The story originated from an article published by Flag & Cross on November 22, 2019, titled "Bernie At Dem Debate: The Planet Only Has '8 or 9 Years' Before Major Cities Go Underwater" (archived here) which opened:
How in the world is Bernie Sanders beloved by so many millions of Americans? How backward must a person be to support someone so criminally ridiculous? Apparently, very.
At the latest Democrat debate, which you didn't watch because seeing paint dry was literally more interesting, the 2020 Democrat Socialist presidential candidate said the planet has about eight or nine years left before major cities begin going underwater.
Like everyone else running for president opposite Donald Trump, Bernie has no clue about what he speaks. It's really that simple.
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Bernie At Dem Debate: The Planet Only Has '8 or 9 Years' Before Major Cities Go Underwater
And he's taken seriously by millions...
What the scientists are telling us is if we don't get our act together within the next eight or nine years, we're talking about cities all over the world, major cities going underwater, we're talking about increased drought, we're talking about increased extreme weather disturbances.
So, he said decisive action must be taken to reverse the trend of climate change in that timeframe; he did not issue an explicit warning that cities were about to go underwater before the next decade was up. Put simply, words were taken out of context by many outlets.
In fact, some 97 percent of scientists have agreed that climate change is causing irreparable harm to the globe, and that temperature increases and worsening weather conditions will start around 2030 if the world does not act to reverse human-caused climate damage.
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