A resolution recognizing that climate change is not a hoax, but sound science.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 550 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 550

   Recognizing that climate change is not a hoax, but sound science.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 17, 2025

 Mr. Whitehouse (for himself, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Schatz, 
Mr. Markey, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Smith, Mr. Padilla, Mr. 
  Welch, and Ms. Blunt Rochester) submitted the following resolution; 
  which was referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

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                               RESOLUTION


 
   Recognizing that climate change is not a hoax, but sound science.

Whereas, 129 years ago, in 1896, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius concluded 
        that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities contribute to a 
        global ``greenhouse effect'' driving global warming;
Whereas, in 1959, at a celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the fossil-
        fuel industry, physicist Edward Teller warned attending representatives 
        of major oil companies that greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil 
        fuels cause a greenhouse gas effect and that increased use of fossil 
        fuels would cause global warming and severe sea level rise;
Whereas, in 1968, Stanford researchers produced a report for the American 
        Petroleum Institute, finding that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were 
        rising, that no explanation for this rise ``seem[ed] to fit the 
        presently observed situation as well as the fossil fuel emanation 
        theory'', and that ``potential damage to our environment'' from this 
        rise ``could be severe'';
Whereas, from 1970 through 2003, Exxon scientists produced a series of reports 
        and projections on greenhouse gas-driven climate change, predicting 
        warming of 0.20 degrees Celsius per decade, which according to recent 
        analysis by Harvard researchers, reflected ``shocking skill and 
        accuracy'';
Whereas, in 1988, a Shell working group produced a confidential report entitled 
        ``The Greenhouse Effect'', which quantified Shell's own contribution to 
        global carbon dioxide emissions, predicted that global carbon dioxide 
        levels could double by 2030, and described a series of climate change 
        impacts, including rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and forced 
        migration;
Whereas 99.99 percent of peer-reviewed scientific papers agree that climate 
        change is happening and that human activity, and specifically the 
        burning of fossil fuels, is the main cause of climate change;
Whereas, as reported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
        (NASA), data from ice cores, rocks, tree rings, and satellites and other 
        instruments ``all show the signs of a changing climate'';
Whereas, as of August 5, 2025, NASA maintains that ``there is unequivocal 
        evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate'' and that 
        ``[h]uman activity is the principal cause'' of this warming;
Whereas, in its Sixth Climate Assessment in 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on 
        Climate Change found that the ``evidence is unequivocal: climate change 
        is a grave and mounting threat to human wellbeing and the health of the 
        planet;
Whereas the most comprehensive source of data on climate impacts in the United 
        States can be found in the National Climate Assessments mandated by 
        Congress under the Global Change Research Act of 1990 (15 U.S.C. 2921 et 
        seq.) and coordinated under the United States Global Change Research 
        Program (established under section 103 of the Global Change Research Act 
        of 1990 (15 U.S.C. 2933)), comprising 15 Federal agencies and subject to 
        ``multiple rounds of expert and governmental review, including 
        evaluation by Federal agencies, external experts, the public, and a 
        National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine review 
        committee'' and published in 2000, 2009, 2014, 2017, 2018, and 2023;
Whereas a sixth National Climate Assessment was planned for 2028, but in 2025 
        the administration of President Donald Trump fired all the scientists 
        and researchers working on the project, pulled the most recent National 
        Climate Assessment offline, and shut down the United States Global 
        Change Research Program website; and
Whereas greenhouse-gas driven climate change is driving extreme weather, sea-
        level rise, heat waves, catastrophic wildfires, and other disasters, 
        which in turn are beginning to disrupt insurance, mortgage, and real 
        estate markets: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) climate change caused by fossil fuel combustion is not 
        a hoax;
            (2) the reality of human-caused greenhouse gas-driven 
        climate change is sound science; and
            (3) Congress should protect legislatively mandated climate 
        research programs.
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