On Educating Ron DeSantis, Governor of the Sinkhole State

 

On Educating Ron DeSantis, Governor of the “Sinkhole State”

Or Debunking the Right-Wing “Fixes” to Climate Change

“What I’ve found is when people start talking about things like global warming they 

typically use that as a pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things that they would want 

to do anyways. And so we’re not doing any left-wing stuff.” 

DeSantis as he introduced his fix to his flood-prone state.

The proclivity of so many Republicans to marginalize the accelerating impact of climate change is staggering. Forget the wildfires and hurricanes. Ignore the searing and often intolerable summer heat or the freezing winter polar vortex. Look past unending droughts and desertification. Slide by the migrating, disease-carrying insects adjusting to temperature change. Just look at the coastline. And nothing screams head-in-the-sand ignorance, unmitigated science skepticism, like Florida’s Governor. 

This one’s for you Ron DeSantis, who seems to have missed the hard science classes at Yale, where he was captain of the varsity baseball team. Hey Ron, have you walked down the streets of Miami and Miami Beach after a storm surge or a heavy rain? Were you wearing rubber boots? Did you notice that Surfside apartment building that collapsed on top of that limestone formation underneath? Ever wonder why Florida has more sinkholes than any other state? But Governor Ron and his GOP legislature have a plan to patch the expected flooding and sinkholes that are completely redesigning almost a third of the state. The December 8th Orlando Weekly drills into Governor Ron and his magic plan:

“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been in a delicate position from his first days as the state's top executive. As a somewhat environmentally conscious Republican, he's had to dance around the fact that much of his base thinks the demonstrable rise in global temperatures is a hoax. That was on full display during a recent news conference in Tampa, where he announced a raft of climate change mitigation proposals while decrying the use of words like ‘global warming.’… ‘We’re a low-lying state, we’re a storm-prone state, and we’re a flood-prone state,’ DeSantis told the crowd. ‘And so we worked with the Legislature to say, OK how are we going to address this in a way that’s going to protect Florida’s communities, protect our economic livelihood and make sure we’re doing what we need to do.’

“As a Republican, DeSantis stands against anything that might cause a business owner or C-Suite type a bit of discomfort. So his proposals notably don't do much to reign in the sort of extractive businesses that have fueled the ongoing crisis. He balked at a reporters use of the term ‘global warming,’ saying it was a Trojan horse for ideological concerns…

“What DeSantis is willing to do is increase stormwater drainage[, raise at risk highways] and build up seawalls to deal with the problem as it currently exists. The projects are almost entirely focused on moving the encroaching water we're already dealing with more efficiently. This first wave of projects is projected to cost $270 million.” Over time, DeSantis sees a total commitment of over a billion dollars. One little, tiny problem: Governor Ron’s plan is doomed to failure. Apparently, the laws of physics and geology – basically Mother Nature – aren’t listening.

So here’s why raising highways and building barriers to coastal sea rise and storm surges is doomed to failure in low-lying Florida. It’s a lesson, Governor Ron, that you could have picked online (here’s one easy-to-understand, from databayou.com, of so many explanations): “The Florida limestone plateau formed millions of years ago when the area was a warm shallow sea. Millions of years of small sea creatures accumulated as deposits and formed the limestone. This limestone is several thousand feet thick… When sea creatures like shells and corals die, they leave behind calcium carbonate or limestone. As their bodies sink and build up on the bottom of the seafloor, their remnants fossilize and calcify.

“Florida limestone is relatively new with only 50-60 million years. Florida limestone is also very soft and very white… On top of that limestone formed a layer called Hawthorn Formation. This is a clay layer, which water cannot permeate. It basically blocks water… The Hawthorn formation is very thick in some places. This places generally lack karst features like sinkholes, springs, and caves. Source: floridacavediving.com… In other places the clay and soil are very thin. The limestone bedrock is close to the surface and karst features like caves are easy to access.” 

You see, Governor Ron, that massive amount of water permeable limestone that forms so much of your state is like a giant sponge. So, unless your sea walls drop down unfathomly deep, well beyond any notion of viable engineering, or all your at-risk buildings and highways are supported way, way down below that limestone layer, all that money you have allocated is great big “looks good, and they won’t find out until I’m gone” expenditure to fix climate change damage… waste of taxpayer money. The water will sneak in on limestone highways from underneath! Time to deal with the problem, Ron, the real problem: the accumulation of greenhouse gasses that have caused it all. The embracing of false narratives, accepting unscientific hopes and dreams as if they were facts and fostering of conspiracy theories appear to be the legacy of the modern Republican Party. And no one expresses those vectors better than “I want to be President of the United States” Ron DeSantis.

Will Ron learn a lesson from his rejection of scientific fact: “In Florida, for the first time in modern history, registered Republican voters outnumber Democrats. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is heading into a reelection campaign buoyed by a national profile and a cash reserve unmatched by any Democratic challenger. And Republicans control virtually all of state government.” Associated Press, December 12th. Guess!

I’m Peter Dekom, and denial with truly expensive fabrication of symptomatic solutions to genuine climate change not only fails to repair the damage; it makes the problem so much worse.