"♪" "Shane Smith:" "This week on "Vice,"" "our oceans are rising." "These changes are staggering." "We're talking about 15 feet of big-time sea level rise." "Smith:" "So you're talking about a global migration." "Man:" "You can't stop it." "This is it." "Reality has a way of intruding." "This is gonna change rapidly." "(helicopter blades thwacking)" "(shouting)" "(theme music plays)" "Antarctica's melting." "And if this melts, humanity is in deep trouble." "All the houses just piled on top of each other, thrown in the middle of a lake, and that's what we have here." "(train horn blares)" "♪" "Holy jumpin', it's cold!" "I can't imagine how cold it is when the sun goes down." "So we're here in Antarctica, about 400 or 500 miles from the South Pole." "As you can see, there's a lot of ice." "In fact, Antarctica holds about 90% of the world's ice, about 70% of the world's fresh water." "The problem is that scientists have now started to realize that Antarctica's melting." "And if this melts, humanity is in deep trouble." "♪" "Smith:" "Last season, we went to Greenland to witness the incredible amount of ice that is melting into the ocean." "There it goes!" "There it goes!" "There it goes!" "Holy fuck!" "Whoa!" "Jason Box:" "An apartment building just fell over." "Smith:" "We not only discovered that Greenland's net ice loss could raise sea levels significantly, but also that the melt rate is actually 60 years ahead of previously held worst-case scenarios, and it's speeding up." "And even more worrisome is that at the end of our story," "NASA climatologist Dr. Gavin Schmidt warned that Antarctica was beginning to experience massive ice loss similar to the rates seen in Greenland." "So it could well be that Antarctica will start to melt at the same rate as Greenland is." "If Antarctica starts melting at the same rate as Greenland," " we're in for trouble." " Indeed." "Smith:" "Antarctica's ice loss really caught the world's attention in 2013, when an iceberg nearly the size of Singapore broke off from the Pine Island glacier in the western region of the continent." "And although this event surprised everyone, the real news came in the spring of 2014, when a glaciologist and his team released a groundbreaking report with evidence that this whole entire section of the West Antarctic ice sheet is actually melting away." "And even if this small fraction of the ice sheet in Antarctica melts, the resulting sea level rise will completely remap the world as we know it." "Now, since the global scientific community is now ringing the same alarm bells for Antarctica that they were ringing about Greenland, and since the consequences are exponentially worse, we wanted to see exactly what is being done about it." "Now, most of the countries realize the sheer magnitude of this problem, and as it worsens it becomes a political hot button, globally." "So the United Nations called for the largest political summit on climate change in history to see what, if anything, can be done to reverse our current course on global warming." "The alarm bells keep ringing." "(crowd cheering)" "Our citizens keep marching." "(chanting)" "We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it." "Smith:" "And while the world's leaders met to discuss their next move, people from all over the world took to the streets in protest to show their frustration and demand action, not words." " We have to lead." " (applause)" "So we're here at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City for the UN Climate Summit." "And what the general consensus is, is not only environmentally but politically, global warming is one of the biggest problems facing humanity today." "So our question is why, here at home, then, is climate change still a debate?" "Fully one quarter of the American population doesn't believe it's happening, and those who do, don't believe that it's man-made, which goes against scientific consensus and political consensus globally." "In an effort to better understand why this is still a debate in our country, even in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, we attended a very different type of environmental conference." "♪" "Man:" "This is how we win the debate." "We have these folks, these eggheads that sit there that think they never have to defend themselves, but we in the skeptical community, we have to." "And that's where the science is being refined, is being proven, and that's where we're winning." "(applause)" "So we're here at the ninth International Conference on Climate Change." "These are the climate change deniers." "And if you see some of the sponsors here, the Ayn Rand Institute, the International Climate Coalition, are right next to the Illinois Coal Association." "Man:" "The real question is how do we bring centrists and the left over to climate realism." "Smith:" "Now this particular conference