"Senator Rubio's energy policies may impress the Koch brothers,". But American voters are growing tired of his kind of slavish devotion to old, dirty energy sources that threaten our kids' futures." Denis Dison, communications director for the NRDC Action Fund
Image credit: Possibly NOAA NWS. Hurricane Sandy inundated Fort Lauderdale Beach with sand and water while paralleling, but quite a distance, from the SE Florida coast.
During the recent September GOP debate at the Reagan library, Marco Rubio stated his response to a question from social media regarding climate change "We’re not gonna destroy our economy the way the left-wing government wants to," "We are not gonna make America a harder place to create jobs in order to pursue policies that will do absolutely nothing, nothing to change our climate.” He continued and shamelessly invoked “thousands of lost jobs and billions of lost GNP to reduce carbon emissions,”, “I can tell you with certainty that reducing carbon emissions would have a devastating effect on our economy.” . This stance is a new evolution for Rubio and the entire GOP. They used to make a big-to-do about not being a Scientist and repeating in unison the absurd claim that there is "debate" among scientists (there wasn't).
Marco Rubio is not a stupid man. He just plays one for the feces throwing Republican base. During his storied career representing Miami in the Florida State Senate, he expressed interest in cap and trade He begged for federal socialist dollars, I mean he advocated for government dollars, in order to kick start business investment in the hopes that Florida could be the "Silicon Valley" of energy investment. In a 2007 speech, Rubio stated: “Global warming, dependence on foreign sources of fuel, and capitalism have come together to create opportunities for us that were unimaginable just a few short years ago,”. "Today Florida has the opportunity to pursue bold energy policies, not just because they are good for the environment, but because people can make money doing it.".
Today, like any of the wild and non-native chameleons residing in South Florida, he has changed his colors and moved away from his 2007 science based positions. Media Matters reports why he has done so.
Over His Career, Top Contributors To Rubio Include Oil & Gas Industry And Koch Industries. The Center for Responsive Politics found that over Rubio's legislative career, he has received: ◾$697,026 from the energy & natural resources sector, including $368,403 from the oil & gas industry (and $92,870 from oil & gas in the 2016 campaign cycle so far); ◾$362,826 from the Koch-linked Club for Growth, which is easily Rubio's top individual donor over his congressional career; ◾$48,350 from Koch Industries, one of Rubio's top-10 donors over his congressional career [Center for Responsive Politics, accessed 10/21/15; accessed 10/21/15; accessed 10/21/15] snip Top Rubio Donor Club For Growth Is Part Of Oil Billionaire Koch Brothers' Donor Network. As The Washington Post has noted, the Club for Growth has received funding from the Center to Protect Patient Rights, which has been used by the oil billionaire Koch brothers as an intermediary group to funnel money to various other front groups. The Center for Media and Democracy has further documented that many of the Club for Growth's donors "have ties to the Koch network of right-wing organizations and institutions." And the Center for Public Integrity has explained that "[o]il is the core of the Koch business empire." [The Washington Post, 1/6/15; Center for Media and Democracy, 8/31/12; Center for Public Integrity, 4/6/11]Dark Money Group "Conservative Solutions Project," Which Opposes EPA Climate Agenda, Has Spent Extensively On Rubio's Campaign. The Associated Press reported that all of the pro-Rubio television ads that have so far aired in the early primary states were paid for by a group called Conservative Solutions Project, which does not disclose its donors. The group has spent at least $8 million on Rubio so far in this election, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media's CMAG. From the Associated Press:
This is what Rubio is keeping from the American people. Greenhouse gases are causing the heating and melting of the worlds mountain glaciers which flow into the ocean. And it is those glaciers along with sea level rise caused by thermal expansion, that are currently the main threat to Florida's coastal cities. Adding to these problems is the amount of water which is currently frozen in the polar icecaps. Most, if not all of Greenland's glaciers and the glaciers in West Antarctica, have begun to rapidly decay and are beginning a slow and irreversible death promising an ecological and human disaster of biblical proportions. Even more alarming, top glacial scientists believe that sea level rise projections are too conservative.Despite his claims of economic disaster if we act on climate, the truth is that Florida's coastal assets total close to 800 billion dollars. And all of that property will be lost at some point due to sea level rise. The Miami Herald notes "By 2030, $69 billion in coastal property in Florida could flood at high tide that is not at risk today, the report found. That amount is projected to climb to $152 billion by 2050.". Ouch! Rubio does not want people to think about those facts. Think Progress explains how Florida's denial about climate change will bring a catastrophic recession to the country.
