide from the atmosphere shaping global chemistry and providing home for most of life on earth the ocean nonetheless is being ignored by most of those who've been working on climate change issues of all things it's baffling to me that with all the attention being given to climate change they have to look pretty hard to find attention being given to what's happening to the ocean then another good reason for having this hearing one of the most important and positive things that this country can do to prepare for the consequences of climate change is to recognise the role of the ocean and take all possible measures to protect that vast vulnerable system that governs the way the world works the blue heart of the planet the ocean presently is choked with plastic and other debris even more troubling is that other big problem with carbon dioxide and the acidification issue that you will soon hear more about yet there are many reasons for the united states to be optimistic to consider the powerful influence that this country can have on the rest of the world by setting the right example as well as providing help in blunting the shortage of climate change impact the people who do know what's going on feel helpless and therefore hopeless there is time but no time to waste the next ten years may be the most important in the next ten thousand years because of what we do or what we fail to do concerning climate change never again perhaps we will have a chance and those of you who represent this country have a unique opportunity to promote actions protect all that we hold near and dear and that again our wealth our health our security and not only our lives but all the lives to follow thank you thank you dr earle so much for your testimony our next witness is  dr jane lubchenco who is a professor at oregon state university she is also co head of the partnership for interdisciplinary studies of coastal oceans a team of scientists that study the marine ecosystem along the west coast she served on the pew oceans commission which made comprehensive u s ocean management recommendations in two thousand and three and she now works with the joint ocean commission initiative that seeks to implement well those recommendations for her work dr lubchenco has received numerous awards including eight honorary degrees and a macarthur genius fellowship so we welcome you dr genco whenever you are ready chairman markey ranking minority member mr sensenbrenner members of the committee it's a great pleasure to be here with you today thank you very much for the invitation you mentioned in your opening remarks oceans have indeed been out of sight out of mind and it's nice to have an opportunity for them to be front and center i hope this is just the beginning my name is jane lubchenco i am wayne and gladys valley professor of marine biology at oregon state university and as you mentioned i had the pleasure of serving on the pew oceans commission and now on the joint ocean commission an issue to have i'm here today as a marine scientist to describe some of the impacts of climate change on oceans and some of the implications that that has for us i respectfully request that my power point images which i will use in a white paper on oceans and climate from the joint ocean commission issue to be entered into the record without objection it will be included thank you very much i intend to focus my remarks both on impacts and implications today and with respect to impacts i want to talk about two different categories of impacts one are those that have been predicted and in fact are happening that includes warmer oceans sea level temperatures are rising around the world in every single ocean basin sea level is rising and as dr clay pots will describe oceans are becoming increasingly acidic and that has huge consequences for much of life in oceans and in turn for us i also wish though to focus on some surprises that are playing out that we suspect are related to climate change a they really underscore how little we really understand about how the oceans work and how they will change in future as these other predicted changes come about the there is no doubt that ocean temperatures are increasing in that sea level is becoming more acidic and ocean levels are rising it's worth noting that all of these are happening faster than originally predicted whirring in acidification are particularly serious threats to marine life and to the benefits provided by ocean ecosystems i think sea level is a very real problem for many people in especially in coastal communities and for coastal habitats but by and  large on balance the warming temperatures and increasing acidity are far greater threats for most of life in the oceans turning now to consideration of some of the surprises that we are seeing in oceans i draw your attention to the western sides of most of the continents in the world that are characterized by what are called coastal upwelling ecosystems these ecosystems are particularly rich they represent only one percent of the surface area of the oceans but they have a stork lee provided twenty percent of our global fisheries many of these systems are changing dramatically and i'd like to describe some of the ways that we are documented the systems depend wins that blow along the coast toward the quake or this in turn push the surface waters away from the coast and brings up cold nutrient rich water which is why these systems are so incredibly productive off the pacific northwest coasts off oregon and washington we have a seasonal upwelling that appears in the summertime it's intermittent so it's appalling alternating with down welling and our rich systems are legendary what we are seeing is a very significant perturbation of this normal welling specifically the appearance of new dead zones now these are different from the dead zones that you have heard of in the gulf of mexico and elsewhere around the world that are driven by runoff of nutrients from the land this is a different type of dead zone it is caused by changes in the coastal winds and in ocean conditions both of which we believe are likely related to climate change we've seen a dead zone off the pacific northwest coast now sixty years in a row two thousand and six was the longest lasting it was four months long it occupied as much as two thirds of the water column this is a slice of the ocean where you see in colors different amounts of dissolved oxygen on the far right of the screen is the land and the bottom shows  coastal the continental shelf getting deeper and deeper and as much as two thirds of the water column the blues and here are in fact too low in oxygen for most marine life to persist and