happened to be organized by The Heartland Institute, whose donors over the years have included such odd bedfellows to an environmental organization as one of the largest oil companies in the world, Exxon Mobile," "and the Charles Koch Foundation." "Heartland president Joe Bast is no stranger to controversy." "His foundation spent much of the '90s refuting the dangers of smoking for tobacco companies." "And now, those same tactics are being employed to refute the science of climate change." "(applause)" "So what do you do here at the Conference for Climate Change?" "Our focus is questioning the claim that there's a consensus that climate is both man-made and dangerous." "We don't see the data that backs up the public claims that global warming is a crisis." "So there's an agreement that global warming is happening, just not that it's a crisis?" "Yeah, there can be an impact on, uh, climate by the human presence, but it's probably very small." "So the stance of many people in this conference, or from your foundation, is let's wait and see, because we don't know the science." "I would..." "I would say that's correct." "Yeah." "Smith:" "Now, since these types of groups can no longer credibly deny that climate change is actually happening, they are meeting here to refine their message." "So I think this is a perfect example of the talking points on global warming:" "it's not man-made, it's a natural variation, warmer is better, human impact is small, and there's no consensus." "Which is exactly what they keep telling us." "It's like, uh, a script." "Everybody's saying the exact same thing." "Man:" "Observations are contingent, okay?" "They're probable." "They are certainly not knowledge." "They're not universal, necessary, and certain." "Man 2:" "Environmental groups, they have lots of money in which to get their message across." "And, of course, their message is basically selling fear." "Man 3:" "They talk about big oil." "That's nothing compared to big green." "Smith:" "Now, it's conferences like these where the script to deny climate change is actually written." "And once that script is written and agreed upon, it's political pundits like Marc Morano that have time-tested and effective methods of staying on message and getting this script out to the rest of the country." "There are quite literally hundreds of factors that influence global temperature..." "There's quite literally hundreds of factors that influence global temperature..." "Quite literally hundreds of factors that influence global temperature..." "The idea that CO2 is the tail that wags the dogs is not supportable." "Smith:" "And true to form, at this conference, he stuck word for word to the script." "Quite simply, there are literally hundreds of factors that influence our climate." "CO2 is not the tail that wags the dog, it is not the climate control knob." "We envision rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, freakish storms, hellish wildfires, rising sea levels, food riots, mass starvation, conflicts of every sort, up to and including full-scale war, and will force millions of people to abandon their traditional lands" "and flee to the squalor of shanty towns." " That, in a nutshell..." " (applause) is how wacky the global warming debate goes." "What I do as a blogger is then send out to radio producers, radio hosts, everyone from Mark Levin to Rush Limbaugh on down." "Suddenly, it's on the Drudge Report." "Suddenly, FOX News is reporting it." "Suddenly, Sean Hannity's talking about it." "Suddenly, it's in The Washington Times or Washington Examiner." "Suddenly, it's in papers all across the country." "Then it goes on Capitol Hill as well." "So then you've got Capitol Hill staffers get it, speechwriters for senators and congressmen." "Smith:" "Now, in response to the latest scientific consensus, the new script that has been written to keep this debate going centers around Antarctica." "Newscaster:" "We got a new report and it's from NASA, and it says Antarctic ice, it's melting, and that melting process seems to be irreversible." "Hm." "Now, you say NASA's wrong, but you're not a scientist, are you?" "You don't... you're not going to make any claims like that." "Morano:" "The interesting thing is the Southern Hemisphere," "Antarctica as a whole, sea ice is well above average, breaking all sorts of records." "Antarctic sea ice, which has hit the record all time ever recorded since satellite monitoring began..." "Global sea ice is at record ice extent since satellite monitoring began in 1979, so take a step back and look at the big picture." "Smith:" "So that's exactly what we did." "In order to see if their latest talking point is true, we took a step back to get the bigger picture of what exactly is happening in Antarctica." "So we headed down to the bottom of South America to meet up with the renowned glaciologist