Next year’s Florida vote is crucial in the climate change battle
In Miami, the hottest July on record [signals] that climate change is marching on Florida.
Yet, state voters have twice elected a governor, Rick Scott, who aspires to succeed Bill Nelson in the U.S. Senate. Then there is Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam — who aspires to succeed Scott.
Scott and Putnam are Republicans who demonstrated, through their voting records, that they are willing to sacrifice science and fact on the altar of political expediency. Both are strong supporters of President Donald Trump, who has literally taken an axe to climate change mitigation efforts.
Click here to read the 1988 testimony of Jim Hansen, one of the most informed critics of government inaction on global warming, and decide for yourself — 30 years later — whether it is in fact time to elect public officials based on their commitment to care for creation like your tax dollars and job depends on it. Not to mention, our moral values and American exceptionalism.
Think about this: the state of Florida is committing billions of taxpayer dollars to “fix” the result of phosphorous and nitrogen pollution that is destroying state water resources, yet denies climate change which is compounding the impacts of algae blooms. In “Climate Change Means More Fuel For Toxic Algae Blooms”, Climate Central writes that “… policymakers will need to rethink some of the ways they combat nutrient pollution and society will also have to develop technological solutions to reduce nutrient pollution, from implementing more efficient agricultural practices to potentially recycling various forms of nitrogen in sewage into animal feed, according to a commentary piece also published in Science.”
Yet when it comes to nitrogen, the focus of a recent commentary in Science Magazine, the state of Florida is limping along with grossly inadequate measures to protect taxpayers and citizens.
Your elected officials are “running out the clock”, counting on passing the buck to the next generation. They should be so lucky.
In his Eye on Miami blog Alan Farago writes as gimleteye.
(From Eye on Miami)