so they suffocate this image shows where the dead zone is in blues and purples is the dead zone off the coast of washington oregon in two thousand and six and you can see it's a very significant fraction of that shoreline our research teams have in fact been working hard to figure out what is happening and why we've piece together a story that suggests that changes in the coastal wins and ocean conditions are the culprits here there has not been a change in the run off of land so it's a different type of dead zone but changes in ocean conditions and when conditions are well described we have images from remotely operated vehicles that have been driven along the sea floor showing what sea floor looked like in normal years for example in two thousand and then the devastation that has happened since then in two thousand and two and also two thousand and six the images that you see on the screen with just massive numbers of dead crabs dead sea stars dead urchins on the ocean floor i had a vivid movie to show you but i'm not going to have time i want to switch quickly to the implications of this ocean ecosystems are already at serious risk many of the services that they provide to people are being threatened by overfishing destructive fishing gear are run off of nutrients chemical pollution and coastal development the things that people want from oceans are in fact at risk and if society wishes to avoid the most serious consequences that climate change is already bringing and that will get worse we need to do a number of things reduce greenhouse gas emissions very significantly first and foremost secondly avoid mitigation quote unquote solutions that trigger serious unintended consequences third as you mentioned prepared to adapt to changes but i believe we need to expand the way we think about adaptation and it's not just adaptation of human systems but in fact we need to think about creating the conditions for nature to be able to adapt to the inevitable warmer waters and more thetic waters if we have more funding for scientific research and monitoring we can do a better job of helping to figure all this out and of course educating citizens is incredibly important  strategies to minimize impacts of climate change are both to reduce stresses that can be controlled and to protect as much biodiversity as possible so in summary mr chairman oceans are in very serious trouble climate change will exacerbate them we understand them relatively poorly we need to reduce emissions we need to make protecting ocean ecosystems one of the highest priorities redefine adaptation to include creating the conditions for nature to adapt increase funding and educate citizens thank you very much thank you so much dr lee very much appreciate your testimony the next we are going to hear from dr joan clay pass an ocean scientist at the national center for atmospheric research since joining in car in two thousand to dr clay pass has become a leading voice on the impacts of climate change on the health of oceans and coral reefs her work has been featured in b b c news science magazine science daily a real expert in the field we welcome you doctor whenever you're ready please begin chairman markey ranking member sensenbrenner and members and staff of the select committee thank you for holding this hearing on such an important and urgent issue and we had to reiterate dr old comment we have a serious problem i a scientist at the national center for atmospheric research and i've specialized on coral reefs for about twenty years i thank you for this opportunity to discuss two serious consequences of climate change for coral reefs ocean warming bleaching happens when a coral expels the colorful algae that lives within its tissues and provides that coral with most of its energy bleaching is often fatal her bleaching has already destroyed about ten percent of reefs worldwide and as we can many more the projections of reaching patterns indicate that if ocean warming continues along its current path we will lose this ecosystem we hope that corals can adapt to the warming but there's really  very little evidence that they can do so the other problem i want to raise is something known as the other carbon dioxide problem this is ocean acidification the concept of ocean acidification can be explained with a bottle of carbonated so that water was carbonated simply by adding c o two or carbon dioxide to it and carbonated water it is more acidic than just regular tap water and anybody can test this with litmus or ph paper the oceans have  already absorbed about a third of the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere by man's activities and this is really is a natural gift because it lessens the impact of climate change but it's changing ocean chemistry although we can't feel the change we can measure it and measurements are confirming that ocean acidification is indeed happening so there are two main ways that ocean acidification affect marine organisms first can stress the organisms physiologically such as increasing its respiration rate lower reproduction and lower survival and second what we know the most about too is that acidification impacts the ability of marine organisms to secrete their skeletons or their shelves this includes many important groups of marine organisms from microscopic algae at the base of the food chain to familiar organisms like clams starfish and corals corals are the best to study of these and there's strong evidence that their calcification rates will decline by ten to fifty percent within the next forty to fifty years they simply won't grow as fast or they'll grow more fragile e and it's you can think of it as what does this mean for the coral organisms that produce shells do so for a reason for protection for example even if this naked coral in this slide could somehow survive in the real world it would be living as an an not as a coral and it wouldn't be producing coral reefs in fact reefs themselves exist because corals and other organisms build the re faster than it is eroded ocean acidification attacks the restructure itself by increasing the rate at which it dissolves and if reefs a roadway we will lose many of the valuable services that they provide and that includes high biodiversity fisheries and shoreline protection so what can we done be done about ocean acidification and warming obviously reducing greenhouse gas emissions tackles the root cause of both and we need to reduce those emissions aggressively given that coral bleaching is already so widespread we may already be above the threshold for that ecosystem for acidification certainly we need to find a way to keep common dogs high levels below five