Dr. Eric Rignot." "Dr. Rignot is the lead author of the groundbreaking scientific paper which has concluded that sections of the West Antarctic ice sheet are actually experiencing rapid melt." "We caught up with him while he was observing glacial movements in Patagonia." "We're here with Dr. Eric Rignot, and, uh, maybe you could tell us exactly where we are." "Smith:" "And so what's happening to this glacier?" "Right." " (rumbling)" " Okay..." "It just calved right there." "And so is this kind of a precursor of what's happening in Antarctica itself?" "Smith:" "Now, when Dr. Rignot refers to Pine Island and Thwaites, he's referring to glaciers that form part of the western border of the West Antarctic ice sheet." "And the reason he's so concerned about the melting is that, together, these two glaciers are nearly the size of Germany." "♪" "Now, what's mind-blowing about Antarctica is just the sheer scale of it." "It's gigantic." "In fact, it's one and a half times the landmass of the entire continental United States." "Now, because these ice sheets are so massive, one of the best ways to study the changes that they are undergoing is from the air." "So Dr. Rignot invited us to the NASA flight station in Chile, where they conduct the largest airborne polar ice survey in the world." "So we're here in Punta Arenas, which is otherwise known as Tierra del Fuego," ""El Fin del Mundo," "The End of the World."" "And right here there's the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, which measures the ice, which we're gonna be going on a 12-hour flight going out over Antarctica, and we've just got clearance to fly." "So we're gonna go see what's happening to the ice in Antarctica." "This is Operation IceBridge, a refitted DC-8 aircraft that functions as a flying scientific laboratory that tracks changes to Antarctica's ice." "Dr. Michael Studinger, the project scientist, showed me some of the key technologies outfitted on the plane." "This is an instrument that's called the Airborne Topographic Mapper, and it's a laser altimeter." "This is actually a incredibly awesome instrument to determine if the ice surface has changed just by five centimeters or not." " And is it changing?" " It is changing rapidly." "We see it changing several meters per year over areas like Pine Island Glacier." " That's a lot of ice." " A lot of ice." "Smith:" "So today, we're going to fly out over Antarctica, we're going to use the lasers and all the other instruments to just get data." "Every day you're going up" " and getting data." " Yeah." "♪" "Man:" "All right, guys, if you could listen up." "Looks like we've got a good mission for today and we can go through the manifest." " Fuller." " Man:" "Here." " Cochran." " Here." " Rignot." " Yes." " Tinto." " Woman:" "Here." " Shane Smith." " Here." "There will be some winds on the route, which is probably going to cause there to be some turbulence." "You know, we're going to play the big boy program, where if it's feelin' bumpy, make sure you're restraining yourself." "Also, uh, we do have survival gear aboard the aircraft." "Hopefully, we won't need to break it out." "(man over PA):" "System test okay." "(man over radio):" "Cleared for takeoff, NASA 817." "Lights are all on." "Lights are all on." "Okay, clear for takeoff." "Here we go." "We're okay to speed." "Studinger:" "So we have 10 different science instruments on this aircraft designed to measure changes in Antarctica." "This is the mission director console." "So the two mission directors are linked between the cockpit and the scientists in the back." "So they control all the power." "They communicate with the pilots in the cockpit." "Smith:" "This is running all the different stuff?" "Studinger:" "Exactly, yeah." "So we left Southern Chile, Tierra del Fuego." "I touched it." "Sorry." "And then we're going down over Antarctica, here," " to measure the ice and snow." " Yeah." "That's right." "Weather permitting, we fly very low at 1,500 feet above the surface." "So we need clear conditions, both for the optical instruments and also for aircraft safety." "Smith:" "Through the command center, they're able to coordinate the pilot's speed and altitude, along with the flight path to the instruments collecting the data from below." "Like this one-of-a-kind radar that can actually see under the ice." "Studinger:" "So this is a ice-penetrating radar system." "Smith:" "Wow." "And that is very important, because different shapes and different depths determine what the melting rates are." "This the most sophisticated instrument worldwide." "This is the most state-of-the-art machine in the world to actually see what's happening under the ice." "Now, to record all this data as accurately as possible, the plane flies a fixed set of precise computer-controlled flight paths." "And today, we're flying the Pine Island survey." "And when we