Senate Told How Climate Change Is Threatening World’s Oceans
WASHINGTON — A geoscientist described for a Senate panel Wednesday a devastating scenario if the U.S. government fails to consider how climate change is damaging the oceans.
The world is close to a “critical threshold,” when the ill effects of climate change on oceans will accelerate to a point at which it will be hard to reverse them, said Andrea Dutton, a University of Wisconsin-Madison geologist and oceanographer.
She urged the Senate Budget Committee to act quickly to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint and to avoid “threatening not only our economy but humanity itself.”
Among the intensifying problems, atmospheric carbon dioxide is mixing with ocean water to make it more acidic and depleting oxygen. The result is more sea life dying off, she said.
Warmer oceans are changing weather patterns inland while also strengthening hurricanes. As polar ice caps melt, rising sea levels are causing more flooding and devaluing coastal properties, Dutton said.
“The seven worst years of ice loss have occurred in the past decade,” Dutton said.
She added, “We cannot just adapt to climate change.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who chairs the Budget Committee, cited a recent economic study that predicted a $178 trillion loss to world economies by 2050 if nothing is done to stop climate change.
“Huge swaths of American beaches are likely to disappear in the not too distant future,” Whitehouse said.
In southern Florida last summer, water along the beach reached a record 101 degrees. Shallow waters near the beaches are home to coral reefs that are a cradle for sea life far beyond Florida and other states with beachfront property.
“Coral beaches are bleaching and dying” because of warming ocean water, Whitehouse said.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., warned that predictions of doom over climate change might unnecessarily divert attention from other concerns.
“The truth is that climate change is a real challenge but nothing we can’t overcome,” he said.
He recommended that U.S. efforts to counter climate change should be balanced against other economic challenges the nation faces.
“I’m not a climate change denier, I’m just not a climate change alarmist,” he said.
He also said other nations have equal responsibilities to reduce pollution.
“Does anyone really think that India or China are going to stop burning fossil fuels,” he asked.
Although numerous environmental bills are pending in Congress, the U.S. effort is led by a Biden administration program the president made a cornerstone of his pledges after taking office.
One part of the program directed at oceans is investing in “resilient infrastructure.”
Sea walls are being built or buttressed near large cities. In other places, the Environmental Protection Agency is encouraging “living shorelines” of plants, wetlands and sand barriers to reduce erosion and flooding.
The EPA also is promoting sustainable fishing practices with science-based fisheries and disincentives for overfishing.
Kyle Schaefer, a fishing guide and lodge owner with businesses in Maine and the Bahamas, told the Senate Budget Committee, “I may be forced to close my charter business in the next few seasons simply because there aren’t enough fish.”
As the harm from climate change deepens, he said he and his family have been considering other career options.
“We’re searching for something we can rely on,” Schaefer said.
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