hundred parts per million because above that level some race will start to erode away it's worth noting here that g engineering solutions to reduce warming such as putting dust into the atmosphere or sun shades in space do not solve the problem of ocean acidification because those solutions don't reduce carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere i want to also stress that ocean acidification affects not just coral reefs but it affects all marine ecosystems and i really feel that this may be the greatest environmental threat that we face this century it's a new issue and we have our hands full just trying to understand the scope of the problem we need to know how much carbon dioxide is too much carbon dioxide but we also need to know what we can do to help marine ecosystems make it through this difficult time so i urge you first to take on the task of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and second to pass the four am act to which is an act to increase research on ocean acidification and i just want to sign off with a comment that twenty five years ago we thought that global warming was going to be good for reefs because they like warm water they would expand well now we know now we know about coral bleaching we know about ocean acidification climate change is not good for coral reefs and what's at stake if we lose them is the most biodiverse eco system of the ocean it's one that supports major fisheries  economies of the us states and territories it protects many shorelines and of course this is a masterpiece among god's creations thank you very much and i'm happy to answer questions thank you dr very much and up final witness recently appointed to the pew fellows buys re committee we welcome you whenever you feel ready please begin thank you chairman markey ranking member sensenbrenner and the committee for your leadership in having this hearing the committee has already done such a service to the country by moving us forward on the urgent issues of energy independence and climate change your effort today to focus on the ocean the place where it all starts and yet is often overlooked is of enormous importance it's a real honor to be on such a distinguished panel of women had to say it the ocean is essential to the health of everything on the planet including our own it covers over two thirds of the earth it drives our climate it provides much of the food we eat and the oxygen that's essential for our very survival it's a source of renewal for the human spirit fundamentally a sylvia says the ocean is the life support system for our planet seafood is a major staple in some cases the staple in this country and elsewhere in the u s the contribution of the seafood industry exceeds fifty billion dollars per year a healthy ocean contributes to a healthy economy the president's commission on ocean policy reported that coastal communities generated over ten percent of g d p see three quarters of those associated jobs are in ocean tourism and the recreation sectors alone the ocean of course also moderates are climate absorbing over a third of the greenhouse gases we produce the dynamics of the ocean and the atmosphere are so tightly linked and so easily overlooked that we ignore the the oceans role  climate at our own peril in two thousand and five millions in the us and in the caribbean experienced firsthand and quite tragically how the oceans heat engine can drive violent storms most dramatically of course hurricane katrina over two thousand lives were lost and over one hundred billion dollars in damage occurred during that devastating season fundamentally the ocean is the basis of our ecosystem with an incredibly diverse web of life that supports the planet of course we're most familiar with the gran diversity of life at the margins on coral reefs and in tide pools where many of us saw our first mussels and see stars and maybe even a hermit crab looking back at us the truth is that our essential and diverse open ocean ecosystems cannot protect us and less they are healthy and resilient harmful impacts are exacting a toll on this web of life that frankly we can no longer afford to pay ocean conservancy is working to make the ocean healthy by fostering sustainable fisheries by protecting marine wildlife and putting in place management plans for state and federal waters and preserving magnificent ocean places that we like to call yosemite's undersea all of this work is vitally important but the most sweeping and devastating threat to the ocean is global climate change the planet has warmed in the last one hundred years by nearly a degree and over eighty percent of the excess heat produced by the greenhouse effect has already been absorbed by the ocean even if carbon emissions are substantially reduced ocean warming will continue to increase for decades two or more degrees of warming which is quite possible will devastate many coastal communities kill the world coral reefs and result in math extinctions of marine life think about it when our own temperatures rise two degrees have a fever so our ocean is sick and if you're an alaskan native whose people have lived in harmony with the arctic for over arctic ocean for over ten thousand years and your village is falling into the sea you know that climate change is happening and that our ocean is sick if you're a fisherman in the caribbean we're up to ninety percent of corals bleached and died in two thousand and five and you don't doubt that climate change is actually happening now the ocean is really where the rubber meets the road with climate change it isn't decades of projections we're dealing with or ominous warnings about the future of the ocean it is now this is happening now and if you detect a sense of urgency in my voice it's because i believe that protecting our ocean from the onslaught of climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our lifetimes two thousand and eight is the year of the reef and i commend the committee for drawing attention to this fragile yet critical ecosystem coral reefs have long been threatened by over exploitation and pollution and now climate change adds another one two punch may be the knockout punch for an already damaged system ocean warming has already increased coral bleaching and is a major threat to wreaths worldwide let me put it this way in one thousand nine hundred eight we lost sixteen percent of the world's coral reefs in a single year if we lost sixteen percent of the forests in the world that would be the equivalent to losing all of the forests in north america in a single year unless we change course coral reefs the entire ocean and all of mankind or at the mercy of climate change