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 rain forest 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 throughout 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 dissolves in se water where plants and animals of all shapes and sizes 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 overworked during the past forty years the ocean has absorbed ninety percent of the estimated increase in the 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 heat wave and the rise in 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 storms 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 co 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 forming 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 carbon we admit if we reduce the ocean's 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 holds 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 effort to confront global warming rising co 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 adaptation such as a rise  sea levels energy is the life blood of our economy right now much of the energy that is generated creates co but there already exists some technologies that generate energy without emitting co into the atmosphere and if congress acts wisely there could be more on the way one of these technologies is nuclear power which generates great amounts of energy without producing any co whatsoever another technology that is on the horizon is carbon captur storage which has the potential to allow the u s to continue to use our vast coal reserves to generate energy but with only a fraction of the co 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 are technologies that not only would go a long way toward reducing c emissions but they will 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 economy these days anyone pumping gas into their car knows this that is 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 through energy production is a factor in global warming but it is not the only factor there are many natural sources of co that are emitted into the atmosphere there are still some scientific questions about how large a role humans play in global warming it 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 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 researched testimony on the scientific topic which i am sure will not only help educate all of us but will also help to strengthen my belief in the need for the development and advancement of energy technology and i thank the chair chairman the gentleman's time has expired the chairman we will now turn to our witnesses the chairman our first witness is doctor sylvia earle explorer in residence for the national geographic society for decades doctor 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 in more than seven thousand hours conducting underwater research have earned her the title her deepness she has been named a living legend by the library of congress and a hero for the planet by time magazine we welcome to address several questions and let me start with that the first was what climate changes 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 that have greatly changed over the period of time since i was a child in 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 degraded 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 what we take 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 are doing what we have put into the ocean and what we are 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 is the great thermoregulator for the earth i gave a talk recently at the world bank and i chose as my opening image to make my point an image that all of us have now taken for granted owing to the observations of astronauts that is earth from space the blue earth and i said there it is the world bank that is 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 have got one and generally speaking people are not acting or reacting as if we have 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 can we do about it as a nation well 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 destructive trends that we are seeing and of course we should also st art at the source of those destructive trends and modify our behavior certainly the upstream issues are important protecting forests benefits watersheds and rivers inexorably flow into the sea healthier landscapes yield healthier seascapes 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 and enhanced sense of urgency in a little submarine i have been out off the coast of mississippi a hundred miles down one thousand eight hundred feet beneath the surface and seen methane bubbles burbling up out of the sea floor and i have wondered what would happen with even a modest increase in temperature which would enhance the release of methane which would increase the rate of global warming with a great and classic feedback mechanism sadly while the ocean provides the foundation for all of the planet's systems that i have 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 have been working on climate change issues of all things it is baffling to me that with all the attention being given to climate change that you have to look pretty hard to find attention being given to what is happening to the ocean 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 recognize the role of the ocean and take all possible measures to protect that vast but 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 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 sharp edge of climate change impact many people who do know what is 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 zero 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 that will protect all that we hold near and dear and that again are our wealth our health our security and not only our lives but all the lives to follow thank you the chairman thank you doctor earle so much for your testimony our next witness is  doctor 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 studied the marine ecosystem along the west coast she served on the pew oceans commission which made comprehensive u s ocean recommendations in two thousand and three and she now works with the joint ocean commission initiative that seeks to implement chairman markey ranking minority member mister sensenbrenner members of the committee it is a great pleasure to be here with you today thank you very much for the invitation as you mentioned in your opening remarks oceans have indeed been out of sight out of mind and it 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 the 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 joint ocean commission initiative i am 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 powerpoint images which i will use and a white paper on oceans and climate from the joint ocean commission initiative be entered into the record the chairman without objection it will be included ms lubchenco 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 doctor kleypas 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 the future as these other predicted changes come about there is no doubt that ocean temperatures are increasing and that sea level is