President Barack Obama will deliver a warning about climate change in Florida, where the Republican governor and two potential presidential candidates from the state have questioned the human impact on global temperatures.
Obama is visiting the Florida Everglades Wednesday to mark Earth Day with a speech highlighting the economic costs of ignoring climate change. He plans to use the backdrop of the Everglades’ fragile ecosystem to make the case for his environmental agenda and call out Republicans who have fought to derail it.
The state’s most prominent Republicans -- former Governor Jeb Bush, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and current Governor Rick Scott -- have all questioned the scientific consensus on climate change and its cause.
“Climate change can no longer be denied, or ignored.”
President Barack Obama
Obama, who recently called global warming a challenge that’s “bigger and longer-lasting than my presidency,” is seeking to elevate the issue as the 2016 presidential campaign is getting under way. In recent weeks, he has cited the health impact of climate change, toured solar-panel installations in Washington and Utah and pledged to reduce U.S. carbon emissions at least 26 percent by 2025.
“Rising sea levels are putting a national treasure -- and an economic engine for the South Florida tourism industry -- at risk,” Obama said on Saturday in his weekly address. “So climate change can no longer be denied, or ignored.”
Vulnerable State
Florida, with its 1,350 miles of coastline, is particularly vulnerable to rising seas and extreme weather events, according to the National Climate Assessment released last year by the Obama administration. As the largest presidential swing state Florida has become ground-zero in the climate debate.
Florida is also one of several Republican-led states that have objected to rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Unable to pass climate legislation in Congress, Obama has relied on the EPA to force cuts to carbon emissions through regulation.
The Everglades, a swath of wetlands that covers more than 1.5 million acres in southern Florida, has become a symbol for the economic and environmental threats posed by climate change, the White House has said. Saltwater intrusion has threatened the supply of drinking water for residents in South Florida, said Leonard Berry, former director of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
Rising Seas
“If you project a two- or three-foot rise in sea level over the next 20 to 60 years, you’re going to have a very compromised Everglades,” he said. “We are already experiencing difficulties.”
Obama plans to tour Everglades National Park and make the argument that the tourist site -- and the dollars it generates - - will be at risk if nothing is done to prevent rising temperatures. He also will announce new funding initiatives for national parks, said Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Matt Bellinger, who charters fishing boats in the Florida Keys, said he has already felt the impact of climate change on his business, with hotter temperatures driving away fish and damaging coral reefs.
“This ecosystem makes up much of our livelihood,” he said by telephone while fishing for tarpon in the Everglades. “If it sneezes we all catch a cold, because people come to go diving and snorkeling and to see the reefs.”
Scott, who has pledged to devote $5 billion over 20 years for restoration of the Everglades, accused Obama of failing to provide adequate federal funding for the effort.
Federal Commitment
“President Obama needs to live up to his commitment on the Everglades,” Scott said Tuesday in a statement. “Our environment is too important to neglect and it’s time for the federal government to focus on real solutions and live up to their promises.”
Scott has faced scrutiny this year after former officials accused his administration of banning them from using the words “climate change.”
“The administration didn’t want us to use those terms in official business,” Chris Byrd, an attorney who worked for the state’s Department of Environmental Protection from 2008 to 2013, said in an interview. “It required us to focus on issues other than the gorilla in the room.”
Jeri Bustamante, a spokeswoman for Scott, declined to answer questions about the alleged censorship. Scott has previously denied that the ban exists.
Rubio and Bush, who both live in low-lying areas of South Florida, have faced questions on climate change as they’ve met with voters in early presidential primary states.
Both have questioned the human influence on global temperatures and said Obama’s initiatives to curb carbon emissions would harm the economy.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that while Obama isn’t likely to cite Bush or Rubio by name during his visit to the Everglades, he does plan to elevate the issue of climate change as the 2016 elections approach.
“The president is hopeful that this will continue to add some momentum and energy to the ongoing political debate about climate change,” he said.
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