Republican Governor Rick Scott of Florida
We all know that elections have consequences. Sometimes those consequences are temporary, easily reversed. The right moves out, the left moves in, and vice versa. It all seems to even out over time even though in reality the tide may have significantly shifted as our lives meekly take their course, navigating through our country's political histrionics.
Sometimes, however, the consequences are devastating and irreversible. Most often that's when an extreme ideology takes over and tries to force the rest of the society to bend to its will, in the face of all reason and rationality. The ideology becomes paramount, its infliction becomes imperative, and the people become an afterthought. That is what is happening right now in Florida, a state saddled with the wrong governor at exactly the wrong time.
Republican Gov. Rick Scott is skeptical of man-made climate change and has put aside the task of preparing for sea level rise, an Associated Press review of thousands of emails and documents pertaining to the state's preparations for rising seas found.
Despite warnings from water experts and climate scientists about risks to cities and drinking water, skepticism over sea level projections and climate change science has hampered planning efforts at all levels of government, the records showed. Florida's environmental agencies under Scott have been downsized and retooled, making them less effective at coordinating sea level rise planning in the state, the documents showed.
St. Augustine, Florida, America's oldest city, is submerging. It's not a mystery what's causing it, it's happening throughout the state, and local officials are very much aware that it isn't going to magically stop:
St. Augustine is one of many chronically flooded communities along Florida's 1,200-mile coastline, and officials in these diverse places share a common concern: They're afraid their buildings and economies will be further inundated by rising seas in just a couple of decades. The effects are a daily reality in much of Florida. Drinking water wells are fouled by seawater. Higher tides and storm surges make for more frequent road flooding from Jacksonville to Key West, and they're overburdening aging flood-control systems.
Municipalities on the Florida coast desperately need coordination and real assistance from Tallahassee. They cannot cope with this problem individually, or on an ad hoc basis. They have neither the money nor the resources for the type of flood control technology that will be necessary to keep their communities from drowning. And yet because his loyalties are apparently much more attuned to the climate denialist agenda of his
political donors--who don't have to cope with flooded roads and fouled drinking water from wherever it is they live--this governor doesn't seem to care at all. That's not governance. It's more an attitude suitable to a dictator in a place like North Korea rather than the country's third most populous state with an economy
primarily sustained by tourism.
While South Florida water officials have led the charge in addressing sea level rise concerns in their area, their attempt to organize a statewide plan was met with indifference, documents show. The Scott administration has organized just a few conference calls to coordinate local efforts, records show. Those came only after Florida's water district managers asked DEP for help.
The AP investigation also revealed that more than half of the funding for what Scott calls his "five-year plan" (a phrase itself reminiscient of dictators past) to provide "basic guidance" to coastal communities on how to combat sea-level rise has been spent on staff time and travel. The remaining funds have been sucked up by contracted-out "research" into the existence of a problem that is staring the state directly in the face:
In one grant-funded study, Florida State University researchers asked local leaders about sea rise. Some officials complained to researchers about the "poisonous political atmosphere" over climate change hampering progress. The AP obtained the report in a public records request.
"In some cases, especially at the local level, planners are constrained by perceptions among elected officials that there is a lack of reliable scientific information to support the existence of sea level rise," report authors summarized.
The
well-publicized revelations of Scott barring state employees from discussing climate change is borne out by the AP's investigation:
For example, an April 28, 2014, email approving a DEP scientist's request to participate in a National Geographic story came with a warning: "Approved. Make no claims as to cause ... stay with the research you are doing, of course," the DEP manager, Pamela Phillips, warned.
The article describes the "culture of fear" caused by Scott among agencies and officials whose jobs are to assist municipalities in mitigating what most describe as a "slow moving emergency." It describes local engineers desperately attempting to research solutions on the internet rather than seek assistance from the government they pay taxes to. Meanwhile, acutely affected parts of the state not cowed by Scott or his energy-company cronies are taking more drastic, if only symbolic measures:
South Miami passed a resolution calling for South Florida to secede from the more conservative northern half of the state so it could deal with climate change itself.
Insurance giant Swiss Re has estimated that the economy in southeast Florida could sustain $33 billion in damage from rising seas and other climate-related damage in 2030, according to the Miami-Dade Sea Level Rise Task Force.
These numbers and projected losses speak to a cataclysm to the state's economy as the beaches and towns that drive it slowly sink under ever rising tides. To do nothing in the face of a looming disaster is not climate denialism, it's climate nihilism. Let's be clear: Scott doesn't have to become a raging climate activist to help the citizens of his state--he doesn't even have to acknowledge the reality that the rising seas that will soon be washing away the Florida Coast are the result of human activity. But to deliberately do nothing at all suggests a pathology that no one in the state ought to admire or respect. All it means is that whatever is motivating him, Rick Scott simply doesn't care about Florida or its people.