becoming more acidic and ocean levels are rising it is worth noting that all of these are happening faster than originally predicted warming and acidification are particularly serious threats to marine life and to the benefits provided by ocean ecosystems rising 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 historically provided twenty percent of our global fisheries many of these systems are changing dramatically and i would like to describe some of the ways that we are documenting the systems depend on winds that blow along the coast toward the equator this in turn pushes 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 is intermittent so it is upwelling alternating with downwelling and our rich systems are legendary what we are seeing is a very significant perturbation of this normal upwelling 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 have seen a dead zone off the pacific northwest coast now six 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 in 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 and oregon in two thousand and six and you can see it is a very significant fraction of that shore line our research teams have in fact been working hard to figure out what is happening and why we have pieced together a story that suggests that changes in the coastal winds and ocean conditions are the culprits here there has not been a change in the runoff of land so it is a different type of dead zone but changes in ocean conditions and wind 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 movie to show you but i am 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 runoff 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 prepare to adapt to changes but i believe we need to expand the way we think about adaptation and it is 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 acidic 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 mister 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 ocean scientist at the national center for atmospheric research since joining ncar in two thousand and two doctor kleypas has become a leading voice on the impacts of climate  health of oceans and coral reefs her work has been featured in bbc news science magazine science daily a real expert in the field we welcome you doctor whenever you are ready please begin and members and staff of the select committee thank you for holding this hearing on such an important and urgent issue and i will reiterate doctor earle's comment we have a serious problem i am a scientist at the national center for atmospheric research and i have 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 and ocean  colorful algae that lives within its tissues and provides that coral with most of its energy bleaching is often fatal coral bleaching has already destroyed about ten percent of reefs worldwide and has weakened many more the projections of bleaching 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 is 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 water so that water was carbonated simply by adding co or carbon dioxide to it and carbonated water 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 released into the atmosphere by man's activities and this really is a natural gift because it lessons the impact of climate change but it is 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 affects marine organisms first it 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 shells 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 studied of these and there is strong evidence that the 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 will grow more fragilely and you can think of it as osteoporosis this slide shows a dramatic example of a coral cultured in normal versus acidified sea water ocean acidification not only slows skeletal formation but at some point it actually dissolves it so 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 anemone not as a coral and it wouldn't be producing coral reefs in fact reefs themselves exist because corals and other organisms build the reef faster than it is eroded ocean acidification attacks a reef's structure itself by increasing the rate at which it dissolves and reefs erode away we will lose many of the valuable services that they provide and that includes high biodiversity fisheries and shoreline protection so what can 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 a dification certainly we need to find a way to keep carbon dioxide levels below five hundred parts per million because above that level some reefs will start to erode away it is worth noting here that geo 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 is 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 foaram act which is an act to increase research on ocean acidification and i just want to sign off on a comment that twenty five years ago we thought that global warming was going to be good for reefs because like warm water they would expand well now we you know now we know about coral bleaching we know about ocean acidification climate change is not good for coral reefs and what is at stake if we lose them is the most biodiverse ecosystem of the ocean it is one that supports major fisheries and economies of the u s states and territories it protects many shorelines and of course this is a masterpiece among god's creations thank you very much and i am happy to answer questions the chairman thank you doctor very much and our final witness recently appointed to the pew fellows advisory committee we welcome you whenever you feel ready please begin ms spruill 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 importance it is a real honor to be on such a distinguished panel of women i 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 is essential for our very survival it is a source of renewal for the human spirit fundamentally as 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 dollars billion 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 gdp three quarters of those associated jobs are in ocean tourism and the recreation sectors alone the ocean of course also moderates our climate absorbing over a third of the greenhouse gases that we produce the dynamics of the ocean and the atmosphere are so tightly linked and so easily overlooked that we ignore the ocean's role in climate at our own peril in two thousand and five millions in the u s and in the caribbean experienced firsthand and quite tragically how the ocean's heat engine can drive violent storms most dramatically of course hurricane katrina over two thousand lives were lost and over one hundred dollars billion 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 are most familiar with the grand diversity of life at the margins on coral reefs and in tide pools where many of us saw our first mussels and sea stars and maybe even a hermit crab looking back at us the truth is that our essential and diverse ocean ecosystems cannot protect us unless 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 yosemites 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's coral reefs and result in mass extinctions of marine life think about it when our own temperatures rise two degrees we have a fever so