Profs to guv: Warming's real

TRENTON - Three scientists who specialize in climate change delivered a message to Gov. Chris Christie yesterday: Global warming is real, it's caused mostly by people and it has already increased the frequency of severe weather in the Garden State.

The Rutgers University scientists came to the Statehouse with reams of documents in hopes of convincing Christie, who has said that he is reserving judgment on the issue.

Christie did not meet with the experts. Instead, his representatives sat in on their presentation. Afterward, the governor's spokesman, Michael Drewniak, declined to comment.

The governor told a town-hall meeting last month that he'd seen evidence on both sides of the climate-change issue and was reserving judgment.

"To be honest with you, I don't know," Christie said at the time. "And that's probably one of the reasons why I became a lawyer and not a doctor, or an engineer, or a scientist - because I can't figure this stuff out. But I would say, at this point, that has to be proven, and I'm a little skeptical about it."

Oceanographer Paul Falkowski, who teaches at the Rutgers' Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences, faulted the governor for discouraging mass-transit use by hiking rail fares while encouraging driving by refusing to raise the gasoline tax.