New Jersey is now six days into the
Atlantic hurricane season nearly seven
years after sandy delivered it's tough
lesson on the impact of climate change
tonight coinciding with an encore
presentation of the national PBS series
sinking cities we launched the four-part
series we've been working on since last
winter on how the state of New Jersey
its top scientists engineers urban
planners and its citizens are addressing
the peril and promise of climate change
starting with the worst case scenario if
we do nothing climate change is real
it's here it's caused by humans that's
the conclusion of no less than three
major scientific reports in as many
months the warned the world is failing
to make sufficient progress to avoid the
worst effects of climate change they
predict if humans keep pumping carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere here's just
a fraction of what could happen here's
what sees four feet higher would swallow
six feet nine feet the level sandy
reached would submerge Port Newark the
airport much of Jersey City and set off
a cascade that could wash out homes and
businesses impede power lines and cut
off the supply lines for goods coming
into the harbor dr. Robert cop is
director of the Rutgers Institute of
Earth ocean and atmospheric sciences and
lead author of volume one of the fourth
national climate assessment the basis
for the newly released climate report
that warns of potential devastation to
our coasts economy and health that ten
feet nearly would be a doomsday scenario
and it's hard to get to right it
requires that we have unchecked fossil
fuel emissions growth globally and that
were unlucky in Antartica devastation
increases with each ton of carbon
dioxide we pump into the atmosphere to
stabilize the climate we ultimately need
to get our emissions down to zero and
taking active measures to deal with the
impacts impacts that appear irreversible
in the short term say 20 years because
several greenhouse gases especially
carbon dioxide can stay in the
atmosphere for decades
it's causing rising temperatures rising
seas and intensifying storms the report
shows warmer air temperatures shortened
seasons and increased rainfall already
hurting forestry and farming threatening
the food supply winters in New Jersey
are warming faster than summer smacked
about three times assessed according to
the National Climate Assessment and what
that means is that we're seeing earlier
Springs but winter is still winter it
still gets cold in the winter and we'll
even with global warming that means we
have more frequently early buds followed
by cold snaps and that can be quite
damaging into fruit crops warmer seas
are already hurting fisheries down the
shore and more extreme storms as surges
are eroding beaches and putting added
stress on aging critical infrastructure
in cities and all of it is threatening
the health and well-being of New Jersey
residents heat waves are bad for human
else you have more cardiovascular
disease you have more heat stress and we
see more hospitalizations and more
deaths during these we also have more
memory allergies when we have a longer
blooming season we have in a moister
spring and summer which are also getting
we're also seeing a wider spread of
vector-borne diseases and particularly
things like ticks right Lyme disease
scientists described the quickening rate
of carbon dioxide emissions in stark
terms comparing it to a speeding freight
train to stabilize a climate we need to
get not just New Jersey emissions not
just US emissions but global emissions
to Net Zero which is one of the goals of
the Paris climate Accord three years ago
nearly 200 nations hammered at the Paris
agreement with a goal of holding global
warming below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit
over 18th century pre-industrial levels
the earth has already warmed 1.8 degrees
Fahrenheit at the start of the 21st
century we're already halfway there
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