our ocean is sick and if you are an alaskan native whose people have lived in harmony with the arctic ocean for over ten thousand years and your village is falling into the sea you know that climate change is happening and that  ocean is sick if you are a fisherman in the caribbean where up to ninety percent of corals bleached and died in two thousand and five then 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 are 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 is 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 maybe the knockout punch for an already damaged system ocean warming has already increased coral bleaching and is a major threat to reefs worldwide let me put it this way in one thousand nine hundred and ninety 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 are 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 is as if we have a patient who has 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 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 o oceans are in trouble and that means so are we that is the sea change we are starting at ocean conservancy and thank you for propelling that change forward with your leadership the chairman thank you ms spruill very much and we thank all of our witnesses hearing appropriately so so let me begin with you doctor earle just give us your summary of how your views have changed how the world's views have changed of the science of the seas over the last thirty forty years where were we then and where are we today in terms of 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 it 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 s and s and some still hold to that view the importance of wildlife in the ocean was primarily viewed as a commodity protein from the sea i think we have learned a great deal actually we have 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 t sea around us in the early s we did not know at that time that there was life from the surface of the ocean to the greatest depths 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 churning out oxygen 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 rainforests we would  feel the loss if 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 strikes me today is that although that knowledge has been around for a while it has been growing over the last half century but we still don't take the ocean seriously enough and it is no more apparent than in the climate change issues where great attention at least up to the present time has been focused on the atmosphere but as all of us have pointed out there are links inextricable links to the sea in fact the  history we have seen many many changes over millennia and what is striking about the changes that have 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 is 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  which the peoples of the arctic have always depended as well as the rich marine life there and 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 is 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  would like to key in on a couple of things the rates of change and adaptation we often use the term adaptation a lot particularly in terms of human adaptation and we are 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 are changing for millions of years i think the last time we have seen an ocean acidification event was about fifty five million years ago that was only ten years after the dinosaurs w out and even then that rate of change was probably not as fast as what we are seeing today and during that time period there were a lot of big changes that happened in the ocean that can be attributed to ocean  adaptation 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 the chairman you have heard these concerns not result in catastrophic consequences ms spruill thank you mister chairman i am not a researcher i consider myself 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 have got a combination of increased awareness and this growing sense of urgency and momentum we really have a golden opportunity to act 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 in the pipeline oceans twenty one which passed subcommittee just  week the coral reef protection act the marine sanctuaries act all of these bills if passed will help to provide these adaptation strategies that you have 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 cure isn't actually worse than the disease the chairman thank you doctor earle 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 is just not a part of public consciousness is the great mystery of the sea i had occasion to ask that very question to clare boothe luce once and she looked skyward and she said well looking at the big puffy heaven is there and you know what is in the other direction and whatever the reason because perhaps we are terrestrial by nature and only in fairly recent times have human beings acquired access to the sea effective access to the sea but we are still beginning scuba divers go down maybe a one hundred feet one hundred and fifty feet perhaps if they push the edge a bit but we are 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 is a place just to well you think of fish fish are to eat right without thinking that fish are to the sea as birds are to the land they are components of our life support system they are as as has been said about components of the land the nuts the bolts the cogs the wheels that make the ocean work and it is not just the fish it is all of the diversity of life in the sea we need to respect fish alive not just fish dead and coral reefs alive not just ornaments for your shelf we need to think about the ocean with a new attitude and it is happening but it needs to happen faster than it presently is chairman which organisms which ecosystems are most vulnerable right now to this acceleration of climate change ms earle i can answer a bit but we all can weigh in make up much of life in the sea and that drive much of the ocean chemistry and we better pay attention and it is important with every breath we take it is important to understand this and it is not rocket science as they say this   those communities those ecosystems that are in the tropics and those at the poles 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 through the filter feeders to the herbivores predators on up the food web anything with a shell or a skeleton and so crabs lobsters sea stars urchins microscopic plants mussels oysters snails all of those are going to be affected by this  thank you chairman markey i would say that the shallow oceans are where most of the life is that is where the primary production occurs where they use sunlight to create the bulk that feeds the rest of the ocean so the shallow oceans i would say are the place of urgency right now and it does extend from the tropics to the poles that would be my answer the chairman ms spruill as congress considers legislation to reduce our global warming pollution what other policies in your opinion are necessary to help protect the oceans from climate change ms spruill well i think i named three that are actually already in the pipeline and  national ocean policy and then a