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SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Cooper on TAP

The Climate Dystopia Is Already Here

Greenhouse gas emissions are a clear and present danger to American
society.

In a 2018 CNN appearance, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said that while he
grudgingly supported some modest adaptation measures to handle climate
change, the cost must be taken into account. "I'm also not going to
destroy our economy. There's a reality here. There's a balance on
that end of it that we need to be focused on," he said
.
That's surely one reason why like every other Republican senator,
Rubio voted against

the Inflation Reduction Act, which was basically a huge climate bill.

The world-historical stupidity of this argument was exposed this week,
as Hurricane Ian laid waste
to
Rubio's home state of Florida. Cape Coral and Fort Myers suffered a
direct hit, with winds reaching 155 miles per hour and a possible 18
feet of storm surge
.
Large swaths of both cities were devastated, two bridges were knocked
out, and at time of writing more than two million people had no power.
Cleanup and repairs will probably cost in the tens of billions.

Rubio's portrayal of climate policy as being an economic burden is
backwards. It is climate change that poses a dire threat to the economy,
not to mention the physical existence of Florida as a state.

Obviously, hurricanes have hit Florida since time immemorial, but there
are strong reasons to think that climate change made Ian significantly
worse. As Andrew Freedman writes at Axios
,
Ian strengthened exceptionally quickly as it neared landfall-surging
from a Category 3 storm with winds of 120 miles per hour to very nearly
Category 5 in just a couple of hours on Wednesday morning.

In the past, hurricanes tended to weaken as they approached land, but
thanks to climate change, ocean temperatures are higher and a warmer
atmosphere can hold more moisture, both of which tend to strengthen
storms. Of the five fastest-strengthening hurricanes or cyclones ever
measured, four of them
have
come since 2015. Climate models are also clear on this point
:
Higher temperatures mean more extreme weather.

Indeed, in some ways Florida got lucky with Ian. The Tampa Bay region to
the north of Cape Coral is even more vulnerable

to storm surge, because of a great deal of ill-advised construction and
how the bay would magnify the effect of a direct hit (which has not
happened since 1921, before the city was much developed).

Meanwhile, sea level rise (up eight to nine inches since 1880
)
means more damage from storm surges. This rise has accelerated in recent
decades. Studies estimate that even with aggressive climate action,
something like two feet

of additional rise by 2100 is unavoidable-and it will probably be much
more than that. More recent work

has found that the enormous Thwaites Glacier on Antarctica is highly
unstable, and should it collapse, it would raise global sea levels by
about two feet just by itself. Similar threats can be found elsewhere on
the continent and on Greenland
.

Needless to say, sea level rise of this magnitude would erase big chunks
of Florida's major cities, particularly the Miami metro area, which
would be extremely difficult to protect with a seawall because it is
built on porous limestone
.

In short, no state more badly needs climate policy than Florida. But if
Republicans have anything to do with it, we can kiss Palm Beach goodbye.

~ RYAN COOPER

Follow Ryan Cooper on Twitter

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Katie Porter's Volunteer Army Hits the Doors

The progressive fighter in a swing district is staking a third term on a
prodigious volunteer effort, and straight talk on abortion and the
economy. BY DAVID DAYEN

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The 'Dobbs' Election

Democrats look to the ballot to punish Republican overreach on abortion.
BY ALEXANDER SAMMON

Undermining the Will of Georgia Voters

The vicious circle of voter suppression under way in Gwinnett County
sets the table for election subversion in November. BY GABRIELLE GURLEY

Republicans and Democrats Slug It Out in California's Central Valley

In the state's 22nd House District, it's Democrat Rudy Salas versus
Republican David Valadao. BY RAMENDA CYRUS

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