Can call on to reverse its effects. We can act today to advance the ball. We can limit the dangers of punting this problem to our own children. Its no accident that our proposal is a key piece of president obamas Climate Action plan and key to americas leadership in this Global Climate fight. Although theres still more work to be done, i am hopeful. Im hopeful when i see the progress that was made. Im hopeful because i see the patent of perseverance that defines america. From the light bulb from excels to your cell phones, america has always turned small step into giant leaps. Weve cured diseases. We have explored the stars. Because when critics say it cant be done, we say, you watch us. Thats what america is made of. We dont settle. We lead. Thats how well confront this climate crisis. When it comes to our plan, we may not agree on the details of how we do it but i sure do hope we can all agree on why we do it. When our kids ask us, if we did everything we could to leave them a safer and cleaner world. We all want to say yes we did. When we think of our children, its easy to see why we have to be compelled to act. As governors, mayors and ceos, school teacher, nurses, factory workers and most of all as as parents and in particular moms who are here, we have a moral obligation to ensure that the world we leave behind is safe, healthy and vibrant. Just like the one we inherited. Our Clean Power Plan is a huge step towards delivering on that promise. Whole thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] i have some signing to do. Whoever said the pen is not mightier than the sword [inaudible] thank you very much. Everybody. [applause] egypt has a new president. The former chief of the army was sworn in today for a fouryear term. The swearing in less than a year after the ouster of egypts first really elected president , office morsi, who took following the resignation of Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The reason were trying to focus on the speaker is because it is the speaker, with the full majesty and weight of his position, who yesterday made certain allegations, which at this point he has not answered. I will yield to you. You have an audience. You do not normally have that in the 26 hours you have presented the case to the public. The center of your remarks, going back to 1972, taken out of context. In my opinion, you want to imply that americans on the side were unamerican in their activity. Will you respond . You knew there was nobody here. Camscam. Put those two men from your perspective and give us your perspective on the two. Speaker oneill was really a giants. He knew the politics of the house. Of the the politics house, and he kept much of it to himself. He obviously received a great amount of intelligence all day long for members, what was going on in different places. He always believed that politics was the art of the possible, the nobody got their way all the time. He was a broker within the democratic caucus. Newt gingrich made a conscious decision that they would always be in the minority because they worked with the majority. He started adapting bob michael, the leader, and everybody on ,hat side in his own party jesse said the only avenue to the majority is through said theation he only avenue to the majority is through confrontation. That chamberact was empty, but the camera was very tight on the speaker at the time, wherever they were. It changes the whole dynamics. That was a process that many years later has torn this institution apart, and has really paralyzed the institution. Congressman george miller, tonight at 8 00 on q a. A Senate Environment subcommittee held a hearing recently on the impact of Climate Change on wildlife and agriculture. Witnesses included educators and representatives from the fishing, for history, and farming sector. The hearing is one hour. Welcome. Its great to have you all. I would like to introduce our second panel of witnesses. I will introduce everyone now, and then we will proceed with the testimony. Our first witness is from oregon. Jim serves as the executive director of lake county resources initiative, an organization dedicated to improving Forest Management and inanding the use of energy rural communities. He has worked for to foster more collaborative approaches in oregon. Our second witness is force wheattor generation farmer in oklahoma, and serves at the state association direct executive. He served in the Oklahoma House of representatives from 1994 through 2004. The third witness is daniel cohen. Ands a commercial fisherman does business on both coasts. A retired professor of forest tree at auburn university, where he also earned his phd in for history. He also served as director for the southern forests nursery management cooperatives. Our final witness is a joint associate professor of geography at the university of delaware. Hes also the former director of the center for Climatic Research at the university of delaware. Welcome, everyone. If you could kick off the testimony, the show is yours. Chairman, andmr. Fellow members, its a privilege to be here and in honor. A small nonprofit in lake county, oregon, concentrating on federal forest lands and renewable energies. We are 78 Government Land in our county. We are like many communities with forest over the past three decades. We have suffered high unemployment and poverty rates due to policies on our national forest. We looked at Renewable Energy as a way to change that economy and energy to the forefront. When discussing Climate Change, i cannot separate the actions of past Forest Management and impacts on Climate Change. They are the same. Treatments will have the same effects. They are intertwined. In our case i would like to point out that over the past decade, what has admit to our forest . In 10 years, the first fire was the toolbox fire. We lost 100,000 acres. 