Tom Zirpoli: You simply can’t ignore the damage caused by climate change | COMMENTARY

If you don’t say it, does it go away?

Republican governors are going out of their way to avoid the reality of climate change and its impact on their state’s citizens. Some have decided to deal with the problem by removing the words “climate change” from the state vocabulary.

Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who refers to himself as “not a global warming person” and who considers climate change legislation “too woke,” put his signature to a new law that erases references to climate change from state documents.

The law changes Florida’s energy policy so that reducing planet-warming pollution is no longer a priority. It also restricts offshore wind development, removes a requirement that state-purchased vehicles be fuel efficient and deletes previous clean energy goals. DeSantis said his new law would protect Florida from “green zealots.”

Florida experienced its hottest year on record in 2023 and more records were broken as temperatures reached 115 degrees in Key West this past month. Last week, Sarasota had a record eight inches of rain in three hours and areas around Miami had over 12 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Many parts of Florida experienced widespread flooding and DeSantis declared a state of emergency for multiple counties. Yet, during his news conference, he continued to deny that record heat and rain in Florida has anything to do with climate change. “We don’t want our energy policy driven by climate ideology,” he said.

Patricia Mazzei, a New York Times journalist from St. Petersburg, Florida, has been meeting with residents on the west coast of Florida and has documented regular flooding of their homes.

Hurricane Idalia landed 200 miles north of St. Petersburg in August 2023. Still, in one neighborhood around St. Petersburg, 1,200 of the 2,600 homes flooded. Many flooded a second time during a rainstorm in December and again during last week’s record rainfall.

Many neighborhoods in Florida don’t even need a hurricane or a storm to flood. Their streets flood with each high tide. Unfortunately, the tides are getting higher as sea levels rise.

“As climate change leads to higher sea levels and more frequent and intense storms, many more neighborhoods in Florida are expecting to become vulnerable to flood risk,” Mazzei writes.

Sea levels in southern Florida have risen eight inches in the last 30 years, according to Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami’s School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science. That pace, he says, “is expected to speed up — dramatically.”

In the future, McNoldy expects sea levels in Florida to rise another foot in the next 30 years and will continue to accelerate after that.

Regardless of these predictions, DeSantis’ bill gives builders in South Florida permission to use lower sea rise scenarios in their planning, even though these conservative predictions have been proven inaccurate. This ensures flooding for more Florida residents, even in new housing, that should be built with more updated flooding models.

While DeSantis and the state of Florida are ignoring the problem, local cities and towns must deal with the reality — the flooding — on the ground.

The city of Miami, for example, is already spending billions to keep its streets from flooding during high tides. They are installing street drains with one-way valves and pumps to keep seawater from flowing back into the city. But these short-term fixes will not hold the sea back as it rises several more feet over the next 60 years as predicted.

With a 2024 hurricane season predicted to produce a record 17 and 25 named storms this summer, Floridians are getting nervous about their properties, and insurance companies are raising rates or leaving the state.

Several large insurance companies have already left. This, they say, contrary to DeSantis, is in response to stronger storms and flooding due to climate change. Fourteen other insurance companies, according to the Florida Department of Financial Services, are going out of business.

It only takes one big storm to bankrupt an insurance company. In 1992, when Hurricane Andrew caused $26.5 billion in damages, 11 of the 30 insurance companies doing business in Florida went bankrupt. As more companies move out of state or close, homeowners are finding it difficult to find new coverage at affordable rates.

While some residents are moving, the few who can afford it are elevating their homes or rebuilding them higher. However, most residents who live in flood zones don’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars required to elevate their homes or rebuild. They are stuck.

How do you solve a major state problem when the governor doesn’t allow state agencies to even name the issue, never mind developing policies and funding projects to address it? The Tampa Bay Times reported last week that DeSantis vetoed about $205 million in water infrastructure funding stormwater management, local sewage systems, and water-treatment plants around the state.

If you ignore it, will it go away? Former President Donald Trump tried that for four years when he was in the White House. His administration deleted the term “climate change” from federal government websites.

Let’s just say that Trump’s avoidance of the climate change crises worked as well as his avoidance of the COVID-19 crisis. You can pretend it’s not a big deal, but you can’t fool Mother Nature.

Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said DeSantis has gone “further than any other state … in repealing its existing climate laws.”

“They should be the last state to stand in the way of fighting climate change,” writes Gerrard. “Florida is one of the most vulnerable states in the country. All of South Florida is at great peril from sea level rise.”

I’m half expecting DeSantis to outlaw the words “rain” and “flooding” next.

After the severe rainstorms caused major flooding in southern Florida last week, DeSantis encouraged Floridians to apply for federal assistance. Really? Why should the rest of us pick up the tab for his poor leadership and planning?

Tom Zirpoli is the Laurence J. Adams Distinguished Chair in Special Education Emeritus at McDaniel College. He writes from Westminster. His column appears on Wednesdays. Email him at tzirpoli@mcdaniel.edu.