Ranking Members Johnson and Bonamici React to Reporting of Carbon Dioxide Reaching Record Levels
(Washington, DC) – Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have reached an average daily level above 400 parts per million, a concentration not seen for at least three million years.
Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Ranking Member of the Environment Subcommittee, Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) released the following statements:
Ms. Bonamici said, “The reality of climate change is increasingly impossible to deny. Carbon dioxide, the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, reaching this latest milestone falls right in line with what we have been hearing for years on climate change. It is real and it is already happening. The United States, as the biggest historical producer and second largest current producer of greenhouse gases, bears a great responsibility to the rest of the world to ensure that we promote policies that will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we continue to place in the Earth’s atmosphere. As Dr. Pieter Tans of NOAA said of this latest finding, ‘It symbolizes that so far we have failed miserably in tackling this problem.’ We have to do better than this.”
Ms. Johnson said, “We know that the Earth is warming, sea ice is disappearing, the glaciers are receding, the oceans are acidifying, and sea levels are rising. We know all of this from climate science research and monitoring. And, we now know that we have reached this carbon dioxide milestone of 400 parts per million thanks to a NOAA observatory on top of the volcano Mauna Loa in Hawaii that has been continuously monitoring and collecting data related to atmospheric change since the 1950s. The research being done at NASA, NOAA and other agencies is providing the crucial data that will enable us to assess, adapt to, and move forward on this critical issue. We must continue investing in this work.”
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