memo
To:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,
Speaker of the House John Boehner
From:
Kendra Poyner
Date:
February 16, 2015
Re:
Atmospheric CO2 Concentration:
Economic, Health and Environmental
Impacts
Climate change – it’s an issue unlike most simply because some refute it’s existence or human’s
contributions to it. Which is why the issue needs your backing. Climate change due to human additions
of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) was first predicted in 1895 by chemist Svante Arrhenius (NASA, n.d.). Doing
something about the increasing CO2 concentration cannot be put off anymore. We’ve only begun to see
some of the devastating effects and unfortunately it can take years, even decades, for the full effects to
blossom. So even if we were to cease all CO2 emissions today, the effects would still worsen until the
climate fully adjusted to the current levels of CO2.
In the last month NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released
their annual global temperature assessment, which found 2014 to be the warmest year on record (2015).
Other international agencies, such as the Japan Meteorological Agency, found the same (2015). We’ve
known for over 150 years that CO2 traps heat. John Tyndall, an Irish scientist, discovered this in 1859
when he trapped CO2 in a tube, shone light on it, and found that the more CO2 there was, the higher
temperatures rose (Fleming, 1998).
We’re currently a society that depends on fossil fuels – a main culprit of CO2 emissions. The issue of
rising CO2 levels is explained well by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:
“If the amount of water flowing into a bathtub is greater than the amount of water leaving through the
drain, the water level will rise. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are like the flow of water into the
world’s carbon bathtub. “Sources” of CO2 emissions such as fossil fuel burning, cement manufacture,
and land use are like the bathtub’s faucet. “Sinks” of CO2 in the ocean and on land (such as plants) that
take up CO2 are like the drain. Today, human activities have turned up the flow from the CO2 “faucet,”
which is much larger than the “drain” can cope with, and the level of CO2 in the atmosphere (like the
level of water in a bathtub) is rising.” (2014)
Accurate measures of CO2 concentration were first recorded in 1958 with the birth of The Keeling
Curve: a daily measurement of atmospheric CO2 amounts conducted by the Scripps Institution of
2
Oceanography, UC San Diego, at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. It is supported by the U.S.
Department of Energy and by Earth Networks. In 2013, a daily value of 400 parts per million (ppm) was
recorded for the first time. In the last decade, the average annual growth rate has been about 2 ppm.
Unsurprisingly, as we continue to burn fossil fuels, the growth rate has increased every decade. If this
pace is sustained, it’s expected we’ll reach 450 ppm before 2038. (Monroe, 2013)
The rising level of CO2 is going to, if not already, affect people across the globe and Americans are no
exception. It has health, economic and environmental consequences.
The most visible consequences are of course the change in temperatures and extreme weather events. In
its Third National Climate Assessment Report the U.S. Global Change Research Program detailed the
already occurring and predicted affects on each region of the country:










“Northeast: Communities are affected by heat waves, more extreme precipitation events, and
coastal flooding due to sea level rise and storm surge.
Southeast and Caribbean: Decreased water availability, exacerbated by population growth and
land-use change, causes increased competition for water. There are increased risks associated
with extreme events such as hurricanes.
Midwest: Longer growing seasons and rising carbon dioxide levels increase yields of some
crops, although these benefits have already been offset in some instances by occurrence of
extreme events such as heat waves, droughts, and floods.
Great Plains: Rising temperatures lead to increased demand for water and energy and impacts on
agricultural practices.
Southwest: Drought and increased warming foster wildfires and increased competition for scarce
water resources for people and ecosystems.
Northwest: Changes in the timing of streamflow related to earlier snowmelt reduce the supply of
water in summer, causing far-reaching ecological and socioeconomic consequences.
Alaska: Rapidly receding summer sea ice, shrinking glaciers, and thawing permafrost cause
damage to infrastructure and major changes to ecosystems. Impacts to Alaska Native
communities increase.
Hawaii and Pacific Islands: Increasingly constrained freshwater supplies, coupled with
increased temperatures, stress both people and ecosystems and decrease food and water security.
Coasts: Coastal lifelines, such as water supply infrastructure and evacuation routes, are
increasingly vulnerable to higher sea levels and storm surges, inland flooding and other climaterelated changes.
Oceans: The oceans are currently absorbing about a quarter of human-caused carbon dioxide
emissions to the atmosphere and over 90% of the heat associated with global warming, leading to
ocean acidification and the alteration of marine ecosystems.”
(2014)
According to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, severe weather events with $1 billion in
damages have increased from a national average of two a year in the 1980s to an average of ten a year.
2011 saw an unprecedented amount as the U.S. sustained 16 of these severe weather events (2014).