mechanism for implementing that policy across a variety of federal agencies it is really the coordinating function that we need across so many federal agencies this grew out of both presidential commissions and as you mentioned doctor lubchenco was on the pew commission she can maybe talk a little bit more about the genesis of that legislation then there is the coral reef  tools at the local level a number of these adaptation strategies that we have discussed and it empowers noaa to respond to damaged reefs again another adaptation strategy if you will and then there is the national marine sanctuar it how successful has the federal government been in implementing the recommendations from the commission ms lubchenco we had hoped to have seen much more progress by now i think hope still remains that chairman what is the obstacle in your opinion ms lubchenco i believe that it is part of what we have been talking about at 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 is sometimes hard to break through and so the reality that oceans are in trouble and that there is real urgency has not penetrated as far as it needs to go it is 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 be able to work together  collaboratively and to work toward much more comprehensive integration of ocean decisions that is always a tough sell ms lubchenco i believe that   what happens to the ocean that affects those of us who are living on land i think that kind of will help to dramatize what the is going to disrupt availability it is going to raise seafood prices there are human health considerations human health is predicted to decline due to climate change related causes food and water shortages we have already seen some of this brought about because of areas affected by drought insurance rates we are already seeing rates affected because of extreme weather events such as hurricanes our 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 is 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 the oxygen come from twenty percent of the atmosphere is oxygen eighty percent or so is nitrogen there is just enough carbon dioxide to make the green plants do their thing to produce more oxygen through  drive the great food chains that is the way it has been now for many millions of years it was not always that way the earth was not always hospitable for the likes of us i think that is something many people need 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 was not twenty percent oxygen in the atmosphere but where today there is we have the power the capacity to change that through what we are doing to the engine the green engine 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 it is also true with the water you drink people think it comes out of the s ot water does or you get it in little bottles when you go to the store most of 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 as clouds mostly from the ocean take away the ocean and you just eliminate the water system so it is to first understand that and then to realize what we are doing that is disrupting that system the chairman back to you doctor explain to someone who has lived in kansas his entire life who maybe has never seen the ocean in order to really make those links that is where we fail in the education if we lose our economies and our coastal regions which really depend on the oceans we are going to affect all of the cities in the u s and elsewhere it is hard to imagine that economic impacts on the coast are not going to permeate the rest of the economy  think that that is a nice touchstone as the pew oceans 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 do you care about oceans why should we be thinking about changing anything what i heard from them were five things it boiled down to five things americans told us they wanted safe seafood healthy seafood number one number two clean beaches number three abundant wildlife number four stable fisheries with no more of this boom and bust and closures and fifth vibrant coastal communities now i think that is a very 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 do not understand is that all of those things depend on healthy productive and resilient ecosystems and that is not what we are seeing now we are seeing serious degradation and disruption and depletion climate change is going to exacerbate that very very seriously the chairman well let me ask you this then now you have outlined the problem each one of you let us talk about solutions do any of you have an example that you would like to give us of something that is happening that is very positive that you problem let me go back through you again doctor earle ms earle i think one of the greatest causes for hope is our expanding level of communication that any little kid can look at the world through the eyes of an astronaut now hold the world in your hands when you pull up google earth for heaven's sake there it is the whole world you can spin it around you can see your backyard you can see your neighbor's backyard  earle uh huh maybe someday before long you will be able to take dives in the ocean and will 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 is actually going on below the good news and the bad news i think that is not only good for kids i think that is good for all of us to be able to have new ways to see how we are connected to the rest am optimistic in part because there is a growing concern that people kids and all of us are increasingly detached from nature and there is some effort to do something about that the last child in the woods which began as a group of citizens who did not know a lot about the problem in the process of our deliberations they learned about them and came to make some very strong unanimous recommendations to the governor  of which have been adopted others are currently being developed those essentially will put oregon on a path to very significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to slow the rate many other states including yours states working together along the west coast and in new england have been making very significant progress in drawing attention to the problem and  beginning to address it in very serious ways i get hope from that i believe that now it is congress 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 these 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 have seen that in attitudes toward drunk driving towards smoking towards women's suffrage towards civil rights issues so we know that it is possible to have very very rapid change it is my hope that we are getting closer and am traveling on planes and putting all of that extra co in the atmosphere to interview the people next to me about what they know about climate change and including ocean acidification i have been astounded in the last year i would say the last year maybe two at how much people know now this is somewhat of an elite group these are people who fly planes what i have noticed is so many people are becoming more aware and they are no longer arguing with me that is this really happening for a long time i got the question is this really happening now i am hearing the question what can we do so people