Ron DeSantis admits human activities drive climate change

Florida’s Governor is again recalibrating his position on climate change, per a new interview in an Iowa newspaper.

The Des Moines Register reports that Ron DeSantis is admitting that human activity is one of a “variety of factors” driving the phenomenon — a fact reporter Katie Akin notes that he’s been reluctant to admit.

“DeSantis’ own stance has changed: During the first GOP presidential debate, he did not raise his hand when candidates were asked if human activities are warming the planet. But in the Dec. 9 interview with the Register, DeSantis said he does believe human activities are a factor in the changing climate,” Akin observed.

Indeed, the Florida Governor has been somewhat less than consistent on climate change, referred to by some as global warming, not just in recent weeks and months but in recent years.

Back in 2019, the newly-inaugurated DeSantis dodged a question about whether he agreed with many scientists “that humans cause climate change.”

“Next question,” he said, calling on another reporter.

Months later, he seemingly ameliorated that position. His administration posted an opening for a Florida Chief Resilience Officer, someone whose job will be to coordinate Florida’s preparations for “environmental, physical and economic impacts of climate change, especially sea level rise,” according to a job posting. He followed that up with budget proposals to address climate change.

During the aforementioned debate back in August, co-host Martha MacCallum of Fox News called for a show of hands from candidates who think Earth’s rising tides and record heat waves are human-made.

DeSantis rejected MacCallum’s request before any candidate hoisted their arm, explaining that he and his candidates are “not schoolchildren” and should “have the debate” on the subject.

“I don’t think that’s the way to do it,” he said of Martha’s phrasing, before pivoting to an attack on President Joe Biden’s response to the deadly fires in Maui and touting his own action following Hurricane Ian’s devastation of Southwest Florida last year.

DeSantis’ position came weeks after Florida recorded record levels of heat, resulting in a “100% coral mortality” off the coast of the Florida Keys. Moreover, according to the National Conference of Citizenship’s Pandemic to Prosperity report, heat-related deaths in the Sunshine State increased by 88% between 2019 and 2022.

DeSantis stuck to his guns in the wake of President Joe Biden claiming that Hurricane Idalia’s impacts were exacerbated by climate change this year as well.

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

“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 shortly before the TV hit. He condemned “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.”

What’s clear though is that DeSantis believes humans are contributing to the phenomenon. Less clear, however, is what he intends to do about it.

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Jesse Scheckner, Scott Powers and Jim Rosica contributed to this report.