Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Senator Bill Nelson (D) leads sea level rise field hearing on Miami Beach … by gimleteye


“States need resources to deal with climate change. The national folks haven’t made it a priority,” said Rob Cowin, director of government affairs for the Union of Concerned Scientists... "We need leadership and we need help."


Perception is everything. US Senator Bill Nelson ought to come to the climate change issue naturally. One of his talking points has to do with his experience as an astronaut gazing down at the fragile skein of atmosphere that holds all life and differentiates our planet from everywhere else we can see in the universe.

But when it comes to going front and center? Let's just say it's taken his entire political career to get to this point in time: leading a Senate field hearing on the obvious.

Part of the obvious is the thorniest question facing Florida homeowners: national flood insurance. The other part of the obvious is that if the United States fails to lead on energy reform, we are condemning our grandchildren to a world of hurt.

What is remarkable is that Florida voters, with the most to lose from climate change in the nation, continue to tolerate public officials who are cowards on climate change.

The best answer to that problem is to vote for candidates and incumbents who aren't cowards.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Elected officials have fought against flood insurance reform. How about those local officials who are once again proposing a rail system on the sand bar that floods (Miami Beach).
Keep building things and don't worry about sea level rise. The government will bail everybody out.

Anonymous said...

Marco Rubio stand and support Bill Nelson Like he supported you on the Venesuela issue. Bet you will Not.

Lars Hagen said...

Sea levels have had a steady increase since the end of the Little Ice Age in 1750.
And the seas have risen by 8 INCHES during the last whole-century!
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About 18,000 years ago sea levels were almost 400 feet lower than they are today. North Carolina's coastline was 50 miles east of its present location out at the Continential Shelf. Talk about sea level rise!
Can't blame that on man-made global warming!
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2014/04/availability-cascades-and-oceans-rising.html
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Anonymous said...

Who's paying you Lars to come up with this nonsense. Koch Brothers? Jeb?

Anonymous said...

His information is all correct and supported by science and history.

Malagodi said...

To expect anything looking like leadership from Senator Nelson on climate change is to run a fool's errand. Lacking pressure from below, the Senator simply follows the direction of the national party's political directives.

The national party's policy on climate change is simply an expedient of its energy policy - All of the Above. All of the Above is the policy of the Democratic Party as a whole. That is the problem.

Where the Republican energy policy is 'Drill, Baby Drill', the Democratic policy is 'Drill. And a windmill.' All of the Above is the political avoidance of a scientific fact, global warming brought about by fossil-based industrial economy. Senator Nelson supports All of the Above, and he voted for a resolution in favor of the Keystone pipeline.

All of the Above is All Wrong. It is essentially a policy driven by economic considerations. But economic considerations cannot be the driving factor of climate change / energy policy, regardless of how uncomfortable that may be. Survival must be the driving factor of energy policy, since it is energy policy that is threatening our survival.

Trying to change policy by focusing effort on Senator Nelson or any other individual on the national level is futile. The best strategy - if there is to be one - is to focus attention, action and anger at the local level - with specific targeting of individual districts impacted by rising water and rising insurance rates. Informing people in their neighborhoods of exactly what is happening to their homes and their equity, and what exactly, their local representatives are doing is the only way to build the power necessary to accomplish what must be accomplished.

Let's put Senator Nelson in charge of chasing asteroids, and let's take charge of our neighborhoods.