A roundup of news items related to climate change and other environmental issues in Florida:
‘Super’ El Niño is here. What does this mean for our weather? And what happens next? | USA Today
The current El Niño climate pattern has now attained “historically strong” status, federal scientists announced. They also predict that its counterpart, La Niña, will develop in its place later this year.
Both climate patterns have dramatic effects on weather and climate in the U.S. and around the world. A typical wintertime impact of strong El Niños is storminess across the southern tier of the U.S., from California to Florida.
The warmth from the strong El Niño, colloquially called a “super El Niño” coupled with climate change, also helped to boost global temperatures in 2023, as the year ended up as the warmest since accurate weather records began in the late 1800s.
Florida could remove the majority of mentions of climate change from state law | Tampa Bay Times
A bill advancing through the Florida Legislature with the backing of the House speaker would delete the majority of references to climate change in state law.
House Bill 1645 would enact wide ranging changes to Florida’s energy policy, something Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, has said is needed to ensure state residents’ power is reliable and affordable.
In the process, the bill would delete eight times the phrase “climate change” is mentioned in current law (compared to seven instances where it would be left untouched). Sometimes, the phrase is deleted from sentences that are otherwise left mostly intact. In other cases, the bill would repeal entire sections of law that mention climate change, such as a grant program that helps local governments and school districts reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The bill would also reduce certain regulations on natural gas pipelines, preempt local governments’ control over the location of natural gas storage facilities and make it so state agencies and local governments no longer have to consider fuel efficiency when buying vehicles, among other changes.
Have we been talking about climate change all wrong? | National Geographic
Greenhouse gasses are making the planet hotter, but some scientists argue focusing on temperature overlooks a more visible danger.
For decades, environmental advocates have urged governments, companies, and individuals to take drastic actions to limit climate change and prevent the Earth’s average temperature from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times.
Now, some climate experts are advocating for a different target: They want to create limits for rising seas instead, setting the upper limit at about two feet or slightly higher, depending on the location. Relative sea levels along the U.S. coast have already climbed about a foot and could swell up to six more by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and methane are not significantly curbed.
If you have any news items of note that you think we should include in our next roundup, please email The Invading Sea Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here.
