Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012
Floor Speech
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The Acting CHAIR. The gentlewoman from Minnesota is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. McCOLLUM. I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his work on the Great Lakes.
I represent a Great Lakes region in Minnesota. As the chairman pointed out, the climate change has been cut, Great Lakes have been cut, and I'm here to tell the gentleman from Ohio, I think we can have a win-win even without supporting your amendment. The reason being is, by leaving the dollars where they are in the climate change, I think we can count on and, through our work, make sure that what is happening to the Great Lakes is documented and proven so that the facts are out there about what we need to do about climate change, and I'm going to refer to two examples. One is from a local paper of mine, the Star Tribune, from July 13:
It talks about how, with climate change, that they're seeing that Isle Royale in Lake Superior used to be too cold for deer ticks, but not anymore. Scientists are watching the effects of climate change and what is happening to the Great Lakes region. The ticks that carry Lyme disease have been found for the first time on the island off the coast of northern Minnesota. At the end of the century, nesting loons may disappear altogether from most of the Great Lakes. These are findings from a report on the effects of climate change on the Great Lakes. It talks about, also, its effect on five of the largest national parks and public waters that we share in our region.
The series of studies has concluded that the current and future effects of warming, global climate change on national parks from California to Virginia and the consequences of it. But if people think that that is not hard enough to really kind of get, to make sure that we do climate change, that we look at what is going on in the Great Lakes, let me speak from another report that dealt with shipping on the Great Lakes.
I will enter for the Record which reports I use, but let me quote from this. It says: ``The expected higher temperatures of climate change are predicted to increase evaporation, lower runoff, reduce ice formation, and raise surface water temperatures in the Great Lakes, resulting in a fall in lake levels. The increased precipitation will not be sufficient to completely offset the reduction in lake levels.
``For international commercial navigation in the Great Lakes, the impact of lower lake levels will be restrictions in vessel draughts and tonnage carriage, thus increasing the number of trips and the total costs to move a given tonnage of cargo.''
In other words, climate change on the Great Lakes has an effect on the economy.
I know that the chairman did not have, in my opinion, sufficient allocations to address many issues I care passionately about, like climate change, including the economic consequences of climate change, as well as do some of the funding that the gentleman from Ohio and I both sought for the Great Lakes.
But I think the gentleman from Ohio could actually see benefit to the Great Lakes in research by not having his amendment move forward and keeping the dollars that we do have for science and climate change.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Will the gen tle lady yield?
Ms. McCOLLUM. As the chairman says, with great risk, I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. No, no, no, you're going to like this. Actually, the deer tick is misnamed because it really doesn't come on deer. It comes more on the little gray mouse because the gray mouse is closer to the ground. And if you treat a cotton ball with an appropriate substance, you can relieve the deer ticks not only in Minnesota but here in Virginia and also in Ohio.
Ms. McCOLLUM. I thank the gentleman for sharing that. I know how to remove leeches, deer ticks, fish hooks. Yes, I've been out there. But I really do think the Members should reject this amendment and leave the dollars where they are. We need to work harder to put more dollars into our environment, not only for its natural beauty and to leave a valued treasure to our children, but also because it has a direct impact on the economy of many of our States.
[From the StarTribune, July 13, 2011]
More Deer Ticks, Fewer Loons: Climate Change on the Great Lakes
Isle Royale in Lake Superior used to be too cold for deer ticks. But not anymore.
The ticks, which carry Lyme disease, have been found for the first time on the island off the coast of northern Minnesota. And by the end of the century, nesting loons may disappear altogether from most of the Great Lakes.
Those are some of the findings of a report on the effects of climate change on the Great Lakes' five largest national parks.
It was the latest in a series of studies they have conducted on the current and future effects of a warming global climate on national parks from California to Virginia.
The report, the authors said, provides an early look at what's to come if the Republican-led Congress continues to thwart federal efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Republicans this week tried and failed to repeal new standards for more energy efficient lightbulbs, and are resisting the new federal rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions expected later this summer. They say the rules are unnecessary intrusions on freedom, and job-killers.
``We have an increasing partisan divide on this,'' said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and a former national parks official with the Department of the Interior. ``If people pay attention to how the places they know and love respond to climate change, I hope that makes people aware of what we should be doing differently.''
The authors analyzed a century's worth of temperature trends for the Great Lakes area drawn from two weather stations on Lake Michigan, and found that both show more rapid change than the global averages. The one near the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, near Chicago, showed that in the last decade average temperatures have increased by 1.6 degrees, and the one near Picture Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan showed an average increase of 2.7 degrees.
Lee Frelich, a University of Minnesota researcher who studies the effects of climate change in the Upper Midwest, said the analysis used widely accepted climate models and data, and the findings are right on the mark.
``Climate changes are more extreme in the mid continents,'' said Frelich, who was not involved in the report. ``If you are fairly far north you will see bigger magnitudes of climate change than other places.''
Water temperatures in Lake Superior have increased 4.5 degrees between 1979 and 2006, twice the rate of land temperatures, the report found. Between the 1970s and 2009, winter ice cover over the lakes shrunk 15 percent.
The report also documented a 31 percent increase in rain falling during big storms, and a 12 percent increase in wind speeds. Combined with less ice during the winter, those changes lead to faster erosion along the shores, putting fragile landscapes like the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes in Michigan at risk. Frelich said that he's already seen the effect on his family's cabin in Door County, Wis., where winter storms have taken out trees on the edge of his property.
The report found that temperature changes are having a sometimes dramatic effect on wildlife. A growing number of botulism outbreaks, linked to higher water temperatures, have killed hundreds to thousands of birds in recent years in the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. Meanwhile, Isle Royale used to be free of deer ticks, which can only survive in average winter temperatures of 19 degrees or higher. But a park service employee this year reported finding a deer tick on his body after he'd been there for a month, meaning he had picked it up while on the island.
The report projects that average temperatures at Isle Royale and the Apostle Islands would increase by an average of 3.6 and 4.6 degrees by 2040 to 2069, depending on the rate of future air emissions--warm enough to squeeze nesting loons into the northwest corner of Lake Superior.
Mark Seeley, Minnesota state climatologist, said it's difficult to make projections about Lake Superior using data from two weather stations in Lake Michigan. But he said the report accurately documented the extreme upward shift in minimum temperatures in the winter. ``The winter season is showing more dramatic increase in temperatures than summer,'' he said.
The authors said that the five parks in the study draw 3.7 million visitors per year, generate $200 million in spending and support close to 3,000 jobs. ``We face the financial reality that climate change may bring tremendous economic challenge,'' said Larry McDonald, the mayor of Bayfield, Wis., a tourist town on the edge of the Apostle Islands. He joined the authors of the report in a telephone news conference. ``We need to respect and protect Lake Superior,'' he said.
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