lowered down to 1,500 feet, which is quite low... ♪ you get a good sense of the vastness of Antarctica and just how much water is captured in the ice here." "♪" "Now over Antarctica proper, I headed down into the belly of the plane, where the bottom-mounted instruments measure the ice below." "So where are we right now?" "We're in the forward cargo pit of the DC-8." "Smith:" "And we're not gonna fall out?" "Uh, no." "I'm very confident we will not fall out." "Okay, good." "I weigh a lot more than you do, though." "So I'm not as confident." " It's pretty thick Plexiglas, so..." " Okay." "How many shots are you doing as we fly?" "Each system has a laser that fires 3,000 laser shots per second." "3,000 laser shots per second." "So it's pretty accurate." "Uh, it's extremely accurate, specifically for ice mapping." "Wow." "Do you know why we're mapping ice?" "Yeah." "We're looking for changes, um, year to year." "We have lines that we have flown since 1992, basically, and that gives us a very long time series of how that ice is changing throughout those decades." " And how is it changing?" " Uh, it's retreating quite rapidly." "It's losing a lot of surface elevation as well." "♪" "Smith:" "Now, as the radar we saw earlier penetrates the ice and finds the bedrock bottom, the lasers accurately bounce off the surface of the ice." "And the difference in readings that these two instruments give off is the actual thickness of the ice covering the ground." "Now this exact ice thickness turns out to be one of the most important measurements in Dr. Rignot's 20-year study." "And what he's found is disturbing." "We have the top machines in the world here." "We just went through the whole thing." "There's so much data coming in here, flying daily flights." "What's happening in Antarctica as a whole?" "So the winds are pushing more warm water underneath the ice shelf." "You have the ice flowing faster into the sea, which melts it faster, which leads to sea level rise." "Smith:" "Now, because so many of the glaciers in West Antarctica are exposed to these warm ocean waters, the ice sheets are starting to disconnect from the continent itself." "♪" "And the primary way Dr. Rignot was able to determine this is by tracking the unseen movement of what is known as the grounding line." "Smith:" "Look, you can see here that the ice is fracturing." "And what's that caused by?" "Smith:" "These are huge." "And they don't necessarily, like, calve, like, fall off, they just sort of break off and keep going." "Smith:" "That's crazy." "What happens is the warm water melts the underside of the glacier, eating away and unseating the ice right where it meets the land." "As the grounding line moves further back inland, the amount of unsupported ice shelf grows, until it literally cracks off into the ocean." "And as waters around the globe are getting hotter because of climate change, things are getting worse." "In fact, in the past decade alone, glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector have nearly tripled their melt rates." "Every year, a kilometer it's moving back." "Wow." "Smith:" "Now, it was at this point I began to wonder, if it's so clear that the ice is melting in Antarctica, why does the new climate denier script focus on Antarctica actually having more ice?" "What do you say to the people who point to Antarctica and say," ""Actually, there's more ice in Antarctica than ever before?"" "Smith:" "Right." "Smith:" "Right, right." "Yeah." "Smith:" "So, as it turns out, the same intensified westerly winds contributing to the melt of glaciers in the west of the continent are likely blowing and increasing the surface ice in Eastern Antarctica." "However, since it's seasonal, it's just the same water freezing and then melting again, just like a lake in wintertime, and therefore, has no impact on sea level rise." "It overflows." "A meter thick." "Smith:" "The land ice is kilometers thick." "Okay." "How do we stop Antarctica from melting, or at least the West Antarctica ice shelf?" "So stopping emissions isn't even enough because we're going too fast?" "How much sea level rise is contained in the ice?" "One meter would be, uh, a global, catastrophic event, but three meters would be..." "would remap the world as we know it." "This is a "holy shit" moment." "Smith:" "It's worse than "holy shit"?" "So we're here on Operation IceBridge flying over the Antarctic Peninsula, as another Vice crew takes a boat to the Antarctic Peninsula to see exactly what's happening on the ground." "Smith:" "Now, as Dr. Rignot has just explained, one of the key factors affecting melt in Antarctica are the rapidly warming ocean." "So we sent Vikram Gandhi to the Antarctic Peninsula to see exactly what impact this warming trend is having." "It took our crew nearly four days of an extremely rough and difficult sail to reach their destination." "♪" "We've