Sanders Plunges For Earth Day
For the third consecutive year, NYS Senator James Sanders Jr. and others stood in the Atlantic Ocean as a part of the “Tuvalu Challenge” on Saturday, April 20, to celebrate Earth Day and raise awareness about the effects of climate change on coastal communities like Rockaway.
Sanders began the tradition just months after Simon Kofe, a foreign minister from Tuvalu, recorded his 2021 speech for the United Nations while standing knee deep in the Pacific Ocean and calling attention to the dangers of rising sea levels. Since then, Sanders has echoed Kofe’s call to action by standing in the Atlantic Ocean each year.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2023 was “the world’s warmest year on record,” and the combined land and ocean temperature has increased at an average of 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1850. The main cause of this, according to the NOAA, is the excess burning of fossil fuels and subsequent emissions of greenhouse gasses.