Presidential Candidates Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush are both Florida based, but refuse to acknowledge the process that is turning Miami into the Venice of the West. In this key electoral state, climate denial still plays to a certain audience, but flooding denial is getting a bit harder. Might be a good conversation starter for whoever gets the Democratic nomination.
Below, my video on South Florida Sea level rise beat the media by 4 months on the “ban on the words climate change” story – I’m told it was a teaching tool at Al Gore’s recent Climate Reality event in Miami.
And it’s not just Florida. Here, I interviewed Dr. Melanie Fitzpatrick on her recent study charting coastal flooding up and down the US East Coast.
It looks like the Miami TV folks “get it”, but is anyone listening? $300 million for a pumping system? When you’re in a leaky boat and the leaks are getting bigger, there comes a time when you can’t find or afford big enough buckets to bail with. Maybe when there is water in the streets all the time reality will sink in.
Case in point comes from the excellent interview with Dr. Fitzpatrick. It is mind-blowing that the government has distributed high tide and full moon calendars to the residents around Jamaica Bay so that they know when to move their cars to higher ground or put freakin’ galoshes on their kids so they can WADE to school! Why aren’t those people screaming to the heavens? And the people living a short distance away on higher ground are just saying “tsk, tsk—I’m glad I’m not THEM” and going about their business.
I’ve said many times that we’re in a state of denial, and until the fires, droughts, floods, storms, and tornadoes are raging everywhere, nobody is going to pay adequate attention to AGW. Pogo got it right when he said—-“We have met the enemy, and he is us”.
The ‘Sunshine State’ gets 61% of its electricity from Natural Gas, and 22% from Coal. Meanwhile, Solar-heavy Germany gets as much solar flux as Alaska. Come on, Florida: there’s a point at which you’re doing this to yourselves.