CBS News: 25 Percent of Florida Would Be Flooded Along with Low-Lying Areas All Over the World Due to Climate Change

RATHER: “Concern about rising temperatures on Planet Earth heated up a hearing here in Washington today. For years, scientists have theorized about the dangers of the so-called greenhouse effect, the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere due to the burning of coal and oil. And in recent months, as David Culhane reports, research has uncovered facts to support that theory.”

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CULHANE (voice-over): “Many scientists claim that the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere has been rising over the past 100 years, that the great sheets of pack ice in Antarctica are melting at a much more rapid rate than previously, and finally, that the sea level has been rising with increasing swiftness over the past 40 years. If these scientists are correct, about 25 percent of Florida would be flooded, along with low-lying areas all over the world. Climate changes could produce widespread disruption of agriculture. The American farm belt might be too dry, and the wheat and corn crops would have to move to Canada. Scientists blame the odorless, colorless carbon dioxide gas for these potentially dangerous changes around the planet. It is the greenhouse effect. The gas allows sunlight to filter down and warm the earth. But like the glass of a greenhouse, the carbon dioxide tends to trap heat so that it cannot rise into space. The scientists maintain that the coal, oil and gas we’ve been burning for a hundred years have produced more and more carbon dioxide and helped overheat the earth. Now some political leaders endorse the demands for more CO2 monitoring stations, like this one in Hawaii, and they share the anger of the scientists at Reagan Administration budget cuts at a time when they feel closer to getting definitive answers.”

GORE: “We are not doing the kind of research that we should be doing to determine whether or not these scientists who are so alarmed are correct in their assessment.”

KAHANE: “And what they find out will affect the lives and fortunes of millions of people, the very survival of cities like this one. David Culhane, CBS News, New York.”
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