By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –
Trump may be provoking a big exodus of Cuban-Americans in south Florida out of the Republican Party. His attack on DACA or Obama’s suspension of prosecution for undocumented Americans who were brought to this country as infants or young children was extremely unpopular in the Miami Cuban elite, even if they are Republicans.
Republican mayor of Miami, Tomás Regalado said of Trump’s attempt to get rid of DACA, “there is a united community clamoring for these youth to stay in this country, since it is their country. They are the future of the United States, and to deny them this possibility would be a historic error.”
Regalado and many other southern Florida politicians are also distressed about Trump’s denial of climate change).
Regalado replied to Environmental Protection Agency czar Scott Pruitt: “This is the time to talk about climate change. This is the time that the president and the EPA and whoever makes decisions needs to talk about climate change . . . ”
EPA head Scott Pruitt had tut-tutted that now is not the time to bring up climate change since doing so might offend the families who had lost someone. On Thursday Trump tweeted in that
Regalado is trying to raise $400 mn. through a bond issue, with half of the money slated to be invested in pump and storm drain improvements to help Miami cope with rising seas.
Just as there are no atheists in fox holes, there are few climate change denialists in Miami. Miami Beach is already seeing flooding some of the year each year. The soil under Miami is limestone and porous, so water can’t be blocked by a dike. Rather, the water will bubble up through the soil onto city streets as it rises. Regalado wants to raise $1 bn for infrastructure improvement related to surviving climate change.
Sooner or later other Republicans will follow Regalado’s lead (he is leaving office in two months but planning to run for congress) and step up to combat manmade climate change. As voters become convinced of the need to do something, those GOP representatives who choose to stick their heads in the sand like ostriches will simply begin losing elections.
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In the longer run, Miami will have to be abandoned against the ever rising seas. Why not start now?
That would be the logical thing to do.
for some Republicans its never a good time to discuss climate change because they don’t know how to talk about it. People whose family members have died due to hurricanes/flooding I’m sure want to talk about it. They most likely want to ensure measures are taken so it doesn’t happen to any one else’s family member.
Pruitt and trump don’t want to talk about it because it might “offend” or rather cut into the profits of some of their big contributors.
NYT has a very good editorial on Trump’s war against science. link to nytimes.com
My impression is that Trump’s government is not at war with science, e.g. global warming, but against mechanisms by which the federal government is informed by science: hear no science, see no science, speak no science.
Science has a major role in protecting the community by discovery, analysis, and developing protective measure regarding a wide range of natural and man made phenomenon that could have an adverse impact.
An informed government is obliged to act against potential harm. In turn this could require public expenditures, an anathema to the Trump administration, unless for military purposes.
But but a know nothing government (by choice with this administration) cannot be expected to react to a phenomenon it knows nothing about, and at the same time create it’s own science to respond to any public outcry about the phenomenon. Industries with potential liability are usually eager to help with this creative enterprise.