I did a few articles on the complete dominance of Congressional Science Committees by Republicans who are climate deniers, and to the climate problems in their states. Now, it is time to turn to the Republican Presidential Candidates.
It is important that three of the Republican candidates hailed from Florida, the most at-risk state, and they are all deniers of fossil fuels causing the problem. These start with Donald Trump with his Club and estate at Mar-a-Lago, and resorts with his name on them. Then past Governor Jeb Bush, and finally Senator Marco Rubio.
The standard Republican argument starts with “the Climate is Always Changing”, and then substituting Weather for Climate, which does change. In fact, the entire economy of Florida that is based on vacations, tourism, Disney World, and retirement communities is fundamentally based on the premise that the climate does NOT change! People planning vacations there or settling there have to be able to depend on the warm climate. This is undoubtedly why Trump went there to have his second home, and to open golf courses and resorts. This may be why Cubans settled there, since it has a similar CLIMATE to Cuba.
The thing that tourists go to Florida for is the beaches. They then stay in the flat cities by the beach. Miami already floods back at high tides and surf. With three feet of sea level rise by 2100, it will be a major problem. Florida is already spending $500 million to construct fixes for this.
We used to go to Florida to snorkel in its coral gardens. With sea temperature increases, the corals have been dying.
While trying to show how Donald Trump’s Club in Palm Beach would be vulnerable, I found a Buzzfeed site from Peter Aldhous that showed the flooding that would occur at all Trump properties with three feet by 2100 or six feet of sea level rise. The properties seemed okay by 2100, but not if 4 feet occurs, where they all flooded or their access roads were cut off. You would think in selling these investments he would be interested in protecting them from sea level rise by investing in climate change mitigation.
New Orleans had levees that would be breached by sea level rise in 2100. Nature, poor engineering and the cost of levee replacement decided differently, and the extreme storm Katrina caused very extensive flooding and a heavy cost for repairing damage. Then, the levees still had to be upgraded.
Hurricane Sandy also did in a new $1 billion subway station in the Wall Street district in Trump’s New York. I guess he forgot to build a wall around his home town.
Chris Christy’s New Jersey shoreline was also flooded by hurricane Sandy. Partly this was from some residents of the shoreline not allowing sand berms to spoil their view and save their cities. Then Christie had to be friendly to Obama when getting federal aid, which ruined the entire anti-Obama campaign.
Let’s go on to Ted Cruz. First, Ted goes to the Iowa primary and claims that he is true to his principals by opposing the law that requires ethanol from Iowa’s corn be used to make up 10% of cleaner burning gasoline. But wait, isn’t Cruz from the biggest oil state of Texas? The 10% of gas replaced by ethanol comes right out of the pockets of Texas oil billionaires sales.
Fossil fuel as the cause of climate change will eventually cause a lot of Texas oil to be stranded or left in the ground. Denying climate change will not encourage Texas to broaden its businesses and resources, or increase its advanced education of its young people.
Texas has a very long shoreline, and Galveston has flooding problems. The entire coastline is subject to oil spillage from thousands of Gulf wells, as well as deep drilling wells that are totally unneeded in the age of fracking. Past Texas Governor Rick Perry and other candidates’ pledge to erase the EPA and Department of Energy that regulate well safety can only seriously endanger the state. The increased temperature of the Gulf will only send more water vapor in storms to increase Texas flooding and hurricanes.
Gov. Kasich’s Ohio has clean drinking water problems. Climate change can cause more storms and rain and a longer storm season. The increased phosphorus runoff from farming causes harmful blue-green algae to grow in Lake Erie and spoil drinking water sources. When the algae die, they sink to the bottom and decompose, removing oxygen. This causes a dead zone for fish. This affects fishing, boating and tourism. This affected Toledo, Ohio at the Western end of Lake Erie in the late Summer’s of 2014 and 2015.
The El Niño is expected to cause warm winds and a drought in Ohio this year.
By coincidence, the Republican National Convention is taking place in Cleveland, Ohio, in the Quicken Loans Arena, a short distance from the Lake Erie waterfront, from July 18-21. Perhaps the candidates, the 2,500 delegates, and the 15,000 members of the press covering the Convention will be able to observe the effects of climate change and pollution if they travel to Toledo this year.
We conclude that each of the Republican candidates should take climate change seriously in order to protect the citizens of his state, and the financial interests of the companies there. This especially applies to Donald Trump’s billions of dollars worth of hotels and resorts, to his employees, and to his investors.
