Hurricane Dorian has gathered strength from the freakishly warm waters of the Caribbean to become a category 4. It is already raging with 130 mph winds, but is expected now to become even stronger. It is menacing the Bahamas, from which tourists can afford to flee; but what about the people who live there? It is still unclear whether it will head across Florida or turn north up the coast of the state, sparing it tremendous devastation. 

When once in 500 year events start happening several times a decade, then Something Big has Changed and they aren’t once in 500 year events any more.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has a better environmental policy than his Republican predecessors and has actually instructed the state’s Environmental Protection Agency to make decisions on the science about climate crisis impacts.

But, the Sun-Sentinel points out that DeSantis’ green image has a huge gap. He is doing nothing practical about the state’s carbon dioxide emissions, which are what cause sea level rise and warming oceans and monster hurricanes. 

The paper points out, “Most electricity in Florida is generated by fossil fuels including 61 percent from natural gas and 23 percent from coal. Natural gas is not clean. It’s also a dangerous fossil fuel that emits about half the carbon into the atmosphere as coal.”