'Wake up': Senate hearing considers threat of climate change on 'blue economy'
Kyle Schaefer is worried that his days as a fishing guide are numbered.
Kyle Schaefer is worried that his days as a fishing guide are numbered.
He was one of five witnesses who appeared before the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday to detail how climate change threatens the “blue economy,” a term that ecompasses the many ways that the world’s oceans contribute to the global economy.
“The climate trends pose a significant increase in risk and weaken my confidence in a prosperous future for my fishing businesses,” said Schaefer, an American who owns a small business in the Bahamas. “I may be forced to close my charter business within the next few seasons simply because there won’t be enough fish left.”
Climate scientists and economists have warned that climate change could do significant damage to the global economy in future decades — and that some of those changes are already happening now. A severe drought is hampering ships in the Mississippi River and global ocean temperatures reached record heights for nine straight months last year.
Sea level rise is somewhat counterintuitively also a risk, combining with more powerful storms to threaten crucial ports.
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