Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify.
Four score and seven years ago our grandfathers and grandmothers were enjoying life in the roaring 20s.
Now imagine you are in Congress back then and imagine that the nation’s leading scientists are warning that human activity – years of bad land management practices – has left our topsoil vulnerable to the forces of the wind. And that the next time a major drought hits, much of our farmland will turn to dust. Dust in the wind.
YOU WOULD TAKE ACTION.
Over the past two decades, the nation’s leading scientists have issued stronger and stronger warnings that human activity – burning fossil fuels and deforestation – will lead to longer and stronger droughts that dry out topsoil and timber, creating the conditions ripe for multiple, multi-decade Dust Bowls and wildfires.
In fact, we’re already topping Dust Bowl temperatures in many places – and the Earth has warmed only about 1 degree Fahrenheit since the 1930s Dust Bowl. Yet we are poised to warm some 10 degree Fahrenheit this century if we stay on our current path of unrestricted carbon pollution emissions.
I repeat, several studies now project the world may warm 10 degree Fahrenheit this century if we don’t act. And that is the average warming of the globe. Much of our country would see far higher temperatures. The recent heat wave would be considered a pleasantly, cool summer.
Another study looked at mid-century warming of just 2 degrees Fahrenheit. It found that wildfire damage in many of your home states — Utah, Colorado, Idaho, South Dakota, Nevada and Washington – would double, triple, even quadruple from current levels.
Imagine how big the government would have to be to deal with rampant wildfires and with a Dust Bowl choking the bread basket of the world. A lot bigger government than today, for sure.
So of course this great deliberative body is debating various bills to avoid this catastrophe by slashing carbon pollution.
Except it isn’t. We are here discussing bills aimed at “fuels treatment” – a euphemism for cutting down trees and using controlled burns.
Ignoring carbon pollution and focusing instead on fuels treatment to address the epidemic of bark beetles, the epidemic of drought, the epidemic of wildfires is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Or, more precisely, it is like burning some of the deck chairs and removing some of the umbrellas on the Titanic. Same outcome, more time wasted.
As I explained in the journal Nature last year, what we are discussing here today is the single most important question facing the nation: Can we prevent the extreme drought and wildfires ravaging the country today from becoming the new normal?
But the real question — and I am addressing myself to the members of the majority now – is how you want to be remembered. Do you want to be remembered as a Herbert Hoover, who sat by and did nothing in the face of obvious calamity, or as Abraham Lincoln, who took every measure to save the Union?
Lincoln said at Gettysburg “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” That of course wasn’t true. But after testifying to Congress nearly a dozen times since 1995, I am quite convinced that nobody remembers what we say here – and in the case of these bills, everyone will forget what you did here.
Are you Nevil Chamberlain — Or will you be Winston Churchill, who worked tirelessly to warn and prepare Britain for what was coming and told the House of Commons in 1936 “The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.”
The consequences are here, now, just as climate scientists predicted.
If we fail to take action, many scientists predict ruin for large parts of this country – ruin for large parts of your districts – ruin that lasts 50 generations. Americans have fought for generations to defend government of the people, by the people, for the people. In the hour of crisis, we need that government to do its job. Now is that hour.
Thank you
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Give them hell, Joe.
I think that it’s congress that is giving US hell,in this case.
Haha. Joe ought to be giving them hell since they are giving us hell.
Watch the video looking at the guys to his left and right. I’m sure that’s how the majority of Congressmen took Joe’s speech. But kudos to Joe. We need more people to stand up and say enough is enough, boldly and unapologetically.
Like he said, the time for half-measures is ending (actually, I think it’s done). They might have worked if we had started the process 30-40 years ago and maintained it since. We chose to ignore the problem, and we’re choosing still to ignore it. The excuse that it can’t be done can be countered with the simple response that we haven’t even tried.
I like to think I’m a realist in that the government is hopelessly influenced by money. I’m a conspiracist in that I think politics in this country is strategically divided by moneyed interests. Big money’s main interest is in keeping the status quo for as long as possible. We are divided, though, and therefore conquered – we can’t change, or make anything but minor change, because of it.
But one has to stand up for what they believe is right, because there is no other moral and rational option. Standing by meekly, or silently, just guarantees that louder voices will win the day. And there is always the hope that someone out there, eventually, will listen.
Sorry this is long, I became interested in the backstory of Romm’s speech, so I spent some time studying it. I can be obsessive, but I think the topic is pertinent, and I don’t know where else to put this.
Peter – I think it would be worth your time to ask Joe what he thought of the event.
The hearing was held in front of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands – a committee which is packed with Tea Party Republicans (at least half the committee members at the session can be identified as TP). Congress being Congress, there are three separate and competing bills with different specifics – this is an early phase of getting any bill passed. The hearing was a spectacle – and it pretty much confirms my opinions about government.