Florida has led the way in all but ignoring the growing twin threats created by human-caused climate change — sea level rise and superstorm surge — thereby creating a trillion-dollar real-estate bubble in coastal property. When the next superstorm like Katrina or Sandy makes its target Florida and bursts that bubble, the state can declare bankruptcy. So too could some insurance companies. But taxpayers — you and I — will get the several hundred billion dollar bailout bill.And a bailout will be the best-case scenario for all of us. When the coastal property real estate bubble bursts, what measures do we have in place to stop another catastrophic recession like the most recent one, which was also driven by a real estate bubble bursting?
Let’s do the math. There is now at least $1.4 trillion in property within 660 feet of the U.S. coast, a detailed analysis of the data by Reuters found. Worse, “incomplete data for some areas means the actual total is probably much higher.”
The non partisan Risky Business Project: Risky Business Project co-chairs Michael R. Bloomberg, Henry Paulson, and Tom Steyer tasked the Rhodium Group, an economic research firm that specializes in analyzing disruptive global trends, with an independent assessment of the economic risks posed by a changing climate in the U.S. Rhodium convened a research team co-led by climate scientist Dr. Robert Kopp of Rutgers University and economist Dr. Solomon Hsiang of the University of California, Berkeley. Rhodium also partnered with Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world's largest catastrophe-modeling company for insurance, reinsurance, and investment-management companies around the world. The report describes the inevitable collapse of the Florida economy due to climate change. In Florida, because of the porous limestone on which the major southern cities are built, even modest sea level rise comes at a significant economic cost. Under current projections, between $15 billion and $23 billion of existing property will likely be underwater by 2050, a number that grows to between $53 billion and $208 billion by the end of the century. There is a 1-in-20 chance that more than $346 billion in current Florida property will be underwater by the end of this century, and a 1-in-100 chance that more than $682 billion in property will be below mean sea levels. An additional $243 billion in property will likely be at risk during high tide that is not at risk today.As in the Northeast, greater flooding during hurricanes and other coastal storms, plus potential changes in hurricane activity, pose even greater and more immediate economic risks than mean sea level rise.
The Southeast will also likely be hit hardest by heat impacts. Over the past 30 years, the average resident of this region has experienced about 9 days per year at 95°F or above. Looking forward, if we continue on our current emissions path, the average Southeast resident will likely experience an additional 17 to 53 extremely hot days per year by mid-century and an additional 47 to 115 days per year by the end of the century. That's one and a half to four additional months of extreme heat each year.
This kind of weather could have serious economic impacts: Our research shows a decrease in labor productivity in high-risk sectors like construction, mining, utilities, transportation, agriculture and manufacturing of up to 3.1% by the end of the century in this region, and a smaller but still noticeable impact on labor productivity in low-risk sectors like retail trade and professional services.
We are also likely to see an additional 14 to 45 deaths per 100,000 people every year in this region over the course of the century due to increases in heat-related mortality, with urban residents at greater risk due to the heat island effect. At the current population of the Southeast, that translates into 11,000 to 35,000 additional deaths per year.
As Risk Committee member Dr. Alfred Sommer has pointed out, extreme heat will have a major impact on the capacity of local hospitals: “We just don't have the surge capacity left in the medical system anymore. . . .If these [impacts] occur in rural areas you're particularly in trouble."16 He goes on to note that in Chicago during the 1995 heat wave, local officials “didn't even have a place to properly store [bodies from] the 700 deaths . . . that occurred over a small number of days."17
The possibility of a Rubio Administration should cause any informed citizen to shudder in terror. His policies will be a disaster on so many levels. We must make sure that another clueless and greedy Republican presidency does not occur. Our lives depend on it.One of Rubio's many hometown gems that is succumbing to the Atlantic ocean.
Side of decorative stone barge showing steps and statues of Hermes in 1917 (top) and October 2015 (bottom). Top photo courtesy of the Construction Photograph Albums, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens. Bottom photo by Brian McNoldy.