On the recordNovember 14, 2018
it is hard, particularly for those of us from coastal States, to overstate the importance of the Earth's oceans as a storehouse of our food, as a regulator of our climate, as a highway for our travel and trade, and as a source of wonder, joy, and recreation. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, oceans contributed $1.5 trillion to the global economy in 2010. But climate change is putting this all at risk. I have spoken frequently here on the floor about the threat climate change poses to our oceans and of the warning signals blaring around the world. One of the most overlooked of those signals is the enormous amount of heat accumulating in the oceans. As CBS News reported last week, ``recent revelations have been particularly alarming'' and ``deserv[ing] of a big neon sign on Broadway.'' My humble floor speeches may not be a big neon sign on Broadway, but I do hope they shine a little light on the plight of our oceans, which ultimately is our human plight. We know that more than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by our greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the oceans--no dispute, not even by the Trump administration.…





