African-American, Caribbean-American and Hispanic communities are typically located miles from South Florida beaches where climate change is most visible — but people who live in those areas are profoundly vulnerable to the effects, political leaders and climate science experts said Wednesday.
And, panelists at a Fort Lauderdale conference said, there’s a growing awareness in minority communities of the implications of climate change.
About 75 people turned out for Wednesday’s climate change conference at the Urban League of Broward County. U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Democrat who represents most of the African-American and Caribbean-American communities in Broward and Palm Beach counties, said he was amazed at the attendance.
The environmental movement was long seen as the province of “white tree huggers,” said Caroline Lewis, director of the CLEO Institute, a non-profit based in Miami-Dade County that stands for climate leadership engagement opportunities.
But that is changing, said Lewis, who is Caribbean-American. “Here in southeast Florida, it is almost flipping,” she said. “It’s bubbling up tremendously.”
Still, she said, it’s not always easy to convince people to pay attention to climate change.
“When people are worrying about paying their bills, the last thing they want to hear about is sea level rise,” she said. “You have to care because every vulnerability you now face is going to be increased exponentially by climate change.”
Lewis, Hastings, state Sen. Oscar Braynon II and Karina Castillo, Latino outreach coordinator for the Moms Clean Air Force advocacy group, offered several examples:
Rising temperatures create a more hospitable environment in South Florida for the mosquito-borne Zika virus, Lewis said. Hotter temperatures make it harder for people to pay for air conditioning to cool their homes, she said.
“A lot of Latinos and African-Americans primarily work outside. And that has tremendous impact on you every day,” Castillo said. “If your uniform is black long sleeves, I don’t think you’re going to be very safe outside for seven hours in 90 degree weather.”
People with money, whose houses are hooked up to municipal wastewater systems don’t think about the people who still have septic tanks and can’t afford the cost of hooking up to sewer lines, said Braynon, the Democratic leader in the Florida Senate whose district includes parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
If hurricanes increase in frequency and intensity, people with money can cope more easily, Lewis said, while people without money are more likely to be the ones stuck in place with no electricity and no sewer systems. “We’ve been playing hurricane roulette,” Lewis said.
Panelists and audience members said degradation of coastal communities that are home to affluent people could end up hurting people who live in inland minority communities, who could get priced out of their homes by people with more money looking for places to live.
Hastings said South Florida has made many environmental mistakes over the years.
“Weston never should have been built. Wellington in Palm Beach County never should have been built,” he said. “You add more people and you add more flushing and the aquifer is being breached.” He said too much water usage is leading to salt water intrusion into the region’s freshwater drinking supplies.
And, he said, there is still too much pressure for development, suggesting that people pressure city and county officials not to approve high rises along beaches that he said would exacerbate an inevitable crisis in coming decades. “I promise you, if you’re under 40 years old, you will be mad with your neighbors about water,” he said.
Hastings faulted President Donald Trump for appointing an Environmental Protection Agency administrator who is a climate change denier.
Braynon faulted Gov. Rick Scott for preventing agencies under his control from using the terms “climate change” and “global warming.” And he said he couldn’t fathom Trump’s position on climate change since, eventually, the president’s beloved Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach would be hurt by rising seas.
Braynon suggested that anyone who doubts that climate change is real should try to visit South Beach during a full moon, when there’s flooding even during dry weather. “The first place in America that’s going to go is South Beach,” he said.
Angela Rye, the moderator, said people can’t let the headlines of the day overwhelm important issues like climate. “We have to walk and chew gum at the same time. We have to be able to have conversations about our environment, about climate change, about clean drinking water – and conversations about the Trump administration at the same time,” she said.
Rye, a former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, is now CEO of political firm Impact Strategies, which organized the event.
Hastings and Lewis urged people to mobilize politically.
“If you’re worried, worry more. If you’re loud, get louder. And if you’re thinking of running for office, run for office,” she said. “And every time you vote or don’t vote, you’re choosing the kind of world you want to live in.”
David Castro, 32, an architect who lives in Margate and attended the event, said he doesn’t think politicians and government will solve the climate issue. He’s putting more hope in young entrepreneurs funding research into new technologies.
