Democratic U.S. senators on climate change in their states: 'It's getting worse over time'

At the COP26 summit, Sens. Ben Cardin, Tom Carper, Martin Heinrich and Jeff Merkley share with Yahoo News some of the biggest climate change issues in their states.

Video transcript

DAVID KNOWLES: You're one of 18 senators who's here at COP26. I'm curious how climate change is-- you know, what threats are facing your home state, specifically, that you see?

BEN CARDIN: Today I talk about one of my favorite subjects, the Chesapeake Bay. It is iconic to Maryland. It's one of our economies, part of our way of life. It's under siege. It's under siege because of rising sea levels, and climate change, more severe weather conditions with runoff.

The biodiversity of the Chesapeake Bay is being challenged as a result of climate change. All that's impacting our future. So that's just one example, I could give you many, many more of how this is affecting the people of Maryland.

MARTIN HEINRICH: This is impacting everything that I sort of hold dear about my home. I'm just seeing it change in real time. I see forests burn, and then they come back. It's not the same forest. They come back as the next dryer forest, that would usually be at a lower elevation. It's dramatically impacting New Mexico.

JEFF MERKLEY: My home state is really impacted. We have a much longer, hotter fire season. The last Labor Day, a year ago, we had six towns burned to the ground, absolutely devastated, as if they've been firebombed. We have growing insect populations, pine beetles, that are destroying forests.

Loss of snowpack in the Cascades, which means on one end, the recreation economy. But on the other end, it's water for irrigation for our farmers, and water for our streams. Our streams are warmer and smaller, which affects our salmon and our trout.

And then ocean acidification is a big deal. It's already affecting our oysters. We have to artificially de-acidify the ocean water, in order for baby oysters to survive. So that's really a canary in the coal mine.

TOM CARPER: Delaware is the lowest lying state in America. We-- our state is sinking. The seas around us are rising. I tell people the highest point of land in Delaware is a bridge.

And whenever we have really heavy rains, it doesn't have to be a hurricane, doesn't have to be a tornado, we have heavy rains, we have flooding in Delaware. And it's getting worse over time and not better. I see it. I hear it.

I live not that far away. So for us, this is up close and personal. And we want to and need to do something about it.

The question is, can we address those concerns in my state and other states and create economic opportunity, not just in Delaware? Frankly, in a lot of other places, in Delaware, in America, yes, we can. It's possible to do well and do good at the same time. And we're determined to do.