{"id":283194,"date":"2025-11-10T12:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/283194\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T12:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:37:07","slug":"are-we-all-living-in-florida-now-the-rise-of-dont-say-climate-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/283194\/","title":{"rendered":"Are we all living in Florida now? The rise of ‘don’t say climate’ politics."},"content":{"rendered":"

Last May, as blistering-hot weather broke records<\/a> across South Florida and smoke from distant wildfires in Mexico turned the sky hazy<\/a>, Ron DeSantis, Florida\u2019s Republican governor, signed legislation<\/a> erasing most mentions of \u201cclimate change\u201d from state law. \u201cWe\u2019re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots,\u201d he wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Back then, it felt like just another Florida story, a fresh example of the culture war overriding reality. In hindsight, it was a preview of where the country was headed.<\/p>\n

Secure \u00b7 Tax deductible \u00b7 Takes 45 Seconds<\/p>\n

Secure \u00b7 Tax deductible \u00b7 Takes 45 Seconds<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s second term has plunged the United States into \u201cdon\u2019t say climate\u201d politics. Even as horrific floods<\/a> and fires<\/a> unfolded around the country this year, Republicans in Congress reversed the country\u2019s only climate plan<\/a>. The administration has deleted \u201cclimate change\u201d from hundreds of government webpages and dismissed facts<\/a> about the warming planet as \u201cbrainless fear-mongering rhetoric.\u201d Rather than pushing back, Democrats have been talking about climate change less<\/a> since the 2024 election, emphasizing \u201ccheap energy\u201d instead.<\/p>\n

Even if talking about climate change is politically radioactive, adapting to its effects is no longer optional. Florida tops some lists<\/a> for the state most at risk from climate change, facing a combination of heat, drought, fires, flooding, and hurricanes. Miami Beach and towns in the Florida Keys have been raising their roads<\/a> as the sea begins to rise. DeSantis has committed more than $1 billion<\/a> to Resilient Florida, a grant program that helps local governments address some of these problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t necessarily have to mention climate change to start adapting to it \u2014 a phenomenon now seen all over the country. PG&E is burying its power lines underground<\/a> to avoid sparking fires in California\u2019s drying forests, in the name of \u201cwildfire safety.\u201d After Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston, the county began buying homes<\/a> that have been repeatedly inundated and relocating residents, turning their former homes into open space to absorb floodwaters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a radical increase in how many people are realizing that whether it\u2019s flooding, drought, fire, air quality impacts from fire \u2014 take your example \u2014 the disasters have been getting out ahead of us,\u201d said Katharine Mach, a professor of environmental science and policy at the University of Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PhotoA worker carries temporary seawall materials for installation at an oceanfront condominium in Daytona Shores, Florida, after Tropical Storm Nicole caused severe beach erosion and damage to beachfront homes in 2022.
\n The Washington Post \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Since at least the 1980s, the public discussion over climate change has revolved around trying to get the world\u2019s carbon emissions under control. But as time has worn on and emissions have continued to rise, it\u2019s become much more about living with the effects of an overheating planet. A United Nations report<\/a> last week found the world will soon overshoot its goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), with current policies likely to lead to 2.8 degrees C (5 degrees F) of warming by the end of the century. That\u2019s a slight improvement from previous estimates, but still translates to an unrecognizable planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have unleashed a world where many climate impacts are now locked in,\u201d said Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director for climate and energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. \u201cBecause we did not act quickly enough, it\u2019s not just about mitigation anymore. We have to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Gates, who\u2019s long funded efforts to switch to clean energy, recently wrote<\/a> an essay arguing that climate advocates have spent too much time and effort on reducing emissions, and not enough on programs that help people stay resilient in the face of increasingly dangerous weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, the doomsday outlook is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals, and it\u2019s diverting resources from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world,\u201d Gates wrote.<\/p>\n

The question of how to fund efforts for low-income countries to adjust to this new, unpredictable environment has become a central concern<\/a> for this year\u2019s global climate talks in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, starting on November 10. \u201cIt\u2019s a responsibility that richer nations, major emitting nations, have been shirking for the longest time,\u201d Cleetus said. Another recent U.N. report<\/a> found that developing countries will need at least $310 billion a year over the next 10 years to prepare for the effects of climate change. In 2023, richer countries only provided $26 billion.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has eviscerated foreign aid, stripping away development funding for poorer countries while undermining its own ability to respond to disasters at home. Cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have hindered forecasters\u2019 ability to predict what\u2019s coming<\/a>, at the same time as the diminished Federal Emergency Management Agency has forced local governments to fend for themselves<\/a>. The U.S. isn\u2019t sending any high-level delegates<\/a> to the talks in Bel\u00e9m, marking the first time the country will go unrepresented at the annual U.N. climate conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen an administration be so deliberately undermining a country\u2019s capability to be prepared and to deal with challenges like this,\u201d said Susanne Moser, a social scientist who\u2019s considered one of the leading experts on climate adaptation.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoBill Gates speaks onstage at the Adaptation Finance Summit for Africa during the U.N. climate change conference in Dubai in 2023.
Christopher Edralin \/ COP28 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Billionaires like Gates are stepping into the gap. MacKenzie Scott, another influential philanthropist, recently donated $60 million<\/a> to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy to help with disaster preparedness and recovery.<\/p>\n

Experts said the new focus on adapting to a changing climate was necessary, but they said that Gates \u2014 like many before him \u2014 needlessly pitted the need to adapt against the need to cut emissions when both things can happen at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdaptation can actually not succeed, ultimately, if climate change goes unchecked,\u201d Moser said. Today, the world has seen about 1.3 degrees C<\/a> (2.3 F) of additional warming since before industrial times, but as Gates notes, it could reach 3 degrees C (5.4 F) by the end of the century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA 3-degree world is not a world in which adaptation can provide well-being and health,\u201d Moser said. \u201cIt\u2019s just simply, people are living in ruins and are trying to basically survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an entrenched idea among environmentalists that discussions over how to adapt to climate change distract from the core mission of cutting planet-warming emissions, what\u2019s known as mitigation. It\u2019s sometimes perceived as a form of giving up<\/a>. But studies have repeatedly<\/a> shown<\/a> that talking about adaptation doesn\u2019t necessarily reduce public support for mitigation efforts. If anything, the challenges of adapting \u2014 the high price tag of raising roads in low-lying coastal areas,<\/a> or the difficulties of relocating communities<\/a> out of danger zones \u2014\u00a0 highlight the need for reducing emissions. \u201cOnce you begin adaptation and you see how difficult it is, mitigation looks like a cakewalk,\u201d Moser said.<\/p>\n

If Florida is any indication, the two might go hand in hand. Yoca Arditi-Rocha, CEO of The CLEO Institute, a climate education nonprofit in Florida, says that the state has made a lot of progress that doesn\u2019t often get discussed. In fact, it\u2019s one of the largest markets for electric vehicles<\/a> in the country, and also right near the top for installations of utility-scale solar<\/a> and rooftop solar<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arditi-Rocha hopes Florida can show the rest of the country that climate action can still move forward, even if the term itself remains politically off-limits. Getting specific helps, she said: Talking about how towns need more trees for shade, or how they need to be prepared for hurricanes and heat waves, is simply practical. Then again, so is reducing carbon emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to shut down the overflowing bathtub,\u201d Arditi-Rocha said. \u201cWe cannot be mopping the floor forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last May, as blistering-hot weather broke records across South Florida and smoke from distant wildfires in Mexico turned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-283194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}