Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – When we think about Florida, we may think about flamingos. But in the Ron DeSantis regime, the state bird ought to be the ostrich. The Tampa Bay Times reports that the governor this week signed legislation that would make the term “climate change” disappear from state web sites and would encourage burning more fossil fuels. Over 70% of Florida’s electricity comes from fossil gas, and only 7% from renewables. In contrast, about 60% of California’s electricity is from non-fossil fuel sources. Florida is blessed with abundant sunshine and the cost of solar is plummeting, and the state’s residents are being hurt by high fossil gas prices. But worst of all, they are spewing hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, which, given that they are in Florida, is going to come back and bite them in the behind.
Florida is among the states most vulnerable to deadly human-caused climate change. Here are the top three climate disasters DeSantis is bringing down on Floridians’ heads and from which he is trying to hide by sanitizing state web sites. I don’t think Mother Nature reads web sites.
1.
Sea level rise in the entire US southeast is accelerating with frightening rapidity. It was rising 2 millimeters a year throughout the twentieth century. NASA says it is now rising 10 millimeters a year, five times the rate of the previous century. The world’s seas are rising everywhere because of melting surface ice at the poles. But the waters around Florida are rising twice as fast as the global average. The seas around Florida have risen eight inches since 1950, and could rise another six inches by 2040. Fourteen inches may not sound like much, but it is over a foot and just imagine that your house was at sea level in 1950 and now there is over a foot of water standing in your living room.
Why is this happening? NASA says it is in part because of the increasingly hot water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast of the southeast. Hot water expands and fills up more space than cold water, so if you live on the coast it is coming for your kitchen. That is on top of ice melt. Then, there’s a local situation not being caused by climate change, having to do with wind and water circulation in the Gulf. But nearly half of the accelerated sea level rise around Florida is on us, on human beings burning fossil fuels and putting heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“Wicked Witch of the Southeast,” by Juan Cole, Digital, Dream / Dreamworld v.3 / PS Express, 2024.
2.
Hurricanes. Scientists already expect 2024 to see a higher than normal number of hurricanes in the Southeast, as many as 23 named storms. The unusually hot water in the Gulf of Mexico this spring, the unusually hot water in the Atlantic, and the end of the El Nino and beginning of La Nina, all play into this danger. La Nina, a cooling pattern, will weaken pressure in the Gulf and so more Atlantic hurricanes will be drawn west.
The problem is not, however, just a matter of this year. Hurricanes are becoming more powerful, with an increase in the number of category 4 and category 5 storms. In fact, some scientists are saying we need to expand the scale with a category 6. The hotter the water, the more powerful the hurricane, and the water is getting hotter and hotter. Such hurricanes over very hot sea water move slowly. Moreover, hot water puts more water vapor into the air above it, which hurricanes then cause to precipitate, so the severity of the downpours is also increasing. And the hurricanes move slowly now, so they just hover over land and drench the land below. There is more flooding and more storm surges. Florida gets more hurricanes than any other state, and twice as many hit there as hit Texas.
3.
Heat waves. The heat index for Miami is 112° F. Palm Beach county is right now under a heat advisory because the heat index will be 108° F. for over two hours. But you know that saying, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity?’ It is correct. The temperature will be 94° F. (96° F. in Ft. Lauderdale), which is eight to ten degrees higher than the average for late May. But if you add in the humidity, you get the heat index. The humidity is 73% in West Palm Beach today.
We humans cool down by sweating. The moisture on our skin evaporates, which has a cooling effect. A heat index of 112° F. makes it hard for us to cool down that way. The heat and moisture in the air mean that the sweat doesn’t evaporate as much. So here’s the thing. If the temperature reaches 120° F. and the humidity at the same time reaches 80%, and you are out in that for several hours, it will kill you dead. But the heat index can become unhealthy well below those numbers. Florida’s average temperature will likely increase by at least 6° F. over the next few decades, but that is the average. On some days in some places, you could hit a heat index that is fatal to some residents. Florida is at risk for being part of a new and growing deadly American heat belt where quality of life plummets. Helpfully, the DeSantis regime has passed a law forbidding local governments to require water and heat breaks for workers laboring outside in the heat, which for some may be a death sentence.
INFORMED COMMENT
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