just reached the Antarctic Peninsula." "You can see ice, glaciers, mountains." "The only thing alive really is a few penguins jumping up in the distance." "Everything else is just water, and ice, and rock." "It's just, uh, overwhelming." "Smith:" "Atmospheric temperatures on the Peninsula have risen nearly three degrees Celsius since the 1950s, according to a 2005 study by the British Antarctic Survey, making this region one of the fastest warming places on the planet." "And it's not just scientists that have noticed the environmental changes." "Before we even landed, the captain of our ship described in his words how much the area has changed." "Gandhi:" "How many times have you come down to Antarctica?" "I've been over 50 times." "I've led expeditions down here." "Gandhi:" "So how have you seen this Peninsula change since you started coming here?" "When I started doing this, it was unheard of to do a trip in November." "Traditionally, where we are right now, we shouldn't be sailing a boat." "We should be walking on solid ice right now." "We'll look at some of these glaciers around us, and we'll see bands of rock underneath the face of the glacier." "Ten years ago, it was very rare to see that." "Now the warmer water is actually eroding them back to rock." "So these glaciers are now standing back on land." "And then when we started measuring off old charts, we're all of a sudden parking in places where on a chart is a glacier." "That's when it really starts to hit home that these changes are big." "We're on our way right now to hang out with some scientists at Palmer Station." "Palmer Station is a National Science Foundation's research facility on the Antarctic Peninsula." "Smith:" "Palmer Station houses scientists from all over the world, researching everything from biology to glaciology." "And for much of the last decade, they have employed new and innovative technology to collect all sorts of data from the ocean." "♪" "So what are we about to do right now?" "This is going to be the first glider deployment for Palmer this year." "Gandhi:" "So this is kind of like an underwater drone used for science." " Farry:" "Exactly." " We have turned her on for the first dive." "So who's actually controlling this drone?" "There's a glider control center at Rutgers in New Jersey." "Locally, you just kind of call them on the sat phone, tell them you're ready, and once they have contact they're controlling it from New Jersey." " It's pretty incredible technology." " Yeah." "Smith:" "This is the ocean observational center in Rutgers University, who they are contacting in real time." "I, uh, plotted up your guys' location." "I'm gonna run the mission." " We can put her in?" " You're good to throw it in where you are." "Sounds good, we'll talk to you soon." " Man:" "Ready?" " Woman:" "Ready." "Basically, a glider is a buoyancy-driven profiling autonomous underwater vehicle, or robot." "Smith:" "While the glider collects ocean temperature data, oceanographer Travis Miles analyzes the results to monitor how hot the ocean is becoming." "Miles:" "We put 'em in the water and they'll profile up and down through the water column collecting temperature, salinity, all sorts of different properties." "In Antarctica, every year, we have anywhere between three and five gliders down at Palmer Station." "We really view Palmer Station as looking into the future on the northern part of the West Antarctic Peninsula." "Smith:" "And so we asked him exactly what that future is." "Miles:" "Less ice shelves, there's more melting." "That same process is going on in places like Pine Island Glacier and the Thwaites Glacier." "Smith:" "In an effort to coalesce what we had learned on the NASA IceBridge and at Palmer Station, we met with Dr. Andrew Clarke, who, after 40 years of research and over 215 scholarly papers, is one of the preeminent experts on what's ultimately happening in Antarctica." "Why should somebody in the U.S., why should somebody in Europe, someone in Asia, care about what's happening in this tiny corner of the world?" "I think one of the important things about visiting this area and seeing what's happening here is that back home, for me in the UK, and for many people, say, in the U.S., at the moment, climate change isn't obvious to them." "Here, you can come down and see the whole environment around you changing almost in front of your eyes." "There are long-term temperature records from many stations here, and they show, unequivocally, that the atmosphere is warming." "We have long-term data from the sea that show, unequivocally, that the sea is warming." "We have long-term data on the ice which show, unequivocally, that the behavior of the ice is changing." "It's absolutely irrefutable that the area of the West Antarctic Peninsula has a climate that is changing." "I'm not aware of anything that can stop it