350,000 acres. Er in 2012, we had 93,000 acres lost. In less than a decade, we have Fremont National forest. If we keep this rate up, because fires are getting more intense, insects are getting more intense because of the warmer climate will lose in three decades our whole forest. That is a Severe Threat to us. It is not only a threat to our industry in timber, its a threat to our agriculture. 20 moisture0 to during the winter. Our summers are hot and dry normally. Without that snowpack, we dont have irrigation water. All you have to do is look to our neighbors in the klamath basin. We will seety, reduced irrigation rates because of the drought. Ofughts we have never seen the severity before. The climatee change, longterm, shortterm and all of that. I personally say that it is here, and the risk is way too high just to ignore you might be right that is not happening i hope we dont go there. By using Renewable Energy, we could offset that. We have developed a plan in lake county. Economic analysis and feasibility study, we will offset 93 of the fossil fuel emissions in a decade out of lake county, and we will do it economically. As we go forward with this debate, i would hope that we would look at the things like that that make economic sense. Can renewables compete with hydro . No. Can it compete with coal and other industries . Solar is there. The cost of a panel is cheap. Wind is there. Willand more of them become competitive that other rates throughout the country. And its a way to turn our jobs around. Thing is to change the definition, which senator cosponsored we have two Companies Looking at locating in lake county, but we only have supplies for one. Fuel company, and a Biomass Energy production company. With that definition, they do not want to invest because its not considered renewable. Please do change that heard it was senate bill 536. Get that passed so we change that definition. It does not make sense to me. We need to increase the scale of getting treatments. My full testimony about the worst neighbors, the Forest Service it is the amount we are getting done. Landed to increase that that is overstocked, and that we and not00,000 acres just to a small acres projects at the time. We dont want to skip any environmental rules. We want to be ecologically sound and economically both. As we move on, i hope we also look at the fire spending that was mentioned. We cannot get ahead of this if we dont deal with fires. As they get more intense and hotter, we need to deal with that. 185, i hope you endorse that. It is cheaper to treat the forest land than it is to suppress fire. Another thing Climate Change has done in the flickr forest is that he keeps the snow from hitting the ground. We get large amounts of evaporation rate in those thicker forests. I do see by implementing and , and common sense today after that, lets make the more challenging decisions. Thank you very much. Thank you for the chance to come before you today and speak about Climate Change. Always hadwe have wild weather on the southern plans. Will rogers put it best when he said, if you dont like the weather in oklahoma, wait a minute and it will change. What is different is the frequency and strength of the weather we have been seeing. Steroids. N put on in oklahoma alone, we have seen reductions in cattle herd of over 10 . By the first this year, the Cattle Inventory in the United States has shrunk to its lowest level since 1951. In oklahoma we may be looking at the fourth year in a row when the state ascot and will be abandoned. Cotton will be abandoned. The wheat crop is 30 below what was cut in 2012. A lateseason freeze also took what is new is the frequency. Clearly we have a problem. In the soil. Improving the health of our soil is the key to helping mitigate Climate Change. It is organic matter that feeds the Microbial Community under the soil that form our first and best line of defense against Climate Change. That equals on average to an additional 25,000 gallons of water available per acre for growing crops here and crops. We can greatly increase the infiltration water in our firm ground, and increasing the amount of moisture. This helps our farms better whether the drought, while providing more moisture for growing crops. This increases soil moisture also. We can also greatly reduce runoff. Soil,ot only protects the it reduces pollution in our streams and rivers. That same one percent increase in organic matter can make available up to 700 worth of nutrients. By improving the health of our soil, we can help lets more plants more effectively absorb. We all know that plants breathe in Carbon Dioxide and breathe out oxygen. That Carbon Dioxide is storm stored in soil. This is something we need to do. Through the farm bill conservation programs, usda has the ability to help producers do it. As budgets tighten, Financial Assistance through these programs and funding for Technical Assistance continues to shrink. It was determined it was in the publics interest to keep the farm ground in the Southern Plains in production. The tide was turned back. Even with these tools, research is needed to determine what technologies are best to help adapt to Climate Change. It will go unrealized if they are not provided with the resources necessary to do the job. We cannot lose sight of the fact that the droughts will come again. Droughts and floods have a tendency to come together in oklahoma. Oklahoma alone has 