[Hurricane Ian isn’t a once-in-500-years flooding event, it is
the New Normal. And Gov. DeSantis policies in Florida are making it
worse.]
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DEAR GOV. DESANTIS: YOU’RE WRONG ABOUT FLOODING  
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Juan Cole
September 30, 2022
Informed Comment
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_ Hurricane Ian isn’t a once-in-500-years flooding event, it is the
New Normal. And Gov. DeSantis' policies in Florida are making it
worse. _

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Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has
abruptly been handed an honest-to-God crisis that may distract him
from his usual antics of trolling Venezuelan asylum-seekers, firing
elected prosecutors who disagree with him on coerced childbirth,
and firing scientists who wouldn’t manipulate state COVID
statistics
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him.

DeSantis called Hurricane Ian a once-in-a-500-year flood event.
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DeSantis, who hates people who know what they are talking about the
way the devil hates holy water, shouldn’t be relied on for either
science or history. The flooding caused by Ian could well be the worst
for _thousands_ of years. The most recent warm era in the north
Atlantic, the medieval warming period, around 900-1200, seems to have
seen ocean surface temperatures that were still colder than today’s.
It is our very warm surface ocean temperatures that feed monster
storms such as Ian. Moreover, it isn’t going to be something that
only happens once in a half-millennium. Massive hurricanes and floods
are the new normal caused by humans burning petroleum, coal and fossil
gas, which puts billions of tons a year of the dangerous heat-trapping
gas, carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.

This is the same DeSantis who signed a bill into law
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forbade Florida municipalities from getting off fossil fuels and
turning to wind and solar instead by restricting land use, banning
fracking, or interfering with pipelines. The law was supported by the
Florida Natural Gas Association. Sunny Florida, which could put in as
much solar power as California if its government wanted to, is instead
locked into getting 70% of its power from dirty fossil gas, which
produces the CO2 that heats the oceans and calls forth monster storms
like Ian.

This is the same DeSantis who according to the Orlando Weekly
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to prohibit state investments that use ‘environmental, social and
governance” ratings, which can include taking into account impacts
of climate change.'” Kartik Krishnaiyer at The New Republic
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that although DeSantis has in the past paid lip service to
acknowledging human-caused climate change, in recent years he has done
nothing to abate it or prepare Florida for the ever worsening storms
and sea level rise it will face.

_Article continues after bonus IC video
Democracy Now! “”Reality of Global Warming”: Hurricane Ian’s
Power Shows How Climate Change Supercharges Storms”
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So let us underline this policy. The governor of the most vulnerable
state in the union to the climate emergency is pulling $250 billion of
state investments out of corporations that have a social conscience,
including ones working to stop the worst effects of climate change.
His rationale? These companies are “woke.” DeSantis wants to be
president so much that he is playing to the MAGA crowd in the
Republican Party with these self-defeating stunts, mortgaging
Florida’s future to his political fortunes. It is the textbook
definition of corruption.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is full of
people who know what they are talking about, explains the link
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tropical ocean water and hurricanes. They conclude, “Recent studies
have shown a link between ocean surface temperatures and tropical
storm intensity – warmer waters fuel more energetic storms.”

NOAA notes that hurricanes subside when they go north over colder
water or go inland, and lose the fuel of their hot water base. One
problem we are now seeing is that the ocean water up north is no
longer as cold, and there are more and more warm-water anomalies where
water is 80 degrees F. (26.6C) or more so hurricanes can remain strong
all the way up to New York, Boston and even Newfoundland. The water
off Newfoundland used to be cold. It isn’t that it never got hit by
a storm, but in the future the impact will be more severe and more
frequent, according to the CBC.
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Here is how a meteorologist explained the vast destruction that befell
Newfoundland from Hurricane Fiona recently:

If Newfoundland is in trouble, you know Florida is under the hammer.

You know it. Ron DeSantis, one of the dumber and more sinister
politicians now vying for the presidency — so that he can ruin the
whole country the way he has ruined Florida — doesn’t.

_Juan Cole [[link removed]] is the founder and chief editor
of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History
at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other
books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires
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Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
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Follow him on Twitter at @jricole
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the Informed Comment Facebook Page
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* Florida
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* Hurricane Ian
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* Ron DeSantis
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* Global warming
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* Climate Change
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