Cory Booker: ‘We Have 12 Years’ to Address Climate Change Issues

Wednesday at the “She the People” presidential forum held in Houston, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) claimed America has only twelve years to address climate change and environmental issues.

“I have come from a black and brown community. I’ve spent more years as a mayor of Newark, New Jersey than I have in the United States Senate. And when it comes to environmental issues, climate change, we have 12 years,” Booker stated.

Booker also stated children are having an easier time finding unleaded gasoline than unleaded water.

“The reality is, if you live in a community like mine, the environmental urgencies, the life or death issues are happening right now,” Booker claimed. “So whether it’s toxic water where we have a nation where children — millions of our children find it easier to find unleaded gasoline than unleaded water.”

He added, “Whether it’s asthma rates in communities like mine that are multiple times higher than suburbs of wealthy communities. Or even if it’s just knowing that in communities like ours, even planting in your soil the EPA prevented us from doing.”

Booker concluded his argument on climate change by referring to the issue as a “battle for environmental justice.”

“So we have an urgency right now to deal with these issues. It’s not something that I focused on just as a presidential candidate. We’ve been fighting these battles for environmental justice since I was a mayor.”

Booker is not the first person that has said America has “12 years” to address climate change. In January, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) claimed the world will end in a dozen years if climate change goes unchecked.

“The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change,” the 29-year-old New York Democrat stated.