Editor, The Beacon:
When I sat on the City Council for a city in western Volusia County, our congressional representative in Washington was John Mica. He was widely admired as an effective voice for Volusia County. That all changed when our congressional representative came to be Ron DeSantis. In my view, a view shared by many, he had no interest in issues affecting Volusia County. Instead, he was only interested in advancing his political career.
Now, as Florida’s governor, he has signed a bill that strikes climate change from state law. He did this despite the reality of climate change that threatens Florida, including projections of rising seas, extreme heat and flooding, and increasingly severe storms. According to an ABC news item, “He believes there has been an attempt to stoke ‘fear’ around global warming.” Nothing could be further from the truth. To deny climate change is totally ludicrous.
As a retired meteorologist, I attest that we were talking about the coming global warming issue in the 1970s, when I started my career. The World Meteorological Organization has climate records that date back to 1850, based in part by hourly weather observations, recorded around the world, including over our oceans, where ships routinely record hourly weather observations as well. They all record temperatures in addition to many other parameters.
It takes little effort to accumulate this temperature information into computerized databases, which clearly show that average worldwide temperatures have been increasing since at least 1850.
Elected officials failed to heed our warnings in the 1970s, and, sadly, elected officials like Ron DeSantis still refuse to accept credible evidence of global warming.
Bill Gates, in his book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, provides clear evidence that human activity increasingly exacerbates the global warming that we are experiencing. Moreover, he clearly spells out the coming disaster if we fail to take necessary action.
The fact that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that strikes climate change from state law is reckless and foolhardy.
Michael Wright
Deltona
