Daniel TilsonAn eye-opening new report makes clear there’s no “debate” about whether manmade, industrially driven climate change is happening. It is. And we’ve only just begun paying the price.
The 2014 National Climate Assessment Report released this week was not the work of a liberal think tank or some environmental organization. It’s the third such exhaustive study to come since 2000 from the objective, nonpartisan National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More than 200 top scientists in all relevant disciplines, along with representatives from the oil, gas and coal industries, contributed.
Without going into frightening detail and making it hard for you to sleep tonight, know that the report concludes that Florida is already suffering from increased flooding (especially in Miami), shoreline erosion and more, and will increasingly be “exceptionally vulnerable to sea level rise, extreme heat events, hurricanes, and decreased water availability,” if bold actions are not taken to reduce the risks.
But with countless American political and media figures paid by Big Energy to perpetuate the illusion that climate change is “debatable,” only 40 percent of Americans in a recent poll find “climate change is a major threat.”
Those most-polluting industries are also the most profitable on Earth, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Spending some of those profits and changing industry practices to protect human, animal and other life on earth is something they’ll do only if dragged kicking and screaming into doing so.
To forestall that, they’ve spent hundreds of millions (a drop in the bucket to them) creating an entire body of “Climate Change Denial” disinformation, false “knowledge,” false science, false media coverage and false political messaging, all designed to mislead the public.
For the past decade and more, they’ve created and distributed so much disinformation that the average American can’t help coming across it. Google “climate change” and you will find almost as many bogus industry “studies” and stories as you do frightening scientific facts and independent, irrefutable truths. TV, Internet and social media are also awash with falsehoods.
Worse still, Congress and state legislatures get so much in industry “campaign contributions” that they pay it back with a combination of avoidance, silence and vocal opposition to combatting climate change.
The downright disgraceful truth of the matter is on display for all to see in this week’s New York Times article, “Florida Finds Itself in the Eye of the Storm on Climate Change”.
Despite the state’s exposure to climate change-induced sea level rise, coastal flooding, loss of life and property, leading Republicans from former Gov. Jeb Bush to current Gov. Rick Scott to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio “declined repeated requests to be interviewed on the subject,” the Times reported.
These are purported “leaders” posing as protectors of the people, land and property of this great state. They know what has to be done to reduce climate-change threats.
From major steps in reducing carbon emissions on everything from motor vehicles to coal plants to a 21st century version of the “Put A Man On The Moon” mission that converts us to clean energy sources, there are actions we can take to slow down the increasingly catastrophic effects of climate change.
But as the Times reports, Republican “leaders” like Rubio, Scott and Bush refuse to endorse “taxing or regulating the oil, gas and coal industries” in ways that allow us to take those actions and protect ourselves.
Instead, they “appear to be dealing with the issue by keeping silent.”
Daniel Tilson has a Boca Raton-based communications firm called Full Cup Media, specializing in online video and written content for non-profits, political candidates and organizations, and small businesses. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