2100 structures, many of which need rehabilitation. With passage of the farm bill, funding was authorized to do this work. An rcs rule stated they can only be used to repair existing structures. This does not have to be the case. A change in the rules would allow federal funds to be made available to help new communities with water sources. If you look at the original flood act, flood mitigation of wildlife enhancement, you see this program as another tool that usda has help a better adapt to Climate Change. Agriculture plains is facing serious challenges from Climate Change. Copesda has the tools to with this challenge, and there is a path forward. The question is, will we take it . Thank you very much. Thank you very much for the opportunity to address the committee as you evaluate the impact of Climate Change on environment. The fishing agriculture industry especiallyed states, the shellfish industry, is especially susceptible to increases in ocean temperature. Our shellfish industry has been significantly impacted, and is a harboring or of the consequences of human use of fossil fuels and co2 increases in our atmosphere. Am seventh generation in the fishing industry. We operate from the east coast to the west coast, with facilities in new jersey, maryland, rhode island, massachusetts, and the pacific northwest. I spent a considerable amount of my time in fisheries research. About 15 years ago, recognizing the wild harvests of fishermen, to make sure we have sustainable harvests for the future. With the sustainable cap harvest, there would not be enough fish protein for the growing population. Now it is 7 billion. It will be 9 billion. The industry is looking more and more towards agriculture to meet those needs. I will use examples today. Industry,appened to backed up with scientific will help determine what is happening. These examples are coming from three sources. Changes slowly over time, temperature change in the ocean, changes in acidity ocean currents, which scientists ascribe to changes in temperature. We have oyster hatcheries in washington,egon and and scallop farming in british columbia. The robust new jersey fishery landed over 50 of the clams for the entire country. Clams are the number one ingredient in clam chowder, which i believe is still the number one soup in the country. Outlined in the written evidence i have given, bottom temperature rise is identified after the Fisheries Service determined a large amount of virginia. Of cooler waters in new england saw a greater spawning off new england. Lamp lights shut in virginia so opened in rhode island, showing a shift in population of the clams. In the pacific northwest, we have seen large ocean specification. We have documented over 110 million worth of losses to the hatchery industry alone. We are now having to buffalo the water. Buff all the water. They discovered the problem coming from ocean acidity. There was a major die off. 90 of all the scallops being raised offshore, threeyear classes were killed. The tide since who are researching this right now believe the ocean is at the highest levels of ocean acidification, and weakened the animals. Fishery, youluke have evidence in my written testimony, mostly documented by an article being released today by the Daily Climate that is documenting work by the national Fisheries Service. Changes in the east coast are affecting migration of fluke fisheries. The fluke fishery is completely rebuilt. Because the distribution of north,luke are moving traditionally they are fished off of North Carolina and are being fished off of new york. There is a user conflict, statebystate allocation of the food fishery and the recreational commercial conflict. Conclude by saying that i believe it is irrefutable the Climate Change is happening, the leaders of the east coast fishing industry along with myself have formed a Company Called fishermens energy, to try to adapt. We propose to build offshore wind farms. You. Thank you, mr. Cohen. Yous a privilege to provide with my views on forest and wildfires. Forresters know there are many examples of how human activity affects the total number and size of wildfires. Activemakers who halt Forest Management and kill green harvesting jobs really end up contributing to the buildup of fuels in the forest. This eventually increases the risk of catastrophic wildfires. To attribute this human caused is simplye unscientific. In todays world of alarmism, accuracy does not seem to matter. Im not surprised to see many journalists spreading the idea that Carbon Emissions cause large wildfires. Theres a wellknown poem called the serenity prayer. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference. I cant change the behavior of the media, and i can change the weather. Early in my career i try to change the media and make them correct their mistakes about Forest Management. Just concentrate on my colleagues, trying to get them to do a better job of sticking to the facts. Guesses to thee future to the others. Untrue claims about the cause of wildfires can spread like wildfire. The false statement that wildfires in 2012 burned record acres in the u. S. Resulted in numerous articles and is found in more than 2000 websites. Wildfires in the 1930s burned four times that rate. Who push an agenda really need to exaggerate the claims in order to fool the public. This graph shows Carbon Emissions arising since 1926. If we cherry picked data from 9026 to 1970, we get a negative relationship between Carbon Dioxide and fire size. However, if we cherry pick data from 1985 to the current year, we get a positive relationship. Neither of these relationships prove anything about