happening now." "We can slow the pace of damage." "Maybe... maybe in the very, very long term, but for generations to come, there's no red button." "It's gonna continue." "So who are the first people who are going to get affected by things like this?" "Everybody will be affected, but particularly affected will be those countries that are predominately low-lying and predominately by the sea." "Countries like Bangladesh are going to be countries which will really suffer." "They're mainly low-lying, and when the sea rises, there is no defense against it." "There will be less of Bangladesh in the future than there is now." "Smith:" "In fact, current polar ice melts around the world are already contributing to sea level rise, and to see what these climbing water tables have in store for the rest of the world, we have no further to look than Bangladesh." "So Vikram went to Bangladesh's most affected coastal regions to see the impact of sea level rise on the people firsthand." "♪" "Many of the residents in this village of 3,000 people have had to move their homes further and further back, fleeing the rising water." "But, as we learned from Ashek E Elahi, who runs an NGO providing relief for people affected by the flooding, this hasn't done anything to solve the problem." "Can you just show me where this village used to be?" "Elahi:" "This area." "Gandhi:" "How far out?" "Gandhi:" "This used to be 300 yards further in, and now they have to live in this area on top of this embankment." "So now people can't farm here?" "(thunder rumbles)" "(thunder crashes)" "Storm just came in and it's coming down really hard." "Smith:" "Now, to understand exactly what's happening here, we sat down with Dr. Atiq Rahman, a prominent environmentalist, and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change." "Smith:" "But as earth literally disappears beneath their feet, the villagers find themselves in a futile fight to keep the oceans at bay." "Gandhi:" "In the last year, it already receded like 20-30 feet." "This whole thing is only about a hundred feet wide." "Smith:" "Now, this cycle of stronger storm surges from sea level rise, combined with the stronger storm systems, has destroyed more than 25,000 homes in this area since 2009, leaving many people homeless." "Now, faced with no other options, these displaced people are forced further inland to the already overcrowded cities." "The capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, already one of the most densely populated cities in the world, is now struggling to accommodate the more than half million residents it's gaining every year." "(train horn blares)" "Gandhi:" "Imagine those villages in the south, all the houses just piled on top of each other, thrown in the middle of a lake inside of Dhaka, and that's what we have here." "Smith:" "With no experience living in an urban environment, many find it difficult to adapt." "Gandhi:" "So when you came here as a farmer, were you able to work, did you have any skills?" "What are you going to do now?" "What's the future for you and your family?" "♪" "♪" "Smith:" "In this year's State of the Union Address," "President Obama acknowledged the seriousness of this crisis." "And no challenge..." "no challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change." "That's why I will not let this Congress endanger the health of our children by turning back the clock on our efforts." "I am determined to make sure that American leadership drives international action." "Smith:" "However, since the last midterm elections gave the Republicans majority of both the House and the Senate, the president will now face key politicians who have vowed to roll back his environmental agenda." "I don't agree with the notion that some are putting out there, including scientists, that somehow there are actions we can take today that would actually have an impact on what's happening in our climate." "The data are not supporting what the advocates are arguing." "In the last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming." "Calling CO2 a pollutant, uh, is doing a disservice to the country." "Smith:" "Now, to understand why the greatest issue facing humanity today has become so politicized in this country," "I sat down with Vice President Joe Biden in our offices here in Brooklyn." "First of all, Mr. Vice President, I'd like to thank you for coming today." " It means a lot to us." " It's a pleasure to be here." "Last year we did a piece on how Greenland is melting." "And then we went down to Antarctica, we just got back, it's melting." "And it's melting as fast as it possibly can." "We then went to Bangladesh to see what that sea-level rise looks like, and we have climate change refugees." "We have all kinds of problems." "And so we came back home, and the day I arrived back, it was announced that the Senate was going to debate