When a meteorologist warns Floridians of an impending hurricane and the catastrophic damage that could result from such a storm, most people heed the warnings and batten down the hatches. Recently, scientists discovered that a massive ice sheet in Antarctica melted past the point of return, and in the coming decades could seriously threaten coastal cities, especially those in Florida.
Many will scream that it’s a conspiracy perpetuated by the left in order to force more government into our lives. Others will shrug at the news as they sip a cool drink in Miami Beach, enjoying the waves crashing into shore. Never mind the increased flooding that’s already plaguing parts of Miami, or the point-blank warnings that cities such as Miami will cease to exist if the oceans rise as expected.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio doubts the existence of global warming, claiming that temperatures on earth have stabilized. The popular political fact-checking group PolitiFact rated Rubio’s claim “mostly false,” yet that ranking will probably do little to change Rubio’s rhetoric. As a son of south Florida, how could a man vying for the White House ignore what could very well be the defining humanitarian and planetary crisis of the 21st century?
Sure, you could write off that previous sentence as leftist hyperbole — and there’s no doubt many of you will — but when 97 percent of scientists agree that the world is changing for the worse, perhaps we should not cry conspiracy so soon.
Maybe our lack of belief in global warming has something to do with the enormous challenge it is to actually prevent the catastrophic consequences we face. The small changes are starting with severe droughts devastating the western U.S., leading to sizable increases in food prices and the terrifying report that some in Texas are resorting to drinking from the toilet, because water is so scarce.
Rubio and others can ignore or placate their base in order to win an election, but what kind of country does Rubio want to lead? One that let its cities drown and farmland turn to desert, or one that admits we have a serious problem and takes action?
The U.S. used to be a country that set goals and took action. We built the Panama Canal, defeated fascism in Europe, won the Cold War and remain the only nation on Earth that put men on the moon. Hell, now we can’t even get into space without hitching a ride from our former Cold War adversaries, the Russians.
It’s time we stopped screwing around, kicking dirt, waiting for the next generation to take action, and it’s well past time for politicians — our supposed leaders — to ignore the warnings, unless Marco Rubio wants to visit his grandchildren in this century’s Lost City of Atlantis: Miami Beach.
Defeating climate change is not something that the government can accomplish on its own. Instead, it takes all of us admitting that there’s a problem and that we need to do something before it’s too late. Cutting back on our energy consumption, driving less and pressuring our leaders to act are just some of the ways we can try to prevent a cataclysmic shift on earth.
If we listen to the meteorologist — a scientist — before a hurricane hits, let’s listen to the scientists about climate change. It just might save our lives and the lives of future generations, along with humanity. Sometimes the meteorologists are wrong about the hurricanes, and we boarded up our houses and evacuated for nothing, but we are better to be prepared than dead.
Best case, the scientists are wrong, and at least we’ll be living on a cleaner planet that understands the symbiotic relationship we have with the Earth and all the living things gracing our big. blue marble in space. Worst case, we’ll be prepared for whatever comes our way.
[Joel Mendelson is a UF graduate student in political campaigning. His columns appear on Thursdays. A version of this column ran on page 6 on 5/29/2014 under the headline "Prepare for a worst-case climate scenario"]