are hungry for solutions they are hungry for choices they are willing to sacrifice i am just seeing this momentum and it is time to sort of se that and to do what jane was saying you know the states have become leaders in this issue if the u s becomes a leader in this issue and finds real solutions either technologically or through invoking social change between ocean and climate change would not have happened even five years ago 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 am actually hopeful about coral reefs and i want to bring it back to that in this year of the reef i think there is some hope even in the face of this dire news we have heard today if we act divisively now we can save some of those reefs that still remain i think certainly emerging science is showing us that if we can protect the integrity and the resiliency of these systems they should be able to withstand some of these climate change stresses that we cannot yet anticipate but we have to act now  us get here at the end of the hearing a one minute summation from each of you as to what you want us to remember about the oceans about ocean policy about the responsibility of the united states government to be the leader in the world to protect it and to have a leadership role that commands the respect of the rest of the world when we ask them to work with us on these issues let us go in the opposite order of every climate change bill should support adaptation strategies mitigation alone is not going to solve this problem we need to take on both the cure and the recovery simultaneously you know these adaptation strategies could be and actually should be paid for by funding from the auction of carbon allowances so there is a mechanism there secondly 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 oceans twenty one is successfully out of the subcommittee and it would be a major step forward in providing this comprehensive ocean management scheme that we have talked about  well first of all i think you guys have gotten the point that the oceans are in trouble and that we really need to act rapidly we cannot afford a doubling of co from preindustrial levels in the atmosphere i really stress that we try to keep it we also talk a lot about the importance of ocean ecosystems to our economies you know we are always asked to put a dollar value on all of the things that the oceans offer to us  if anything sticks in your mind let it be one of my favorite quotes from jacques cousteau which is people protect what they love all of you who love the sea please help us protect her so i would ask you to help us which has been called by one scientist jeremy jackson the slippery slope to slime which is the direction that 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 i think that we really are at a crossroads and we need to understand that and need to have the courage to choose the right thing because it is in our interest to do so the second thing i would highlight is that we need to think about adaptation differently it is not just the adaptation of human systems but we need to understand how to create the conditions for wildlife to adapt to the changes that are inevitable that means reducing other stresses managing fisheries very conservatively eliminating destructive fishing gear reducing the flow of nutrients and chemical pollutants to the coasts protecting habitats as much as possible it means creating networks of no take marine reserves and protected areas so that the raw material  so as much genetic diversity and as many species as possible 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 is woefully inadequate for us to understand and to better advise how to do this adaptation how to do many of the things that ahead fourthly i would suggest a much more comprehensive understanding of oceans of the management of oceans through mechanisms such as those in the oceans twenty one bill but 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 th century some say the best idea america ever had was the national park system an idea that is now being adopted in some measure in the but there is not full protection for the wildlife that is there we can do a much better job of taking care of our own exclusive economic zone an area that exceeds the size of the rest of the united states put together we have a chance to do something really bold in our own waters another thing to do is to take a leadership role others followed the example back in the early part of the th century here we are at the early part of the  we could do is 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 to look at the arctic and to the antarctic in the antarctic fifty years ago a treaty was put into place and we were among the primary instigators of that treaty 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 in working with others to show the advantage of protection exceeds by far the advantage of short term exploitation this is the moment i think you have heard it recently from all of us this is a moment in time when as never before we recognize we have got a problem maybe as never again we can do something about it beautiful thank you doctor earle now while you were each giving your concluding statements to the committee unfortunately congressman emanuel cleaver from the state of missouri arrived i will now recognize him for comments are along the lines of what i think is needed for our country i was thrown into some panic over the weekend when i read about the shark attack in san diego being from kansas city missouri and i am a united methodist pastor satchel paige's family to kill it satchel said to him no we are not going to kill him because we came into his house if he comes into our house that is a different story but when we are in his house we do not kill him so my fear every time i hear about a shark bite is that it feeds pardon the pun the men and women who would suggest that you know the that i am driving by last evening here in washington seafood restaurant after seafood restaurant after seafood restaurant i am deeply concerned about  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 i thank the gentleman from missouri he 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 responsibility that we have to protect the planet  we thank each of you 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 our most important supreme court decision regarding the environment in history was in massachusetts versus planet massachusetts relied upon in its argument the danger already existing to the coastline of massachusetts the supreme court ruled that the epa as a result has a responsibility to make a decision which they have yet to do one year later so your testimony helps to once again dramatize how important the oceans are one year after massachusetts versus epa massachusetts trying to protect itself against what is happening to its coastline and to every coastline everywhere on the whole planet you are all incredibly important national and international leaders on these issues this was 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 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 have had testify before us we thank you all with that this hearing is