'The nation is in peril': Biden insists even climate change deniers are starting to think this is a real problem as he tours flood damage in Queens with Chuck Schumer and AOC

President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned the nation is in 'peril' because of climate change and argued the bout of extreme weather hitting the country has changed the mind of skeptics on the issue. 

'We've got to listen to the scientists, and the economists, and the national security experts. They all tell us this is code red. The nation and the world are in peril. That's not hyperbole. That is a fact. They've been warning us that extreme weather would get more extreme over the decade. And we're living it in real time now,' Biden said during a stop in Queens, New York, to tour damage from Hurricane Ida.

He pointed to the wildfires on the West Coast, where he'll head next week to campaign for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, to the storms that damaged the Gulf Coast all the way up to New York and New Jersey on the East Coast. 

'What people are seeing across this country from the wildfires in California and the far west, which I'm heading to in a couple of days, all the way to down in Louisiana, the gulf, where I was a couple of days ago, to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, to a lesser extent, Delaware to a lesser extent, and New York, people are beginning to realize, this is much, much bigger than anyone was willing to believe,' he said.

'This summer alone, communities with over 100 million Americans, 100 million Americans call home, have been struck by extreme weather. One in every three Americans has been victimized by severe weather,' he said. 

President Joe Biden warned the nation is in 'peril' because of climate change

President Biden toured Queens with Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, above one resident brought out her dog to meet the president

But, he noted, the good thing coming out of all the damage from weather was that it was starting to convince climate skeptics that climate change is real.

'Climate skeptics are seeing this really does matter,' he said. 

Climate change has helped drive a fivefold increase in the number of weather-related disasters in the last 50 years, according to a new report published by the U.N. agency the World Meteorological Organization.

The WMO report said that of the 77 weather-related disasters documented between 2015 and 2017, 62 showed a significant human influence.

About 11,000 disasters were documented between 1970 and 2019 from weather events, many in developing countries, the report found. The disasters were responsible for 2 million deaths and $3.6 trillion in losses, the WMO estimated. 

Biden made combatting climate change - an issue of particular importance to young Democratic voters - one of his top campaign promises. 

His $3.5 trillion budget plan, which is being finalized in Congress this month, will contain money for sweeping new programs to combat climate change. Republicans have denounced the plan and some moderate Democrats have questioned its price tag.

'We have to take some bold action now to tackle the accelerating effects of climate,' he said on Tuesday in Queens.

He noted he'll be going to Glasgow, Scotland, in November to join other world leaders for a forum on combatting climate change.  

Queens was hit particularly hard by the storms last week. There were a series of tragic drownings in basement apartments as Ida plowed through the area. 

The stop was the final one of his day-long tour of New Jersey and New York to view the damage from Hurricane Ida, which killed 52 people in the North East. 

Biden met with state and local leaders on his tour, which came just days after the visiting storm-ravaged neighborhoods near New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf coast. 

The president used the trip to warn the nation was experiencing extreme weather in 'real time' and once again pitched his infrastructure plan as a way to rebuild.

During his stop in Queens, he surrounded himself with New York lawmakers including Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the left wing firebrand and Green New Deal coauthor who has taken on establishment figures in New York and nationwide.

President Biden was joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Chuck Schumer and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on the tour - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is visible in the back

President Joe Biden talks with people as he tours a neighborhood impacted by flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida

President Joe Biden, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during the tour of Queens

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talks with residents who were impacted by Ida

Climate change protesters were at Biden's visit to Queens

He was also joined by Gov. Kathy Hochul, who replaced Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned after sexual harassment allegations from female aides.

'This is my second week on the job and my third visit to this street,' Hochul said during her tour with Biden.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Gregory Meeks, and Grace Meng also joined the tour.

Biden greeted folks on the streets, leaning over a wire fence to talk to one couple. Another person showed Biden her small, white dog.

In his remarks, he did not mention Ocasio-Cortez by name, after he thanked other New York lawmakers, but he apologized to Schumer, saying he 'didn't get to all the names. I apologize.' 

He lauded Schumer as someone who was pushing his economic agenda through Congress. 

Near the end of his remarks, Schumer pointed out a young boy on a balcony overhead. 

'What's your name? How old are you?," Biden asked the kid. 

Then he quipped to the boy: 'Don't jump!'   

On the trip, there were signs of the political obstacles he faces even amid a disaster visit where he tried to make a unifying statement that 'we’re in this together.' 

After landing at John F. Kennedy airport in Queens, Biden was met by jeers and profane signs from a group of angry Trump supporters as his motorcade rolled through New Jersey.

One red, white and blue flag said "F*** Biden' with a sub-heading that read: 'And F*** You for voting For Him.' A school-age boy at a protest along the route was photographed from the motorcade giving the president the finger – just as a line worker in a yellow vest did in Louisiana Friday. 

A person yells from a backyard as another person holds a Trump flag as President Joe Biden tours a neighborhood impacted by Hurricane Ida. Biden was repeatedly heckled during the event

Biden hugs a young boy as he tours the area

Biden toured flood damage in the Manville, New Jersey neighborhood of Lost Valley, but couldn't escape hecklers there, either.

 A man with a Trump flag and a woman could be heard yelling while Biden and politicians met with area victims. 'It's a shame ... Despicable!' one yelled.

'Resign, you tyrant!' yelled a heckler. 

'We will leave you guys behind!' yelled one person, in an apparent slap at the Afghanistan pullout.

One man in a House with a Trump flag hanging outside yelled out: 'Hey Newsmax, can we year you? OAN,' naming two conservative pro-Trump networks. 

The angry attacks were captured on C-SPAN video of the event.

It was a jarring contrast to the images of healing and assistance the White House sought to project by scheduling a tour of homes, some of which were obliterated by the remnants of Hurricane Ida.

One woman who spoke to Biden said her family only avoided flood damage and an eventual explosion thought to be connected to a gas leak after a neighbor called with a warning, since she and her husband have a four-month old baby.  

'We only left early just because we had a baby,' the woman said, after Biden connected her with traveling reporters who had yelled out a question.

'Thank God you’re safe. Help you rebuild and figure this out,' Biden added.