Congratulations, Ron DeSantis just eliminated climate change

By Mark Gongloff

When King Canute commanded the tide to stop, he was trying to make a point about the limits of his powers. It seems Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has far more influence over nature than King Canute could ever imagine. But that does not include the ability to solve climate change simply by declaring it doesn’t exist. 

DeSantis signed a law this week requiring the state to ignore climate change when making policies. The bill also ends clean-energy grants and fuel-efficiency standards for government vehicles, encourages more natural-gas use and outlaws wind farms (not that hurricane-prone Florida will ever have any). It takes effect on July 1, when the temperature in Florida will be 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As a result of DeSantis ending climate change by fiat, we can expect dozens of insurance companies to return to his state immediately. (As of this writing, no insurance companies had returned to Florida.)

Florida’s climate marked the occasion by sending heat indexes to all-time highs in mid-May, an episode made at least three times more likely by [phenomenon redacted], according to the research group Climate Central. Heat and humidity made the air feel like it was 115 degrees Fahrenheit in Key West on Wednesday, trouncing the record for the day by 17 degrees.  

DeSantis called the bill a means of "restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots." This is partly based on the mistaken idea, usually championed by fossil-fuel companies, that transitioning from fossil fuels will make energy less affordable and hurt economic growth.  

But Florida’s ridiculous new law is mainly just the latest canyon-jump performed by our nation’s most infamous political stuntman, who is perhaps still trying to secure the presidential nomination in a hypothetical future where Republican voters want him. Given that the one thing DeSantis craves is more attention, I’m loath to oblige. But it’s important to note that Florida pretending it isn’t tied to the railroad tracks on which the global-warming express is speeding will have real consequences. 

For one thing, accounting for the changing climate will be critical for protecting outdoor workers from the ravages of rising heat. Instead, earlier this year, DeSantis signed a bill making it illegal for local governments to force employers to give outdoor workers shade and water breaks. The law, which passed just after a February heat wave, takes effect on, you guessed it, July 1. 

Heat kills about 40 workers a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is probably an underestimate. Many more die from underlying health conditions worsened by extreme temperatures. Over the next 30 years, south Florida will come to have 126 days in which the heat index tops 100, the research firm First Street Foundation estimates. State and local governments need to start preparing for the damage that will do to their work force and economies, along with its impact on vulnerable citizens, including the elderly. Floridians are no strangers to heat, of course, and most have air-conditioning. But heat deaths and illnesses tend to spike when the power goes out after hurricanes. 

Those hurricanes may not be increasing in frequency because of climate change, but they are becoming more intense. Repeated losses from storms and flooding have caused many private insurers to go bankrupt or abandon Florida, leaving the state — and ultimately taxpayers — as the insurer of last resort and holding the bag when things go wrong while causing premiums to skyrocket for homeowners. As my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Jonathan Levin has written, this threatens the foundation of Florida’s real estate-based economy. Policy makers need to curb carbon emissions and help communities adapt if they want to limit the damage. Enabling unchecked climate change does neither.   

Nor will it make it any easier for Florida to fight the algae blooms increasingly blighting its beaches and lakes. Hotter water helps these toxic blooms thrive, discouraging the tourists that bring more than $100 billion to the state each year. South Florida’s 2018 “red tide” outbreak alone cost $2.7 billion in lost revenue, according to a recent University of Central Florida study. Ocean water reaching hot-tub temperatures has been cooking coral reefs alive, dealing another blow to tourism, not to mention, you know, nature.

A recent poll by Florida Atlantic University found an incredible 90% of Floridians believe climate change is happening, more than the national average of about 70%. Apparently having a front-row seat to the show really hammers the message home. More than two-thirds of Floridians want their government to do something about the problem.

Unlike King Canute, DeSantis has real power to effect change but has thrown it away for a bit of virtue-signaling. It’s terrible policy and should be terrible politics.