Kelly Garrity
Wed, September 20, 2023
Bryon Houlgrave/AP Photo
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that humans are “safer than ever” from the effects of climate change, less than a month after a hurricane pounded Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
The use of the phrase “climate change” increased between 2018 and 2020, DeSantis said during a campaign speech rolling out his energy policy in Midland, Texas. Despite reports from the World Meteorological Organization showing that climate change impacts continued to worsen during that time, DeSantis attributed the term’s jump in use to “ideology.”
“This is driven by ideology. It's not driven by reality,” DeSantis said. “In reality, human beings are safer than ever from climate disasters. The death rate for climate disasters has declined by 98 percent over the last hundred years, and the No. 1 reason for that is people that have had access to reliable electricity, have power.”
While the number of weather-related natural disasters caused by climate change has increased, related deaths have fallen over the last 50 years, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Experts attribute the decline to better forecasting and better infrastructure for dealing with extreme weather.
DeSantis’ remarks come less than a year after Hurricane Ian — the second-deadliest storm the continental U.S. has seen in decades, after Hurricane Katrina — devastated his home state, leaving more than 100 people dead and destroying homes and businesses.
Last month, Florida grappled with the fallout from another storm, Hurricane Idalia, which pummeled the state and left more than 245,000 customers without electricity as trees snapped by strong winds brought down power lines. Four people died in the hurricane.
The World Health Organization said climate change is "the biggest health threat facing humanity" and is expected to cause "approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress" between 2030 and 2050 from lack of "clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter."
DeSantis Says Humanity ‘Safer Than Ever’ From Climate Change… Weeks After Major Hurricane
Nick Visser
Updated Thu, September 21, 2023
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said humans are “safer than ever” from the threat of climate change, and he blasted the Biden administration’s effort to address the phenomenon as he unveiled an oil- and gas-first energy plan on Wednesday.
DeSantis, who is vying for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, made the comments during a speech in Midland, Texas. He pledged to enact a slew of policies to roll back efforts to address climate change, including proposals to make electric vehicles more expensive, ramp up domestic production of fossil fuels and remove the U.S. from the landmark Paris climate agreement.
“We’ve seen a concerted effort to ramp up the fear when it comes to things like global warming and climate change,” he said Wednesday, claiming Democrats were trying to “circumscribe your ambitions.”
“They are even telling our younger generations to have fewer children, or not to even have children, on the grounds that somehow children are going to make our climate and planet unlivable — and that’s wrong to say.”
DeSantis’ comments come just weeks after a Category 3 hurricane slammed into Florida, bringing record-high floodwaters and warnings from scientists that climate change is fueling more dangerous and more frequent storms. The secretary-general of the United Nations warned this week that humanity has “opened the gates to hell” and that even under current commitments, has not done nearly enough to limit planet-warming emissions.
The Florida governor seemed to reject scientists’ concern on Wednesday, saying that although the climate had “clearly” changed, his policies to increase energy production were in fact a “practical way to reduce global emissions.” Warnings about a future of climate-related disasters, he said, were merely “fear tactics.”
“We deal with hurricanes in Florida,” the governor said. “We deal with fires, too, in Florida, but what I would say is when… Joe Biden says that he’s more worried, like in 10 years, with the climate than a nuclear war, I mean, I’m sorry, that’s just not true.”
The lectern in front of the governor held a sign reading “$2 in 2025,” pointing to his campaign promise to lower gas prices to $2 a gallon should he be elected to the White House. The Biden campaign took umbrage with DeSantis’ attacks, calling his plans “deeply unserious and impractical” and “chock-full of the climate denialism that defines the MAGA Republican Party.”
Updated Thu, September 21, 2023
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said humans are “safer than ever” from the threat of climate change, and he blasted the Biden administration’s effort to address the phenomenon as he unveiled an oil- and gas-first energy plan on Wednesday.
DeSantis, who is vying for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, made the comments during a speech in Midland, Texas. He pledged to enact a slew of policies to roll back efforts to address climate change, including proposals to make electric vehicles more expensive, ramp up domestic production of fossil fuels and remove the U.S. from the landmark Paris climate agreement.
“We’ve seen a concerted effort to ramp up the fear when it comes to things like global warming and climate change,” he said Wednesday, claiming Democrats were trying to “circumscribe your ambitions.”
“They are even telling our younger generations to have fewer children, or not to even have children, on the grounds that somehow children are going to make our climate and planet unlivable — and that’s wrong to say.”
DeSantis’ comments come just weeks after a Category 3 hurricane slammed into Florida, bringing record-high floodwaters and warnings from scientists that climate change is fueling more dangerous and more frequent storms. The secretary-general of the United Nations warned this week that humanity has “opened the gates to hell” and that even under current commitments, has not done nearly enough to limit planet-warming emissions.
The Florida governor seemed to reject scientists’ concern on Wednesday, saying that although the climate had “clearly” changed, his policies to increase energy production were in fact a “practical way to reduce global emissions.” Warnings about a future of climate-related disasters, he said, were merely “fear tactics.”
“We deal with hurricanes in Florida,” the governor said. “We deal with fires, too, in Florida, but what I would say is when… Joe Biden says that he’s more worried, like in 10 years, with the climate than a nuclear war, I mean, I’m sorry, that’s just not true.”
The lectern in front of the governor held a sign reading “$2 in 2025,” pointing to his campaign promise to lower gas prices to $2 a gallon should he be elected to the White House. The Biden campaign took umbrage with DeSantis’ attacks, calling his plans “deeply unserious and impractical” and “chock-full of the climate denialism that defines the MAGA Republican Party.”
In an Aug. 30 satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Hurricane Idalia is shown over Florida and crossing into Georgia while Hurricane Franklin, to the right, moves along off the East Coast.
In an Aug. 30 satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Hurricane Idalia is shown over Florida and crossing into Georgia while Hurricane Franklin, to the right, moves along off the East Coast.
“Voters need look no further than DeSantis’s own state — where his agenda is leading to skyrocketing energy costs for his constituents and natural disasters are causing tens of billions of dollars in damages — to know what DeSantis’s plan would mean for the country,” Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Biden’s reelection campaign, told The New York Times.
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