Whether you’re new to Florida or have lived here your entire life, one thing you know for sure is that it’s hot. Florida is flat and lies on a bed of porous limestone, and much of it is below sea level. Combine those facts with rising sea level and torrential rain, and you have the perfect recipe for an underwater state.
According to the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, within the next 85 years, 30 percent of Florida’s beaches will be threatened by sea-level rise. The Guardian reported that the city of Miami will drown as sea levels rise six to 10 feet by the end of this century, as predicted by Harold Wanless, geology professor at the University of Miami.
Yet, an unwritten policy stands in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection that officials cannot say neither “global warming” nor “climate change” in any setting and under any circumstances. The rule was verbally enacted when Gov. Rick Scott entered office in 2011. Since then, numerous former DEP employees have attested to being told not to use these terms.
Scott and other global warming deniers refuse to accept that climate change is occurring and that global warming is a serious issue. Their way of handling these crises is to pretend neither exists. Deniers refute science in favor of an irrational mindset that they’re trying to brainwash into others: climate change is not a real issue that we have to worry about.
There’s enough evidence to shoot down those who say, “God won’t destroy the Earth with another flood,” and those who stubbornly persist that global warming is a hoax.
Google “satellite images of the Antarctic ice sheets 20 years ago versus now,” and you can plainly see that they’re shrinking. The most frightening part isn’t even that they’re smaller; the implications of glacial retreat go beyond the fact that there won’t be any more ice. Once the ice melts, sea level rises and ocean temperature increases, jumpstarting a downward spiral for the entire planet.
We’re supposed to trust the government with making decisions that are in the best interests of their constituents. But, when it comes to global warming, we can’t face it head-on because the people in charge refuse to admit that our reliance on fossil fuels is literally making the Earth uninhabitable. As of 2011, Florida has the fifth highest energy-related emission output in the U.S., at over 300 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Lawmakers refuse to give up the multi-billion dollar industry that has become the world’s poisonous lifeblood.
Let’s admit that the idea of global warming is terrifying. But, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk about it. The way to fight mass hysteria isn’t to pretend the gradual warming of the Earth isn’t happening; it’s having an educated discussion about what it is and what we can do as a species to combat it.
The irony is that not talking about it will push Earth past its point of no return, the point at which it will be too late to fix our mistakes, the point that some scientists believe we’ve already passed.
We can’t be willing to send people to Mars without first addressing the issues we’re having on Earth, just like you wouldn’t fix your Wi-Fi at someone else’s house.
Deniers can continue to deny that climate change and global warming are not happening, but that doesn’t change the hard scientific evidence that shows that both are problems that threaten Earth’s future. With its ever-expanding population, it’s hard to imagine South Florida engulfed by the Atlantic Ocean. But, with deniers in our government, it seems that it can’t happen any other way.
