Florida’s climate disasters: We get what we vote for 

By William “Coty” Keller 

Hurricane Milton came ashore in Southwest Florida on Oct. 9, wreaking havoc in a region where too many in our community were still reeling from Hurricane Helene two weeks before. The sad outcome of this one-two punch has been death, suffering and climate refuges along hundreds of miles of the Gulf Coast and beyond.  

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) long ago warned that increasing numbers of more ferocious hurricanes would be just one of the many unthinkable consequences if we did not take bold action to reduce human emissions of greenhouse gases. We are now seeing firsthand the validity of that forecast; we are paying the tragic price.  

A Navy friend from California asked me, “How many bad hurricanes in a season will it take for the Florida voters to realize climate change is real no matter how many times the former president says it is a hoax?” Maybe the trauma of all these hurricanes, together with other recent events (such as water in the Keys as hot as a spa), have us to the point of changing the way we vote.  

Instead of voting for a presidential candidate who denies the climate is changing, re-electing a senator who did not allow the use of the term climate change during his eight years in the office of governor and legislators who have not passed one bill to mitigate climate change (while passing a law that strips the concept of climate change from previous legislation), maybe this November a majority of people in Florida will vote for candidates who will act in the best interest of the people, especially when it comes to the matter of a livable world.  

In Florida, we got what we voted for: officeholders in Washington and Tallahassee who value the demands of rich donors and corporations over the best interests of the people. The former president and our current Florida politicians have falsely claimed that transitioning to zero-emission energy would hurt the economy. The opposite is true. 

Zero-emission energy is becoming the most cost-effective way to power our grids and move our vehicles. Continued use of fossil fuel leads to economic ruin. As former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin wrote, “We do not face a choice between protecting our environment or protecting our economy. We face a choice between protecting our economy by protecting our environment — or allowing environmental havoc to create economic havoc.”  

Florida’s political leadership, when it does address global warming, talks about resiliency, which is adapting to climate change. If we focus exclusively on adaptation (or resiliency), the climate will continue changing and the long-term impact of global warming (increasing severity and frequency of storms, together with sea level rise, drought and flooding) will be too severe to manage.   

If we want a livable world, we must adapt and mitigate. Mitigation is human intervention to reduce heat-trapping emissions or remove carbon already in the atmosphere. Mitigation attacks the causes of global warming. Florida’s present leadership does not allow talking about, much less acting, on the cause of the problem. Unless something changes, the problem will not only continue, but it will get much worse.  

Florida alone cannot stop global warming. We need a strong national effort and global cooperation. This is why this November’s election is so important.   

According to the Environmental Voting Project, about 570,000 Florida environmental voters did not vote in the 2020 presidential election. That was more than the approximately 372,000-vote margin (again, in Florida) enjoyed by the climate-denying former president. 

If environmentalists voted in higher percentages in Florida, we could elect officials who make the U.S. a global leader in climate mitigation.

We get what we vote for. For the sake of a livable world, let’s vote for candidates that believe in climate change and promise to adapt and mitigate.

William “Coty” Keller is an ecologist working to conserve and restore the natural relationships among living things and the environment (https://ecopapak.org/). He lives and works in Port Charlotte, Florida, and Freeport, New York. Banner image: High winds and rain from Hurricane Milton destroyed the roof of Tropicana Field, home to the Tampa Bay Rays ( Mark Rankin/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, via Defense Visual Information Distribution Service).

If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here.