S.Res. 550

119 SRES 550 IS: Recognizing that climate change is not a hoax, but sound science.
 U.S. Senate
 2025-12-17
 text/xml
 EN
 Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
 III  119th CONGRESS  1st Session  S. RES. 550  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    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
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.