"Climate Change": -- "See it, Say it!" -- Eschew Obfuscation! Don't Avoid Saying "Climate Change." Talk Science and Sense to Americans!

Mayor Shaver is a leader on global ocean level rise but is timid about saying "climate change." I agree with St. Augustine Record columnist Steven Cottrell and The Washington Post -- we must not hide our light under a bushel basket, or "dumb down" our science to pander to morons.

Tell St. Augustine's beloved Mayor Nancy Shaver and other officials: IT's CALLED CLIMATE CHANGE: If you see, it say it!

Eschew obfuscation! Or as The Washington Post editorialized on October 14, 2017 (a little over an hour ago), "See it. Say it. Climate change."

Here's a Steven Cottrell column followed by a Washington Post editorial:


Posted September 27, 2017 12:02 am - Updated September 27, 2017 11:10 am
By STEVE COTTRELL Public Occurrences
St. Augustine Record
Where’s that Dutch kid when you need him?

In April 2016, I editorially suggested that sea level rise was a growing threat to St. Augustine. In response to that column, I received a handful of emails accusing me of spreading an unfounded, unscientific, left-wing fable of doom and gloom.

I wrote, “Notwithstanding ongoing debates about global warming and climate change, the water is rising. No question about that. Slowly but surely, the water is rising. And, while we need to find ways to minimize the inevitable damage, we can’t hold back the Atlantic Ocean.”

A year later, the Jacksonville Times-Union lauded St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver for her leadership in drawing attention to sea level rise in Northeast Florida and her work with Resiliency Florida — a public/private advocacy group helping coastal counties and communities prepare for the inevitable.

The April 7 Florida Times-Union editorial noted, “The sea is reclaiming part of (St. Augustine). It’s just a matter of how much. There is some time, but the longer the city waits to act the fewer choices there will be,” adding, “To ignore it would be an incredible act of irresponsibility toward our children and grandchildren.”

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St. Augustine presses for ‘policy change’ on sea level rise
Harvey. Irma. Maria. Why is this hurricane season so bad?
I agree with the Times-Union and join it in recognizing Mayor Shaver’s efforts.

Although the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew last October and Irma this September went far beyond sea level rise, those two storms did remind us that living along the Florida coast can definitely test our will, perseverance and pocketbooks.

A recent article in The Record included comments from Jesse Keenan — a man who researches the effects of rising sea levels on cities. Storm surge from hurricanes, along with flooding associated with ongoing climate change, concerns Keenan, who warns, “A lot is going to change in 30 years — this is just the beginning.”

Among the many things Keenan does, other than lecture about architecture at Harvard, is serve as a climate change advisor to the American Institute for Architects and the American Society of Civil Engineers — neither organization being apocalyptic, left-wing doomsayers.

Mayor Shaver believes in order to get a broad-based commitment for dealing with sea level rise, the phrase “climate change” needs to be avoided. During an interview on WJCT-FM in Jacksonville, she said, “The minute you go there, you aren’t able to focus on the issues at hand, which are really, ‘What is it that we do to adapt and to build anew?’”

She told listeners avoiding the term “climate change” helps keep politics from getting in the way of policy. I understand that kind of approach, but climate change is a fact, not an imaginary pseudoscience bogeyman, so let’s call it what it is.

In April, the St. Augustine City Commission learned from a University of Florida study that the sea level rise here over the next 15 to 85 years will likely be from a couple inches to more than 6 feet.

As noted at that 2016 meeting, planning for future sea level rise and ongoing flooding impacts needs to start now — not kicked down a dead-end road already littered with empty tin cans. In that regard, Mayor Shaver is leading the way. And good for her.

Although coastal cities in the Netherlands are actually below sea level and face potential flooding issues far greater than our frequent nuisance floods, Arnoud Molenaar, climate chief for the city of Rotterdam, has some sage advice:

“A smart city has to have a comprehensive, holistic vision beyond levees and gates,” he said in June. “The challenge of climate adaptation is to include safety, sewers, housing, roads and emergency services. And you need public awareness.”

Let’s hope Resiliency Florida is able to calmly examine sea level rise threats, come up with doable solutions and suggestions and advise the public accordingly.

If that happens, Nancy might become St. Augustine’s version of the little Dutch boy who put his finger in a dike and saved Holland.

Steve can be contacted at cottrell.sf@gmail.com

 Comment

Edward Adelbert Slavin · 

Bete noir at Community Activist

I agreee. Eschew obfuscation! Of as The Washington Post editorialized on October 14, 2017 (a little over an hour ago), "See it. Say it. Climate change."

See It, Say It: CLIMATE CHANGE
Washington Post Editorial

A firefighter works to defend homes from the approaching wildfire in Sonoma, Calif., on Saturday. (Jim Urquhart/Reuters)

By Washington Post Editorial Board October 14 at 6:12 PM

“NOTHING MORE than ash and bones.” That grim description of how some victims were found underscores the horror of the wildfires that swept through and devastated Northern California. At least 38 people were killed, including a 14-year-old boy found dead in the driveway of the home he was trying to flee, a 28-year-woman confined to a wheelchair and a couple who recently had celebrated their 75th anniversary. In addition to the lives lost, approximately 5,700 homes and businesses were destroyed, including entire neighborhoods turned into smoldering ruins. 

Some 220,000 acres, including prized vineyards, have been scorched, and the danger is not over, as some fires are still burning and officials fear the return of winds could spread more catastrophe. Fire season is part of life in California, something that residents know and prepare for after the hot, dry summer months. But the events that began last Sunday have been unprecedented, and so the question that must be confronted is what caused the deadliest week of wildfires in the state’s history. 

Gov. Jerry Brown (D) pointed the finger at climate change. “With a warming climate, dry weather and reducing moisture, these kinds of catastrophes have happened and will continue to happen and we have to be ready to mitigate, and it’s going to cost a lot of money,” he said last week.

No single fire can be specifically linked to climate change, and certainly other factors, such as increased development or logging and grazing activities, are involved. But scientists say there is a clear connection between global warming and the increase in recent years in the severity and frequency of wildfires in the West. “Climate change is kind of turning up the dial on everything,” expert LeRoy Westerling told CBS News. “Dry periods become more extreme. Wet periods become more extreme.” 

While California prepares for what promises to be an arduous rebuilding, Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and other places hit by this year’s unprecedented back-to-back-to-back hurricanes are still mopping up and, in Puerto Rico’s case, just beginning to rebuild. So it would seem to be a natural time to talk about the possible role climate change played in these disasters and about measures the nation should be taking to slow global warming. Instead, we have an administration that refuses even to consider the possibility of a connection, much less talk about solutions. Worse, it is taking steps in the wrong direction: pulling out of the Paris climate accord, reversing rules on power plant emissions, staffing key agencies with climate-change deniers. Sadly, that will increase the likelihood and frequency of tragedies such as the fires in California’s wine country.