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How Elected Officials Most Hit by Harvey and Irma Feel About Climate Change

After the devastation of Harvey and Irma, holding elected officials accountable for their stance on climate change is more important now than ever

by Kastalia Medrano

September 13, 2017, 7:30pm

Photos via Flickr.

Many lawmakers agree with the overwhelming scientific majority that says climate change amplifies natural disasters, such as hurricanes Irma and Harvey. Some legislators, however, continue to dodge the question, which is unfortunate since it's mostly red states whose constituents are already being forced to move or have had their businesses destroyed.

Getting politicians who often have direct oversight of crucial resources to acknowledge the contribution of human activity to global warming has nothing to do with activists being able to say they told them so -- it's imperative that elected officials acknowledge and address climate change so they can begin adapting infrastructure to withstand it. When they fail to do so, people die; our coastal cities aren't built to survive unprecedented forces like Irma.

In the aftermath of the two hurricanes making landfall, here's what a few of the local politicians affected had to say about climate change making the storms more deadly.

Tomas Regalado, Republican mayor of Miami

"This is the time to talk about climate change. This is the time that the president and the EPA and whoever makes decisions needs to talk about climate change … If this isn't climate change, I don't know what is. This is a truly, truly poster child for what is to come."

In one of the bright points of Republican response, Regalado put pressure on Trump and the EPA to acknowledge climate change as a factor in the recent superstorms. Hurricane Irma has forced thousands to evacuate Miami. A Cuban-American former journalist, Regalado has previously referred to climate change as "the biggest challenge the city of Miami will ever face."

He was one of the 15 South Florida mayors to write to then-presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush last year urging them to begin collaborating on a plan of action against the effects of climate change in their state.

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Greg Abbott, Republican Governor of Texas

"[Hurricane Harvey is] one of the largest disasters America has ever faced … We need to recognize it will be a new normal, a new and different normal for this entire region."

"New normal" sounds like a public acknowledgment of climate change. It is not. Abbott is a long-time denier of climate science, and all he's saying here is that this is simply how things are now, for no reason. Incredibly, he maintained that opinion even while writing this letter to Trump asking for federal assistance:

"Hurricane Harvey's rapid intensification has furthermore resulted in strained resources … Considering time sensitivity and anticipated geographic scale of the storm, the scope of this event will rapidly overwhelm the state's ability to provide response and recovery assets to save Texans and protect property and critical infrastructure."

Bill Nelson, Democratic Senator of Florida

"As the Earth heats up, two-thirds of the Earth is covered in water. That's the oceans. Ninety percent of that heat is absorbed by the oceans. When water is heated, what happens? It expands. Now, it expands in different places. South Florida is one of the places that is seeing sea level rise upwards of eight inches in the last four decades … As the earth continues to heat up, if we don't stop heating up, it will all the more rise. So since warm water is a fuel for hurricanes, you start to see the effect: that you will have more frequent storms, and they will be more ferocious, if they are fed by that hot water."

This was part of a statement over the weekend in which Nelson unequivocally linked Irma to climate change, warning that we needed to prepare for more superstorms in the near future.

John Bel Edwards, Democratic Governor of Louisiana

Edwards is that special kind of Democrat who has some reservations about this whole science thing, and isn't convinced we contribute to global warming. A representative recently told a reporter that the governor's stance after Harvey is the same as it was last year, which was:

"The degree to which human conduct is impacting that change is, I think, somewhat debatable."

Mitch Landrieu, Democratic mayor of New Orleans

One of the mayors to pledge commitment to the Paris agreement after Trump chose to withdraw, Landrieu spearheaded a climate action plan in his city and has spoken out against global warming in the past. Despite that, his statements in the wake of Hurricane Harvey have yet to explicitly name climate change as a factor. Until he does, we're left with this statement he made over the summer:

"Climate change is one of the greatest threats to our coastal communities, nation and world…In New Orleans, we face a triple threat: subsidence, coastal erosion and sea level rise. If unchecked, New Orleans, like many coastal cities, will be forced to retreat. This strategy will help us transition to a low-carbon economy that not only helps manage our climate risk, but also creates new businesses, jobs, and wealth."

Ted Cruz, Republican Senator of Texas; John Cornyn, Republican Senator of Texas; Marco Rubio, Republican Senator of Florida; Rick Scott, Republican Governor of Florida: John Neely Kennedy, Republican Senator of Louisiana; Bill Cassidy, Republican Senator of Florida

Each has denied or voiced doubt about human contribution to climate change in the past. The sort-of exception would be Cornyn, who has vaguely referenced man having an effect on "the environment," but went on to say the government shouldn't respond to it. And he, alongside Cruz, was happy to vote for federal hurricane relief for Harvey, which hit their state, after voting against it in 2012 for Hurricane Sandy, which hit somebody else's state. It's telling that Sylvester "Sly" Turner, the Mayor of Houston, joined a group of other mayors in calling on Trump to take action on climate change.

Find out more information about how you can get your local leader on board with the devastating problem of climate change.

Tagged:hurricane irmahurricane harveyRepublicansDemocratsclimate changetexasFloridaImpact