Summer weather and DeSantis’ schedule

As the Northern Hemisphere tiptoes into summer, Florida is already in the crosshairs of what will likely be a season of extremes.

Storms battered South Florida this week, with nearly a foot of rain falling within hours in some parts on Wednesday, causing severe flooding in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota and other major cities. Several weeks earlier, an early-season heat wave sent heat indexes into the triple digits in the same region. And all of this comes less than before what forecasters say could be an exceptionally active hurricane season.

These extremes have a common denominator: they are all amplified by climate change. This is a reality that is at odds with state policy.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has emerged as one of the country’s most vocal and active politicians in opposing efforts to address climate change. Last month, he signed into law a bill to deprioritize climate change in the state’s energy policies, largely eliminating the phrase from its statutes.

“We are restoring sanity to our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of radical green fanatics,” DeSantis wrote on X publicizing the account.

DeSantis also signed into law this year a bill that prohibits cities and counties from requiring mandatory water breaks and other workplace protections against extreme heat. It takes effect July 1, leaving workers with little to no protections ahead of what the National Weather Service predicts will be a hotter-than-normal summer for Florida and much of the rest of the U.S.

Experts say DeSantis’ policies stand in stark contrast to climate science. It’s the kind of dissonance that makes it harder to protect people and prepare them for the realities of living in a warming world.

“At all levels of government, we need to figure out: How do we adapt our programs, policies and responses to a climate that is changing rapidly and will continue to change?” said Katharine Mach, a professor at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences and chair of the school’s environmental science and policy department. “Discovering all this is the adaptation of our era.”

DeSantis has also avoided tapping federal money to help states address climate change. Florida is one of five states that opted out a $250 million federal program to help localities develop plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions, although Miami, Jacksonville and three other cities were able to receive some funding. DeSantis recently accepted $350 million in federal money for energy efficiency upgrades after initially vetoing it.

Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, said Florida’s susceptibility to hurricanes and extreme weather is a product of being a low-lying coastal state, but did not specifically address climate change.

“This issue is not new, but a fact of Florida’s geography and topography,” Redfern said in an email. “So strengthening and fortifying our beaches, infrastructure and housing is the right focus for the state.”

Climate Change remains a deeply partisan issue, although there have been some signs that Republicans are starting to take this more seriously. Still, what to do about it remains an issue on which Republicans and Democrats are far apart.

And with the Republican Party rallying behind former President Donald Trump as its presumptive nominee for the November elections, climate change is expected to remain highly politicized. Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and said he wants to repeal federal laws that provide incentives for electric vehicles and offshore wind energy.

DeSantis, who aligned himself with Trump after his failed presidential campaign, spoke during his campaign last fall about “a concerted effort to increase fear when it comes to things like global warming and climate change” by casting climate change as part of a broader culture war rather than recognizing global warming as a real threat, they say the critics.

Ali Zaidi, President Joe Biden’s climate adviser, said many states are falling behind.

“It is simply irresponsible to deny people the mitigation measures that are readily available to us, that help us protect the American people from the worst impacts of the climate crisis,” he said.