‘History’ tells Ron DeSantis climate change isn’t making storms stronger
Ron DeSantis on Fox News.

ron desantis mask
'The idea that we've not had powerful storms until recently, that's just not factually true.'

Ron DeSantis didn’t risk being in the same county Saturday with Joe Biden, but he continues offering long-distance dismissals of the President’s climate change comments.

As Biden spoke recently after Idalia’s impact, he said that “nobody intelligent can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore,” referring to severe disasters in recent years “that we’ve never seen before.”

DeSantis, however, cited a pre-climate change era to rebut that argument.

“I studied history and they act like this is somehow unprecedented,” DeSantis said during a Fox News interview. “It’s not.”

The Governor’s proof is that a hurricane hit the same area in the 19th century.

“This area, the Big Bend got hit by a storm, almost the exact same track in 1896 that had 125-mile-per-hour winds. So the idea that we’ve not had powerful storms until recently, that’s just not factually true. And so when they, that’s the first thing they want to say, you have to ask, why are they trying to politicize the weather?”

DeSantis groused about “politicizing the weather” during a state press conference this week, comments which in retrospect seem like a rough draft for the cable TV hit.

Noting that storms have hit Florida long before the current era, the Governor said the “notion that somehow hurricanes are something new” is “just false.”

“We’ve got to stop politicizing the weather and stop politicizing natural disasters,” DeSantis continued. “We know from history, there have been times where it’s been very busy in Florida.”

In the “late ’40s, early ’50s,” DeSantis said there were “a lot of hits of significant hurricanes.”

“So I think sometimes people need to take a breath and get a little bit of perspective here. But the notion that somehow if we just adopt, you know, very left wing policies at the federal level, that somehow we will not have hurricanes, that is a lie. And that is people trying to take what’s happened with different types of storms and use that as a pretext to advance their agenda on the backs of people that are suffering and that’s wrong and we’re not going to do that in the state of Florida.”

The President sees it differently, of course.

“Nobody can deny the impact of climate crises — at least nobody intelligent can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore. Just look around, around the nation and the world for that matter,” Biden said Saturday. “Historic floods, intense droughts, extreme heat, deadly wildfires that have caused serious damage that we’ve never seen before.”

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. His work also can be seen in the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Washington Times, and National Review, among other publications. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


8 comments

  • Andrew

    September 6, 2023 at 10:00 am

    The water in 1896 was not as high in temperature, as it is today, and consistently higher than ‘history’. Science, not political ideology, is proving storms are more frequent, with higher intensity. Vermont, West Virginia, Nevada, California, Europe, Asia, are all impacted from a warming planet.

  • My Take

    September 6, 2023 at 10:53 am

    DeSScumis purpously distort the question to: “Ever before? Yes, No?”
    When the real questions relate to:
    “How often? How bad?”

    • Bobble Head

      September 6, 2023 at 11:21 am

      The real questions relate to Rony and his friends’ refusal to look up. Humanity seems intent on destroying its hard-won civilization.

  • PeterH

    September 6, 2023 at 10:09 pm

    DeSantis’s magical Florida weather microcosm has little to do with the rest of the USA he wants to govern! Good grief!

  • Joe

    September 7, 2023 at 10:58 am

    RepubliQans literally live in a fantasyland of their own design.

    Florida’s ocean water has NEVER been as hot as this year: how does that fit with your historical studies, Governor Pipsqueak? Let’s hope the next big one sweeps Lil Ron and Casey away for good.

  • Michael K

    September 8, 2023 at 7:44 am

    History is telling Ron & Casey that their personal dream of a fascist Camelot will never come true.

    If Ron cared about Florida, he would push to make the Sunshine state the solar power capital of America. But he is beholden to the fo$$il fuel indu$try.

    His anti-science, anti-intellectual and bigoted posturing may help him peel off some MAFA votes, no nothing more. He’s a danger to our future.

    • Silly Wabbit

      September 11, 2023 at 4:50 pm

      Twue that.

  • My Take

    September 11, 2023 at 3:03 pm

    DeSScamus — FAILURE
    In not long — LOSER !
    But still governor.
    God help Florida.

Comments are closed.


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