Quote:
Originally Posted by BeerGeek40
This sounds like code for....there's no global warming advisor milking the taxpayers out of $200K per year. Good. Let the private sector deal with this area.
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Except that Trump and his cronies are rushing to gut the global environment and suppressing the federal government's efforts to stem the onslaught of climate change, while using federal tax dollars to effectively provide free insurance to pay for the consequences.
Ocean temperatures around 2 degrees F. warmer than average magnified the 2017 hurricane season.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/0...cean-questions
http://time.com/4933743/hurricane-ir...lobal-warming/
Yet the Trump apologists shout, "Great. Silence the worthless scientists."
As Floridians are discovering, climate change is real and has disastrous economic consequences, despite the efforts of Florida's Republicans to mute discussion of the issue.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...than-you-think
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...nge-solutions/
Yet, despite denials, the current Republican Florida administration, like the Trump administration, seeks to ban even the mention of climate change in official state documents.
<<DEP officials have been ordered not to use the term “climate change” or “global warming” in any official communications, emails, or reports, according to former DEP employees, consultants, volunteers and records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting....
Scott’s predecessor, Charlie Crist, had been proactive on climate change, forming a statewide task force and convening a national summit in Miami in 2007. But evidence the issue has fallen out of favor during the Scott administration is apparent.
One example is the Florida Oceans and Coastal Council’s Annual Research Plan, put together by DEP and other state agencies. The 2009-2010 report, published the year before Scott was elected, contains 15 references to climate change, including a section titled “Research Priorities — Climate Change.”
In the 2014-15 edition of the report, climate change is only mentioned if it is in the title of a past report or conference. There is one standalone reference to the issue at the end of a sentence that sources say must have slipped by the censors. “It’s a distinct possibility,” said one former DEP employee.
Instead, terms like “climate drivers” and “climate-driven changes” are used.>>
In Florida, officials ban term 'climate change' | Miami Herald
With what we've learned about Russian involvement in the American social media, I wonder if all of the anti-scientist posts are being made by ideological dullards, or by Russian trolls (where Putin with his fossil fuel dependent economy shares Republican disdain for climate change science), or even by hired trolls of American fossil fuel interests.
It's amazing to me that Americans of any stripe would suppress the advice of the best and the brightest among us, but then again Donald Trump is President.
I just wish the rest of the nation would stop writing checks to states like Florida for hundreds of billions for rebuilding after hurricanes. If Republicans believe in the private sector, and having local burdens paid for locally (limiting the federal deduction of state and local taxes), why don't states pay for their own hurricane rebuilding? Wouldn't this discourage lax building codes and zoning laws, and a more robust infrastructure, and even eliminate the self-denial about climate change before it's too late?
Over $2 billion of relief for Florida citrus farmers, likely wealthy landowners? Hasn't anybody in Florida heard of private insurance?
Florida growers' wait for disaster money continues
Given the warming ocean temperatures (the oceans around Florida and in the Gulf were 2 degrees higher than the long-term average at the time of this year's hurricanes), it's inevitable that the Florida citrus industry will continue to face destruction. Why should this one industry be singled out for federal aid?
Of course, a climate change scientist advising Trump might point out the waste of money in resisting the forces of nature, and no good Republican wants their hypocritical greed machine interrupted by logic. Heaven forbid that Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort wouldn't be eligible for federal relief if devastated by a hurricane.
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