3
Additionally, they hurt America’s ‘main street’ economy – 30 percent of small businesses don’t reopen
after a “Presidentially-declared disaster or emergency.” (Sligh Jr., 2011)
Besides the obvious displays of climate change, fossil fuel use also harms Americans in more hidden
ways. The American Lung Association’s 2011 State of the Air Report found that burning fossil fuels and
increases in ppm contribute to four of the five leading causes of death in the U.S. This includes lung
disease, heart disease, stroke and cancer. Not to mention, it increasingly puts children at risk of asthma
and irregular mental development. 13,000 American deaths are annually caused by coal plants alone
(Clean Air Task Force, 2010).
These affects aren’t only physically costly to U.S. citizens, they inadvertently take a toll on our economy
by contributing to unsustainable health care cost increases. The National Research Council estimated
that in 2005 $120 billion dollars in health damages were caused to Americans by “air pollution
associated with electricity generation and motor vehicle transportation.” (2009) In addition, the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that air pollution had a health
impact (both deaths and illness) of $1.7 trillion in the 34 OECD countries in 2010 (2014).
We need energy, there’s no refuting that. What we don’t need is to continue down the path we’re on.
The debate around rising CO2 levels, which NASA states is “proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented
in the past 1,300 years,” shouldn’t be about whether or not it’s induced by humans (2014). The debate
should be about how we’re going to fix it. We have a chance to make a difference and a responsibility.
We are the second highest emitter of CO2 (Cappiello, 2014).
Now is the time to act as the world works to reach a global climate agreement at the 2015 United
Nations Climate Change Conference this December. Americans want action – 91 percent of Democrats,
78 percent of independents and 51 percent of Republicans support government climate action (Connelly
& Davenport, 2015).
I appreciate your time and attention on this serious issue. I look forward to speaking with you more in
depth and hope to work with you to find a feasible solution.
4
References
American Lung Association. (2011). State of the Air 2011. Retrieved from
http://www.lung.org/assets/documents/publications/state-of-the-air/state-of-the-air-2011report.pdf.
Cappiello, D. (2014, December 5). These 6 Countries Are Responsible For 60% Of CO2 Emissions.
Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-countries-are-responsible-for-60-of-co2emissions-2014-12.
Clean Air Task Force. (2010, September). The Toll from Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and
Disease from America's Dirtiest Energy Source. Retrieved from
http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/files/The_Toll_from_Coal.pdf.
Connelly, M., & Davenport, C. (2015, January 30). Most Republicans Say They Back Climate Action,
Poll Finds. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/us/politics/most-americanssupport-government-action-on-climate-change-pollfinds.html?emc=edit_na_20150130&nlid=58004960&_r=0.
Fleming, J. (1998). John Tyndall, Svante Arrhenius, and Early Research on Carbon Dioxide and
Climate. In Historical perspectives on climate change (p. 69-70). New York: Oxford University
Press.
Japan Meteorological Agency. Global Average Surface Temperature Anomalies. (2015, February 2).
Retrieved from http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/gwp/temp/ann_wld.html.
Monroe, R. (2013, May 20). Keeling Curve History: Now What? Retrieved from
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/2013/05/20/now-what/.
NASA. (2014). Global Climate Change: Evidence. Retrieved from http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.
NASA Earth Observatory. Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927). (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Arrhenius/arrhenius_2.php.
NASA, NOAA. (2015, January 16). NASA, NOAA Find 2014 Warmest Year in Modern Record.
Retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-year-inmodern-record/#.VOJAcbDF9K4.
The National Research Council. (2009, October 19). Report Examines Hidden Health And
Environmental Costs Of Energy Production And Consumption In U.S. Retrieved from
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?recordid=12794.
NOAA National Climatic Data Center. (2014, December 1). Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate
Disasters: Table of Events. Retrieved from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/events.
5
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2014, May 21). The Cost of Air Pollution Health Impacts of Road Transport. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/environment/the-cost-ofair-pollution-9789264210448-en.htm.
Sligh Jr., A. (2011, September 29). Disaster Recovery: Evaluating the Role of America's Small Business
in Rebuilding Their Communities. Testimony of Associate Administrator Albert Sligh, Jr.,
Federal Emergency Management Agency, before the Senate Committee on Small Business and
Entrepreneurship. Address conducted from Russell Senate Office Building.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Causes of Climate Change. (2014, March 18). Retrieved from
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/causes.html.
U.S. Global Change Research Program. (2014, October). The National Climate Assessment: Climate
Change Impacts in the United States. Retrieved from
http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/highlights/overview/overview#graphic-20886.