there are two essential ways we must address climate change first of course is mitigation we must substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions and we must do that now and the second is adaptation simply meaning we have to strengthen the health and resiliency of our ocean ecosystems so they can better anticipate and adapt to the increased stresses of climate change while we work to reduce emissions it's as if we have a patient who's already been suffering from the flu and high blood pressure and now has been given a diagnosis of serious but treatable cancer the plan for recovery involves curing the patient of the flu and then taking some medication and adapting your lifestyle to lower the blood pressure but of course fighting the cancer in our case global climate change is the goal but the way to do that is to first make the patient healthy and strong to take on the much bigger challenges ahead to save our coral reefs we must adopt adaptation strategies that build resilience and restore ecosystem function we need to be protecting reefs from unsustainable fishing practices we need to be reducing the inputs of pollution such as fertilizers and sewage and sediments and we need to be implementing a more comprehensive and stronger system of coral reef protected areas i know this committee and that this congress is working hard on mitigation solutions trying to cure the disease i would respectfully urge you to follow your principles that you set forth last week on earth day and put as much effort into adaptation strategies to lessen the damage and pain as we seek to cure the patient we simply have to do a better job of sustaining the life support system that sustains us our oceans are in trouble and that means so are we that's the sea change we're starting at ocean conservancy and thank you for propelling that change forward with your leadership thank you misrule very much and we thank  all of our witnesses and sproule raises a very good point that we have four brilliant woman who are today some will train easily and that's what happens when you have two women ph d s and science d the theme for today's hearing appropriately so so let me begin with you dr earle just give us your summary of how you all of us of change how the world use of change of the science of the seas over the last thirty or forty years where were we then and where are we today in terms of the the way in which we should view the seas their health and the danger to the planet there was a widespread view that many still hold that the ocean is infinite in its capacity to rebound no matter what we take out or whatever we put in the best way to get rid of something was to deep six that throw it into the  we thought that our job was to find new and better ways to extract wildlife out of the ocean going back to the one nine hundred sixty s and seventy's and some still hold to that view the importance of wildlife in the ocean was primarily viewed as commodity protein from the sea i think we've learned a great deal or actually we've learned more in the last half century than during all preceding human history about the ocean about a lot of things but certainly about the ocean we didn't even know and rachel carson was not even aware of the mountain ranges that run like giant backbones down the atlantic pacific and indian oceans when she wrote the sea around us in the hundred fifty s we did not know at that time that there was life from the surface of the ocean to the greatest steps we certainly didn't appreciate the profound impact that the living systems particularly the microbes have on all of us on the nature of the ocean the little guys that do the heavy lifting with respect to to churning out oxygen and and taking on carbon dioxide we now know much that should alert us to the importance of taking care of the ocean that takes care of us we certainly would not like to see the demise of rain forests we would feel the  loss of something devastated them even more than they have been devastated but in fact if they did go if we still had a healthy ocean life would probably continue but if we did away with the ocean or seriously impacted the health of the ocean everything everything would be impacted the ocean really rules the world and one of the baffling things that it strikes me today that although that knowledge has been around for a while it's been growing over the last half century but we still don't take the oceans seriously enough and it's no more apparent than in the climate change  where great attention least up to the present time has been focused on the atmosphere but is all of us have pointed out there are there are links in extra couple links to the sea in fact the ocean really of compare it with geologic history what what's happening now look back over the whole history of the planet mr chairman the history of earth is a very dynamic history  have seen many many changes over millennia and what is striking about the change that has been happening with respect to climate change over the last century is the rate of change the changes are so much faster than the background levels in many cases the levels of some greenhouse gases exceed historic previous levels  but it's the rate of change that is really particularly striking even knowing that many of the models the early climate change models that were created have predicted rates of change that reflect our current measurements and even those predictions have been too low we are seeing much faster changes than even our best models have predicted one of the best examples of that is the melting of ice in the arctic the floating sea ice that has always created a very dynamic rich habitat upon which the peoples of the a have depended as well as all the rich marine life there and that that area is warming so much faster than was originally predicted the models are just continually revised and revised the same is true of ocean acidification it's happening faster than we had initially thought that it would and i believe that this theme is one that we haven't yet sufficiently paid attention to in light of this knowledge we need to be even more conservative in our use of natural resources and even more aggressive in our attempts to slow down the rate of climate change but t i'd like to kiana on a couple things the rates of change in adaptation so we often use the term adaptation a lot particularly in terms of human adaptation and we're an extremely adaptable species but most of these organisms that are in the ocean have not seen these kind of changes either the magnitude or the speed at which they're changing for millions of years i think the last time we've seen an ocean acidification