Norman D. Dicks: “The language in title V of this bill is identical to language added by the Appropriations Committee last year to the FY…”

“The language in title V of this bill is identical to language added by the Appropriations Committee last year to the FY 2007 Interior bill when the Appropriations Committee was being run by the minority party of today. Since that time, this sense of the Congress has been supported by both an international scientific body and the United States Supreme Court. First, the sense of Congress states that ``there is a growing scientific consensus that human activity is a substantial cause of greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere.'' So far this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group consisting of hundreds of scientists from 113 countries, has issued two reports on the science of climate change, with a third report to be issued later this year. The panel's first report, issued in February, concluded that there is an overwhelming probability, at least 90 percent certainty, that human activities are warming the planet at a dangerous rate, with consequences that could take decades or centuries to reverse. The panel's second report on the consequences of global warming concluded ``with high confidence'' that greenhouse gases produced by human activity has already triggered changes in ecosystems on both land and sea.”