Cory Booker: “There are a number of issues here and the first is: Are temperatures going up? And for me, the air temperature is…”

“There are a number of issues here and the first is: Are temperatures going up? And for me, the air temperature is increasing. We have objective measurements on that. Ocean temperatures are increasing. We have objective measurements on that. The ocean is becoming more acidic. We have objective measurements of that. Sea levels are rising because of the expansion of warming oceans. Obviously, that is just basic, basic science we learned in our earlier years. The amount of land covered in snow is decreasing in the northern hemisphere. We have evidence of that. Glaciers are melting away. There is evidence of that. Arctic sea ice is decreasing. We have evidence of that. Again, we see in New Jersey evidence of measurements of these things happening. Scientists at Tufts and Rutgers estimate the New Jersey shore will experience a sea level rise of 1.5 feet by 2050. This is based upon what is happening right now that they can measure. The projections for the New Jersey coast are higher than projected for average sea levels that rise globally. The projected sea level rise of 1.5 feet by 2050 for the New Jersey coast in places such as Atlantic City, if there were a 10-year storm--not a 50-year storm or a 100-year storm, but just the scale of a storm that, on average, we see every 10 years--flood levels from that storm would be worse than any flooding that has ever been seen in Atlantic City, even worse than those from Superstorm Sandy.…”