event was about fifty five million years ago that was only ten years after the dinosaurs were wiped out and even then that rate of change was probably not as fast as what we're seeing today and during that time period there were a lot of big changes that happen in the ocean that can be attributed to ocean acidification so adaptation we can we can count on that for a lot of humans but i don't think we can expect these ecosystems to adapt alongside us not unless we do a lot of things to help them you've heard these concerns  know how can we explain this to the public would what is your recommendation in terms of having the fire alarm sounds so that we ensure that this does not result in catastrophic consequences thank you mr chairman i'm not a researcher i consider myself a you know a translator and a communicator and i represent a constituency of people across the country who are very much hungry for change and i think today the good news is we've got a combination of increased awareness and this growing sense of urgency and momentum we really have a golden opportunity to act i would there are actually three  things that i think we would want to encourage congress to do first of course is to make that link between climate change and oceans that process has already begun today and that means making adaptation strategies part of every climate change bill passed by congress the second thing is there are a number of good bills already the pipeline ocean's twenty one which path to the committee just last week the coral reef protection act the marine sanctuaries act all of these bills if passed help to provide these adaptation strategies that you've heard about today and then third i would say to continue with my medical  analogy first we need to be doing no harm we need to be looking at some of these technological solutions they obviously have a place but we need to be moving carefully towards any proposals and make sure that the  cure isn't actually worse than the disease thank you dr why why don't people understand the relationship between the ocean and the planet what do you attribute that huge gap to how can such a huge percentage of the earth's surface be something that just is not part of public consciousness clouds heaven is there and you know it's in the other direction or whatever the reason because perhaps we are terrestrial by nature and only in fairly recent times have human beings acquired access to the sea effect of access to the  but we're still beginning scuba divers go down maybe one hundred feet one hundred fifty feet perhaps if they push the edge a bit but we're still exploring the ocean less than five percent of the sea has been seen at all let alone explored and because of our attitude that the ocean is a place to throw things away or it's a place just to let you think of fish fish or to eat right without thinking that fish are to the sea as birds or to the land there are components of our life support system they are as as has been said about components of the land the nuts the bolts the coggs the wheels that that make the ocean work and not just the fish it's all of the diversity of life in the sea we need to respect fish alive not just fish did and coral reefs alive not just ornaments for yourself we need to think about the ocean with a new attitude and it is happening but it needs to happen faster than it presently  s which organisms which ecosystems are most vulnerable right now to this acceleration of climate change i can answer a bit but everything all can weigh in make up much of life in the sea and that drive much of the ocean chemistry but we better pay attention and it is important with every breath we take it's important to understand this and it's not rocket science as they say this  this is ocean science which is really a lot of fun as well as really important article janko mr chairman i believe that sylvia is given an answer that i would agree with relative to warming certainly  those communities those ecosystems that are in the tropics and those at the poles are appear to be most vulnerable but every community is vulnerable to the increased acidity of oceans and that is going to  be one of the biggest challenges facing all of us because of its consequences at all different levels from the microscopic plants to the filter feeders to the herbivores predators on up the food web anything with a show skeleton and so crabs lobsters see stars urchins microscopic plants mussels oysters snails all of those are going to be affected by this  occasion and those critters are everywhere but to close their particular areas of the ocean that we should prioritize for protection chairman markey i i would say that the shallow sions are where most of the life is that's where the primary product production occurs where they use sunlight to create the bulk that feeds the rest of the ocean so the shallow oceans i would global warming pollution what other policies in your opinion are necessary to help protect the oceans from climate change i think i three that are that are actually already in the pipeline and a little push from this committee would would go a very long way ocean's twenty one twenty one one you just outlined a little bit of what each one of these bills was and why they were important to pass so oceans twenty one really creates a  national ocean policy and then a mechanism for implementing that policy across a variety of federal agencies it's really the the coordinating function that we need across so many federal agencies this grew out of both presidential commissions and as you mentioned dr lubchenco was on the pew commission she can maybe talk a little bit more about the genesis of that legislation then there's the coral reef  conservation act which has actually passed the house and awaits senate or actions of these are these are bills that are quite far along in the pipeline that promotes community based conservation and provides tools at the local level a number of these adaptation strategies that we've discussed and it empowers nola to respond to damaged reefs again and another adaptation strategy if you will and then there's the national marine sanctuar it how successful has the federal government been in implementing the recommendations from the commission we had hoped to have seen much more progress by now i think hope still remains that congress what's the obstacle in your opinion i believe that it's part of what we've been talking about these hearings that oceans are not on a lot of people's radar screens and in the press of so many other important issues it's sometimes hard to break through and so the reality that oceans are in trouble on that there is real urgency has not penetrated