Welcome To "Don't Say Climate!" Politics - Even As First Flailing Attempts To Cope W. What's Coming Begin

Last May, as blistering-hot weather broke records across South Florida and smoke from distant wildfires in Mexico turned the sky hazy, Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, signed legislation erasing most mentions of “climate change” from state law. “We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots,” he wrote on X. Back then, it felt like just another Florida story, a fresh example of the culture war overriding reality. In hindsight, it was a preview of where the country was headed.

President Donald Trump’s second term has plunged the United States into “don’t say climate” politics. Even as horrific floods and fires unfolded around the country this year, Republicans in Congress reversed the country’s only climate plan. The administration has deleted “climate change” from hundreds of government webpages and dismissed facts about the warming planet as “brainless fear-mongering rhetoric.” Rather than pushing back, Democrats have been talking about climate change less since the 2024 election, emphasizing “cheap energy” instead.

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You don’t necessarily have to mention climate change to start adapting to it — a phenomenon now seen all over the country. PG&E is burying its power lines underground to avoid sparking fires in California’s drying forests, in the name of “wildfire safety.” After Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston, the county began buying homes that have been repeatedly inundated and relocating residents, turning their former homes into open space to absorb floodwaters. “There’s been a radical increase in how many people are realizing that whether it’s flooding, drought, fire, air quality impacts from fire — take your example — the disasters have been getting out ahead of us,” said Katharine Mach, a professor of environmental science and policy at the University of Miami.

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Experts said the new focus on adapting to a changing climate was necessary, but they said that Gates — like many before him — needlessly pitted the need to adapt against the need to cut emissions when both things can happen at the same time. “Adaptation can actually not succeed, ultimately, if climate change goes unchecked,” Moser said. Today, the world has seen about 1.3 degrees C (2.3 F) of additional warming since before industrial times, but as Gates notes, it could reach 3 degrees C (5.4 F) by the end of the century. “A 3-degree world is not a world in which adaptation can provide well-being and health,” Moser said. “It’s just simply, people are living in ruins and are trying to basically survive.”

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https://grist.org/language/florida-adaptation-dont-say-climate-politics-bill-gates/