Even the Pentagon is
worried about climate change, and warned it could exacerbate the threat of terrorism, we learned in a report this week. And in the hot Florida governor's race, the increase in flooding in some areas
has become a campaign issue.
The flooding also poses a special challenge for conservative
politicians who are skeptical of the scientific consensus on
human-induced climate change. Some Republicans, like Scott, have
gradually arrived at a somewhat schizophrenic position, refusing
officially to take a position on global warming even as they ramp up
efforts to deal with its immediate effects.
The contradictions
were on full display in a week in which Scott dodged a debate question
about climate change while also helping to expedite a new flood-control
system for Miami Beach. The upgrades were completed just before this
year’s king tide and, in a further twist, just ahead of the arrival of
environmental groups and elected officials who planned to use the event
to call attention to rising sea levels....
The flap over tidal flooding caps a political season in which the
national divide over climate change appears starker than ever.
Throughout the country, environmental groups and industry-backed
political action committees are spending unprecedented sums in statewide
races targeting politicians who oppose their position on climate
change.
In
Kentucky, a coalition with ties to Republican strategist Karl Rove and
the billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch has targeted Democratic
Senate candidate Alison Grimes, whose stated belief in climate change
has stirred anxiety that she might support policies contrary to the
state’s coal industry.
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