as far as it needs to go it's also the case that i think there are vested interests in sort of current arrangements many of the recommendations call for much more comprehensive ways of having different agencies different departments to be able to work together  collaboratively and to work toward much more comprehensive integration of ocean decisions that's always a tough sell i believe that  we are making some good significant progress but there's just a lot more to be done can we just go down and explain each one and we each one of you give us one example in your opinion of how what happens to the ocean then affects those of us who are living on land and i think that kind of will help to dramatize what  what the what the story line is for us if we continue to ignore the oceans as a part of this story so begin with you must really have one good example that you like to use i have a list of examples of german market and i'm going to to include them in the context of climate change because i think you know that's where we're going to feel the impacts first and obviously coastal communities will will be influenced we're going to see change in changes in fisheries there's no doubt about that it's going to climate change is going to disrupt availability it's going to raise sea food prices there are human health considerations human health is predicted to decline due to climate change related causes food and water shortages we've already seen some of this brought about because of areas affected by drought insurance rates we're already seeing rates affected because of extreme weather events such as hurricanes are infrastructure needs are only going to increase as sea levels rise new reports have been released that show that you know states are going to need to be spending more money on roads and on homes and on airports and of course these coastal communities are going to feel these losses most it's important to first understand the basic process and then see how the changes are influencing those processes so think about every breath you take where does where does gin come from twenty percent of the atmosphere is oxygen eighty percent or so is nitrogen just enough carbon dioxide to make the green plants do their thing to produce more oxygen through photosynthesis and  drive the great food chains that's the way it's been now for many millions of years it wasn't always that way earth wasn't always hospitable for the likes of us and i think that's something many people need to to put on the balance sheet that what we have today represents the distillation of all preceding history literally hundreds of millions of years have led us to a planet that works in our favor there was a time going way back before dinosaurs when there wasn't twenty percent oxygen in the atmosphere but today there is we have the power the capacity to change that through what we're doing to the engine the green engine that that in the ocean as well as on the land that produces that oxygen so first understand how the system works and then realize we are really messing that system up and it's also true with the with the water you drink people think it comes out of the stick it water does or you get it in little bottles when you go to the store know most of the earth's water ninety seven percent is in the ocean how does it get into the bottles into your sink whatever it goes up into the atmosphere in as clouds mostly from the ocean take away the ocean you just eliminate the water system yeah so it's first understand that and then realise what we are doing that is disrupting that system come back to you d you have an example i think to play on what sylvia said you know when you have these ecosystems are not separate you don't just lose one ecosystem you're going to have a cascading effect and the example i had for coral reef says that they provide the environment where we can have mangroves and sea grass beds those are very good fishing areas so if we lose coral reefs we lose a lot of other ecosystems that are intertwined with that ecosystem but i agree with you it's hard to explain to someone that has lived in kansas their entire life and maybe has never seen the ocean to really make those links and that's where we we fail in the education that if we lose our economies in our coastal regions which really depend on the the oceans we're going to affect all of the cities in the u s and elsewhere it's it's hard to imagine that economic impacts on the coasts are not going to to permeate the rest of the economy ou when i was on the p oceans commission mr chairman we were told something that i actually hadn't thought about and that was that half of america lives on the coasts the other half goes there to play and i think that that's a nice touchstone as the peterson commission moved around from one city to another to another all along the coastal margins and also in the heartland i asked americans exactly the question that you posed to us what do you want from oceans what you care about oceans why should we be thinking about changing anything and what i heard from them were five things boil down to five things americans told us they wanted faith seafood healthy seafood number one number two clean beaches number three abundant wildlife number four stable fisheries no more this volume and bust and closures and fifth vibrant coastal communities and i think that's a really nice summary and synthesis of the way americans think about oceans and i think that they truly understand that they appreciate them they want these things what they don't understand is that all of those things depend on healthy productive and resilient ecosystems and that's not what we're seeing now we're seeing serious degradation and disruption and depletion and climate change is going to exacerbate that very very seriously well let me ask you this that now you've outlined the problem each one of you let's talk about solutions do any of you have an example that you'd like to give us of something that's happening that's very positive that you problem let me go back to you again doctor i think one of the greatest causes for hope is our expanding level of communication that any little kid can look at the world with through the eyes of an astronaut now hold the world in your hands when you pull up google earth for heaven's sakes there it is the whole world you can spin around you can look at your backyard you can see your neighbor's backyard careful and maybe some day before long you'll be able to take dives in the ocean and be able to see what is going on in the ocean not only to look at the blue blob that is now the surface but to be able to actually see what's going on below the good