I haven’t written in a while, one reason is a little bit of burnout. Another reason is because there is so much to write about but all we are hearing about is the Trump Trial. That may be the most damaging thing that Trump has done to the nation. Everything has to be about Trump so we don’t discuss the other problems that need our attention. Yes, the Trump trial is historic but we do have an election that we need to think about. I can’t help but figure what we decide in November will affect not only my grandchildren but my great grandchildren also.

In Florida we are approaching the next Hurricane season and it is being predicted to be a very active one. When it comes to hurricanes no other State is affected as much as Florida. There have been 467 Hurricanes that have hit America, 120 of those have hit Florida. Texas and Louisiana fall a distant second and third at 64 and 62. Florida the so called “Sunshine State” is at least affected by 40 percent of all Hurricanes in U. S. history. About a fifth of the Hurricanes that have hit Florida are at least a Category 3 in strength. This is according to statistics from the World Population Review.  It is early May and we are already experiencing weather in the 90s so you could say summer has come a little early this year. Last year we only had one Hurricane that hit us and that was Idalia but it was a Category 3. In 2022 we had 2 hit Florida and they were Ian that was a Category 4 when it made landfall and Nicole which was a Category 1. Ian was one of the most costly hurricanes in our history that I just happened to experience here in Ft. Myers. It has been almost 2 years but you still see the scars everywhere. Sanibel Island and Ft. Myers Beach are not even close to being recovered and won’t be for years to come. Repairs to the causeway leading out to Sanibel will probably not be completed till the summer of 2025, almost three years post Ian.

You would think that the State of Florida would be very interested in protecting the State from the effects of Climate Change because it really affects Florida maybe more than any other State. Instead of being proactive they remain reactive combating the effects of “Climate Change” after the disasters instead of trying to combating “Climate Change” itself. As I have said many times I have seen the effects of what a great storm can do to devastate an entire area. Climate Change is real and the State of Florida is Ground Zero for the effects. It is not a crisis in the making. It is a crisis that is already here.

 Our Governor has gotten a lot of credit for the efforts to restore the Everglades. I think that it is great they want to restore the Everglades but unless DeSantis looks at the bigger picture he is just throwing away our money. Why would you ask? With the encroachment of saltwater from our rising seas in the not so far future the Everglades will not exist. Our seas are rising. They are not only rising worldwide because of our melting polar caps but also because warm water expands and takes up more space as it heats up. It is the expansion of the warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean is the reason why the water levels are rising faster here in Florida than anywhere else in the United States. Unchecked the seas will just swallow up the Everglades along with much of South Florida. Just like “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis has signed legislation that eliminates that phrase “Climate Change”. Eliminating the phrase does not eliminate the problem. It is just an effort to hide the one thing that will harm the State of Florida more than any other.

DeSantis is a smart man. I am pretty sure that he knows that climate change is real. What DeSantis does is he votes, in my opinion, for the favor of the Republican Party and its donors. Just like there is money to be made by transforming our economies to a green economy there is money to be made by ignoring Climate Change. DeSantis says that our climate should not be political. That alone is a political statement  that says he doesn’t want to do anything. Florida continues making it harder for communities to come up with their own plans for climate change to the point to discouraging bike lanes and mass transportation. Florida wants us in our cars burning fossil fuel. Florida’s Department of Education has approved climate denying videos that experts have called dangerous propaganda. In 2008 a bill to promote renewable energy was passed unanimously by both house in Florida and now they want us to be more dependent on fossil fuels that are non-renewable. Republican Bobby Payne stated “We’re protecting consumers, we’re protecting consumer pricing, we’re protecting them with the reliability and we’re protecting to make sure we don’t have a lack of energy security in our state.” After seeing inflation rise in Florida higher than anywhere else in the country and watching our insurance premiums become the highest in the country the one thing that I know what Florida in not protecting is the consumer. Just follow the money and you discover the power.

When Ian hit Florida there was a great amount of destruction. Some people lost everything but with every disaster there is opportunity. There is huge amount of money to be made off of other people’s suffering. Here is a small example that I like to use. I lost a door during Ian that the insurance company gave me 500 dollars for. Because we had to upgrade the door to be Hurricane compliant it cost me 7000 dollars to replace. That is disaster recovery in a nut shell. When capitalism rules one person’s disaster is another person’s opportunity. You have a beachfront home that is totally swept off its foundation and you can’t afford to rebuild. Along comes someone else that buys your beachfront lot for as low as he can and then puts up a high-rise worth much, much more. Everything is driven by the quest for profit and when there is money to be made, that is what is going to drive a recovery. Not charity, not doing the right thing, profit is what is going to drive a recovery. That is like a pharmaceutical company looking at Cancer as an opportunity to make a profit selling drugs instead of the terrible sickness that it is.