The main topic was how to combat wildfires on federal land. Strongly tied with this was getting a handle on the bark beetle epidemic. Because there are large areas of dead trees due to the bark beetle, it tends to be a flash point for wildfires. Another major topic was the issue of management. It wasn’t discussed at the hearing, but much of America’s forests are new growth forests – there are only a handful of old growth forests in the States. Old growth forests tend to have light underbrush – wildfires have a harder time getting traction in areas with little scrub. Forest management basically is about reducing scrub in new growth forests. This can be done by controlled burns (which is best, as it returns nutrients to the soil, and some tree species like pine actually require fire to germinate new trees), manual removal, or leasing the land for private uses (logging, ranching, farming, etc.) and letting private enterprise handle it. It can also be done by extending local authority over federal lands (keeping in mind that local authority can be subject to local interests).
Two notable things – first, the Bureau of Land Management has identified about 60 million acres of federal land at risk of wildfire, and less than 10% of it has been ‘managed’ to reduce risk. It averages about 400K acres of increased management per year – about 0.6% of the area at risk. This is wholly unacceptable. Also, the BLM and Forest Service seems to be completely incapable of approving local authority permits on any reasonable time scale. It can take a local permit years to be approved.
The second notable thing is that increased funding for the BLM and forest service simply isn’t on the table. None of the bills press for it, and only one of the guest speakers requested it.
Two of the bills, and I think the momentum is for one of these two to pass, are for increasing private use (timber and ranch), increasing local authority over federal land, and setting 60-day limits to federal permit approvals (if the BLM can’t approve a permit in 60 days, it’s automatically awarded). The permit phase is often held up due to environmental impact studies and communication lags between the local and federal. Frankly, 60 days might be far too short in some cases, but the two bills give the benefit to private enterprise and local authority.
There were a number of speakers besides Joe. The main thought seemed to be that less trees equals less wildfire. While this might be true on a simplistic basis, it ignores the trends of industry when it faces natural resources. Logging companies, for instance, are very likely to ignore brush and just cut mature trees.
Here’s a quote by David Cook, an Arizona rancher and vice chairman of NCBA’s Federal Lands Committee, who testified on behalf of NCBA, PLC and the Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association,: “By all but shutting down logging and continuously reducing grazing on public lands, the agencies are not just hurting those industries—they are causing the buildup of fuels for catastrophic wildfire,” he said. “When catastrophic wildfire breaks out, there are no winners—not the wildlife, not the rural communities, not the taxpayer. That is why we are here—to support H.R. 5744, which would bring real, immediate relief to the dangerous situation on and near our public forested lands.”
Another quote from Cook: “When you have a drought, all the trees compete for that same drop of water,” said David Cook, a member of the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association, who testified Friday. “That’s why the forest needs to be thinned.”
Rob Bishop, Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands (and also a member of the Tea Party), gave a response to Cook: “You have hit your mark well.”
At a later point, Cook makes the claim that the endangered spotted owl only reproduces when cattle are present. I’m not joking. Cook is the person to the left of Joe in the video.
To be fair, there really does seem to be a problem in communication or efficiency between federal, state, and county governments. A number of local governments do want to take steps to control burn areas, but are largely prevented or face lengthy delays by federal management.
And wow, Ed Roberson of the Bureau of Land Management looks entirely incompetent. When asked how long an area takes to recover from a catastrophic wildfire, he has no clue.
Also, the committee member introducing the third bill (which emphasizes access to local authority but not private enterprise, and the only one endorsed by the BLM) is Ed Markey from Massachusetts. He comes across as a total boob, frankly. He doesn’t even show up until halfway into the session, and he ends the session with a baseball analogy (climate change to the climate is like baseball players on steroids) complete with a chart on home runs in the steroid era that basically makes a the climate issue look like a cartoon for idiots.
Romm was there on Markey’s invitation. Joe is entirely correct that climate change is the key issue here – it’s the primary causal agent, and it’s going to get worse. Forest management will help, but not prevent, either the wildfire or bark beetle issues if climate change isn’t addressed. But here’s the thing – Markey’s bill doesn’t include a single thing about addressing climate change. I still like Joe speaking out, and I love what he actually said, but it’s completely wasted here. Markey played a card that had nothing to do with his bill, effectively killing his bill to the other committee members, and allowing the other bills to proceed.
Money wins – again. The Colorado wildfires are likely to result in legislation expanding private enterprise’s access to federal forest lands. Climate change won’t be addressed, increased funding to the BLM won’t be addressed, and the impact over preventing future wildfires will be minimal at best.
The full session can be seen here: http://resources.edgeboss.net/wmedia/resources/112/2012_07_20_npfpl.wvx