news and the bad news and i think that's not only good for kids i think it's good for all of us to be able to have new ways to see how we are connected to the rest i i'm optimistic in part because there is a growing concern that people kids are and all of us increasingly are detached from nature and there's some effort to do something about that the last child in the woods no child left inside these initiatives to while you learn your a b c s in your one two three zero learn that you're connected to nature and that the ocean dominates nature those things are beginning to happen we need to which began as a group of citizens that didn't know a lot about the problem and in the process of our deliberations they learned about them and came to make some very strong unanimous recommendations to the governor that has now many of which have been adopted others are currently being developed and those essentially will put organ on a path to very significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to slow the rate of many other states including yours and states working together along the west coast and in new england have been making very significant progress in drawing attention to the problem and in  beginning to address it in very serious ways i get hope from that and i believe that now it's congress's turn to act in kind and to listen to what the states have been saying and to do for the rest of the country what the states have begun to do and to take it even further the reason that i draw hope from all of these issues is partly the knowledge that social systems can often change very very rapidly we've seen that in attitudes toward drunk driving toward smoking towards women suffrage toward civil rights issues and so we know that it is possible to have very very rapid change it's my hope that we are getting closer and closer and that congress will show very real leadership in bringing us to the tipping point and having some very meaningful actions to put us on the right path dr close i mean i have it when i'm traveling on planes and putting all that extra c o two in the atmosphere to interview the people next to me about what they know about climate change and including most an ocean acidification and i've been astounded in the last year i'd say the last year maybe two at how much people know this is somewhat elite group these are people that fly planes but the what i have noticed is so many people are becoming more aware and they're no longer arguing with me that is this really happening for a long time i got the question is this really happening now i'm sent hearing the question what can we do so people are hungry for solutions are hungry for choices they're willing to sacrifice i'm just seeing this momentum and it is time to sort of se that and do again with saying you know the states have become leaders in this issue if us becomes a leader in this issue and finds real solutions either technologically or through invoking social change  then the rest of the world will follow we've been a leader for so long thank you sproule well at the risk of stating the obvious mr chairman i actually think this hearing is a bright spot that the dots are being connected like this between ocean and climate change would not have happened even five years ago and i would agree with my panelists that this level of awareness brought about by the urgency of climate change is creating a formula that we have not had before and we need to seize on that opportunity i'm actually hopeful about coral reefs and i want to bring it to that it's back to that in this year of the reef i think there is some hope even in the face of this dire news we've heard today if we act decisively now we can save some of those reefs that still remain and i think certainly emerging science is showing us that if we can protect the integrity and the resilience of these systems they should be able to withstand some of these climate change stresses that we can't yet anticipate so but we have to act now  get here at the end of the hearing one minute some nation from each of you what you want us to remember about the ocean ocean policy responsibility of the united states government to be the leader in the world and to have a leadership role that means the respect of the rest of the world when we asked them to work with us on these issues let's go in the opposite order of probably summarize with some brass tacks and restate those there's a lot that we can that we can already do that's that's already in the pipeline to move forward on some of these problems we've talked about today first every climate change bill should support adaptation strategies mitigation alone is not going to solve this problem and we need to take on both the cure and the recovery simultaneously and you know these adaptation strategies could be and actually should be paid for by funding from the auction of carbon allowances so there's a there's a mechanism there second this congress should pass the three bills that i outlined previously oceans twenty one the coral reef conservation act and the national marine sanctuaries act of twenty one to successfully add a subcommittee and it would be a major step forward in providing this comprehensive ocean management scheme that we've talked about and then well i think first of all i think you guys have gotten the point that the oceans are in trouble that we we really need to act rapidly we can't afford a doubling of c o two from pre industrial levels in the atmosphere i really stress that we try to keep it below that the hopeful note is that we know that warming has some momentum and that even if we cap carbon dioxide in the atmosphere we still have will have increased warming with ocean acidification if we can stop ocean c o two concentrations that will stop ocean acidification process if we can remove the o two from the atmosphere it reverses the situation so it's a fixable it's a fixable problem  we also talk a lot about the importance of ocean ecosystems to our economies you know we were always asked to put a dollar value on all of the things that the oceans offer to us  but there's something we're missing here and it's this is a aesthetic quality of the oceans we've we talk about so many of these ecosystems being rain forests of the sea and so forth i think we can't forget that that's something we have to leave for future generations and i f anything sticks in your mind with is it one of my favorite quotes in this from jacques cousteau and it is people protect what they love all of you who love the sea please help us protect our so i'd ask you to help us which has been called by one scientist jeremy jackson the slippery slope to slime which is the