if climate change was indeed real." "So, the problem is... is that we've gone so far now that Greenland will melt." "Antarctica will melt." "We can't walk the horse back into the barn." "It's just a question of how fast now." "Yet, in this country, we're still debating if it's happening." "Why?" "It's a problem of special interests." "A lot of it is, "I'm invested in this piece over here," ""and I'm not about to give it up, I don't care what's happening."" "So, for example, in the United States of America, us moving away from coal because it's such a polluter... there's a lot of people gonna get hurt." "Good people..." "worked their whole life." "It's a national responsibility, in our view, to help them make that transition." "We all have an obligation." "When fundamental alterations of generation of energy are up in play, there's winners and losers." "Let's say solar or renewable versus petro-chemical." "Yes." "Smith:" "But if you look at Texas, for example." "You have a three-year drought." "Worst drought in history." "Cows are dying." "A way of life is over, and Governor Perry is saying, "It doesn't exist."" "You have Rubio, whose state is sinking, saying, "It doesn't exist." Is it not a problem of leadership?" "And what are those special interests?" "Those specials interests are, in Texas, oil, and in Florida, um, how you run in the Republican Party to win a nomination." "(crowd cheering)" "You used to be a senator and you were very pro-environment." "What do you think about the changeover now... the recent changeover, and the Senate Commission for the Environment now has a senator who's saying that global warming is the biggest hoax that has been perpetrated." "The hoax is that there are people who are so arrogant that they think they have the power to change climate." "I think it's close to mindless." "I mean, I think it's like, you know, almost like denying gravity now." "I mean, wait a minute, come on." "It's..." "You know, the willing suspension of disbelief can only be sustained so long." "The expression my dad used to always use is, reality has a way of intruding." "It's intruding in a big way now, and people are beginning to fully understand what it means to them in particular." "Look what Superstorm Sandy did right here in New York." "All of a sudden, people who were saying, "It couldn't happen,"" "they're now knowing they have to plan for another one of these storms." "And another." "And another." "And another." "This is about three feet of water on my street," "Desbrosses, in New York City." "Biden:" "So it gets to the point where you can't look anyone in the eye seriously and say, "Well, it's nothing having to do with man-made."" "You have outfits like Goldman Sachs and others making investment decisions, pricing in the price of carbon." "When the financial institutions of America begin to price in the cost of carbon for cost of doing business, you know it's reality." "The business community and the financial community" " is saying, "Hey, man..." " "We'd better get on board."" ""You'd better get on board or we're not gonna be there."" "There's a perception that government is now galvanized into inactivity, that there's, you know..." "That it's so partisan it just doesn't work." "Maybe you could talk a little bit about gridlock and how that's affecting the country." "Today, on every major issue, there's a consensus in America." "From gay marriage all the way through to the minimum wage, there's overwhelming agreement by the public at large." "Right." "What's happened is, is that the way in which we fund our elections, the way in which the electoral process functions in choosing nominees, we have found ourselves in a position where those voices have been smothered out the majority." "It matters." "I mean, this really, really matters." "The public is ahead of their elected officials." "We've been in this wilderness now for about seven to eight years, in terms of not able to reach a consensus." "There's an old expression;" "the penalty good men pay for not being involved in politics is being governed by men worse than themselves." "It's true." "But it's changing." "Mark my words." "Within the next four to five years, you're gonna not have 10% of the American people denying that it exists." "This is gonna change rapidly." "Smith:" "After talking to the vice president," "I sincerely hoped that his words were true, and that it will in fact change rapidly." "Yeah." "Smith:" "Because if it doesn't, after talking to experts like Dr. Rignot," "I'm afraid." "I'm afraid that despite being faced with this massive problem, that we're not reacting fast enough." "In fact, in many cases we're not reacting at all." "It seems as if we are, in Vice President Biden's words," ""being led by men lesser than ourselves."" "And with stakes so high with sea level rise, nothing could be more important." "♪"