Scientists warn Florida governor of threat from climate change
By
Bill Cotterell TALLAHASSEE Fla. (Reuters) - Five climate scientists
warned Florida Governor Rick Scott in a meeting on Tuesday that a
steadily rising ocean was a major threat to the state's future, urging
it to become a leader in developing solar energy and other clean power
sources. The…
Reuters
Scientists warn Florida governor of threat from climate change
By Bill Cotterell
August 19, 2014 7:18 PM
By Bill Cotterell
Scott refused to take questions on Tuesday and offered no comment after the half-hour meeting in his office.
The university professors said they appreciated his time, while expressing doubt about their mission.
“I’m inherently an optimist,” said David Hastings, a professor of marine science and chemistry at Eckerd College on Florida's west coast. “I’m also a realist. I’m concerned he might not do anything.”
He said the ocean expands as the water gets warmer and polar ice caps recede, so Florida’s barrier islands will be eventually be gone.
“That’s a seriously different world,” he told Scott. “It’s going to be a different planet for our children.”
Oceanographer John Van Leer of the University of Miami appealed to Scott’s business sense, highlighting the potential for job growth, the centerpiece of Scott's re-election campaign.
TALLAHASSEE
Fla. (Reuters) - Five climate scientists warned Florida Governor Rick
Scott in a meeting on Tuesday that a steadily rising ocean was a major
threat to the state's future, urging it to become a leader in developing
solar energy and other clean power sources.
The Republican
governor, who disputed the human impact on climate change in his 2010
campaign, agreed recently to meet with the scientists after his main
Democratic challenger for re-election this year, former Governor Charlie
Crist, proclaimed himself a firm believer in global warming.Scott refused to take questions on Tuesday and offered no comment after the half-hour meeting in his office.
The university professors said they appreciated his time, while expressing doubt about their mission.
“I’m inherently an optimist,” said David Hastings, a professor of marine science and chemistry at Eckerd College on Florida's west coast. “I’m also a realist. I’m concerned he might not do anything.”
The scientists said they hoped Scott would respond to the Obama
administration's proposal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power
plants by 38 percent in Florida by 2030. The Environmental Protection
Agency is accepting comments through Oct. 21 on its Clean Power Plan to
cut U.S. emissions by a third over the next 15 years.
Florida
State University professor Jeff Chanton, who conducted a similar
briefing for Crist last month, showed Scott charts measuring levels of
CO2 gasses and the earth’s temperature over centuries.He said the ocean expands as the water gets warmer and polar ice caps recede, so Florida’s barrier islands will be eventually be gone.
“That’s a seriously different world,” he told Scott. “It’s going to be a different planet for our children.”
Oceanographer John Van Leer of the University of Miami appealed to Scott’s business sense, highlighting the potential for job growth, the centerpiece of Scott's re-election campaign.
“There are business opportunities, if Florida got serious about doing
solar,” he told the governor. “But we’ve got to get busy. The thing
about it is, the longer you wait, the cost of the solution goes up about
40 percent a decade.”
(Editing by David Adams and Peter Cooney)
Scientists warn Florida governor of threat from climate change
Duh! You have a state where nothing really is over 75 feet above the ocean and gets hurricanes. And Hurricanes often have ocean surges of anywhere from 10 to 25 feet or more and then you add winds to those surges and what do you have?
A potential situation one day where water washes over the whole of the Florida peninsula and comes up one side and washes all the way to the other side. This isn't really useful for people who live there unless they all want to live in large boats or yachts at that point.
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