direction the oceans are headed in now due to all of the threats including climate change the other path is what i like to think of as the mutiny for the bounty and i think that we really are at a crossroads and we need to understand that and have the courage to choose the right thing because it's in our interest to do so the second thing i would highlight is that we need to think about adaptation differently it's not just adaptation of human systems but we need to understand how to create the conditions for wildlife to adapt to the changes that are inevitable and that means reducing other stresses managing fisheries very conservatively eliminating destructive fishing gear reducing flow of nutrients and chemical pollutants to the coasts protecting habitats as much as possible and it means creating networks of no take marine reserves and protected areas so that the raw material  as many as much genetic diversity and as many species as possible we'll have the best chance to adapt to changes that are inevitable so expanding the way we think about adaptation thirdly i would emphasize the importance of significantly increasing the funding for scientific monitoring and research it's woefully inadequate for us to understand and to better advise how to do this adaptation how to do many of the things that ahead and fourthly i would suggest much more comprehensive understanding of oceans management of oceans through mechanisms such as those in the oceans twenty one bill but also educating citizens are vitally important thank you dr doctor well first i want to wholeheartedly endorse all of the above i will said i will add only a few little additional comments that we have a chance to protect what remains of all preceding history that still exists in the wild places on the planet the united states took the lead going back to the early part of the twentieth century some say the best idea america ever had which was the national park system and idea of it is now being adopted in some measure in the sea although there are more there's more of an attitude of management managing instead of protecting areas in the sea there's some four thousand worldwide of places that are known as marine protected areas but there isn't full protection for the wildlife it's there we can do a much better job of taking care of our own exclusive economic zone an area that exceeds the side the size of the rest of the united states put together we have a chance to do something really bold in our own waters and another thing to do is to take a leadership role others follow the example back in the early part of the twentieth century here we are of the early part of the twenty first what we could do to take a role through encouraging actions on the part of other nations to look at the high seas the sixty four percent of the ocean that is beyond national jurisdictions and to encourage through treaties through partnerships through our own example look at the arctic and to the antarctic where antarctic fifty years ago the treaty was put into place and we are we were among the primary instigators of that treaty to protect forestall the development the destruction in many ways of that distillation of all preceding history there's a chance right now to do something like that for the arctic before it gets before the frozen goose is cooked if you will we have a chance to do something in the arctic now but if we wait much longer in terms of asserting ourselves as leaders and working with others to show that the advantage of protection exceeds by far the advantage of short term exploitation this is the moment and i think you've heard it repeatedly from all of us this is a moment in time when as never before we recognize we've got a problem and maybe it's never again we can do something about it thank you dr earle now while you each giving your concluding statements to the committee up fortunately congressman emanuel cleaver from the state of missouri has arrived and i will now recognize him for a statement around the questions whatever is his chosen well i suppose for for being late this is certainly a panel that i want to hear and your written comments or along the lines of what i think is needed for our country i i was thrown into some panic over the weekend when to kill it and satchel said to him no we're not going to kill him because we came into his house and if he comes into our house that's a different story but when we're at his house we don't kill him and and so my my fear every time i hear about a shark bite is that it feeds pardon the pun and the men and women who would suggest that you know the that the shark what would never go into seven eleven to kill anyone that you know you have to come in to your house and so i'm very concerned about that and as i'm reading testimony and i hope that in the days months and years to come that you will continue to be resources for those of us who believe that the ocean is the key to our survival on this little ball that circles the  sun and i'm not at all sure that the ocean receives the respect that that it should from those of us who depend on it even those who depend on it and don't know it  i think the gentleman from missouri reminds us again of what a powerful combination a minister can be when talking about moral issues that actually come into the political realm which is this we believe that we have the planet and and we thank each of you of for testifying here today the planet is running a fever there are no hospitals for sick planets we have to engage in preventative care in order to avoid catastrophic consequences that is our opportunity our responsibility most important supreme court decision regarding the environment and history in massachusetts versus and massachusetts relied upon in its argument the danger already existing to the coastline of massachusetts and the supreme court ruled that the e p a as a result has a responsibility to make a decision which they have yet to do one ear later so your testimony helps to once again dramatize how important the oceans are one year after massachusetts versus e p a as it use it's trying to protect itself against what is happening to its coastline but to every coastline everywhere on the whole planet all incredibly important national and international leaders on these issues this is one of the most important hearings that we have had speaker pelosi has only created one new committee during her two years as speaker and that is this committee on global warming and i think that if for no other reason  creation of this committee is valuable because we had this hearing today with the witnesses that we've had testify before us we thank you all with that this hearing is