They say that we can't afford more green initiatives. Maybe the right question is can we afford not to. Since 1980 there have been 396 weather climate disasters where overall damage/cost reached at least 1 billion dollars. The total cost of these 396 events exceeds 2.780 trillion dollars. Just look at all the disasters that can be attributed to climate change, Drought, Floods, Tropical Storms. Freezes, Wildfires, Severe Storms, and Winter Storms. Climate Change has affected all of these. All of these problems have been around since the beginning of time but because of man's influence on the environment it has gotten more extreme. 2023 was a record year for billion dollar events with 23, surpassing 2020 which had 22 billion dollar weather events. Between 1980 to 2023 we have averaged 8.5 billion dollars CPI adjusted events. The last 5 years between 2019 to 2023 we have averaged 20.4 CPI adjusted events. Things really do seem to be getting worse. 

I live in Florida where we are very vulnerable to almost all of the catastrophic weather events. We are basically ground zero for climate change. Who would ever think of droughts in Florida, well we have them. Deep freezes that devastate our agriculture, we have them. Flooding, we have them. Tornadoes, we have them and not just when there is a Hurricane. Wildfires, we have them because some areas can have severe droughts. We even have Iguanas falling out of tree hazards when the weather gets too cold.  I thought that was a joke the first time I heard that one. In fact, the only thing that we don't have are winter storms. Most people when they think of Florida weather all they think about are Tropical Storms and Hurricanes but we have many many more problems besides Hurricanes. 

This year we have had a whole lot of rainfall. In fact we are about 11 inches above normal. We have seen minor flooding all over Southwestern Florida because the rain has overwhelmed the infrastructure. In some communities our Governor, in his infinite wisdom, vetoed badly needed funds that were to help alleviate the flooding problems. In fact, our Governor has made it so legislation can't even say Climate Change like ignoring the problem will just make it go away. He has basically killed any offshore wind farms. One of our most successful communities in all of Florida in the solar community of Babcock Ranch is powered by solar electricity. Well guess what? In the Sunshine State our Governor DeSantis wants our electricity coming from oil or natural gas. Isn't that one of the most asinine things that you have ever heard? If Florida has an overabundance of anything it is sunshine and we should be taking advantage of that. We should be leading the way in clean energy instead of just saying that we are going to continue the usage if fossil fuels that in reality are going to kill the State of Florida. 

As I am sure all of you know, the State of Florida is one big peninsula. We have the Atlantic Ocean on one side. We have the Gulf of Mexico on the other side.  To our south we have the Florida Straights connecting the two bodies together. What happens on the oceans has a great deal of affect on the entire state. The warmer the water get the more powerful the Tropical Storms become. Our rising sea levels are from the melting of the glaciers and the snow caps but also from the expansion of the warmer water that surrounds three quarters of our State. The higher the oceans that will just make all of our coasts that much more vulnerable. It will mean just more erosion of our beautiful beaches until they are gone. It will mean how much more vulnerable our communities will be to the ever growing strength of the hurricanes that have always been a part of our state's legacy. Trump while talking, first stated that the falling seas were not our problem. Where he got that I don't have a clue. He has also said that the rising seas will just give us more water front property.  That does seem like something that Trump would say but it wouldn't be even close to the truth. What it is doing is putting many properties that are owned by very rich and important people and corporations in jeopardy of being swallowed up by the sea. Just think of whose responsibility it is going to fall upon to save places like Mar-a-Lago. It is going to fall onto the Federal Government and the Local and State Governments. Who is going to pay that bill. If you said those billionaires or rich corporations I think you would be wrong. It is going to fall upon you and me, the tax payers, of this great nation. The people that helped cause the problem will be long gone and will never be held accountable. 

I saw one Trump for President commercial today while I was watching football. Was it about something that is affecting much of the nation like Climate Change or Russian interference in our election? If you guess that you would be wrong. It was about transsexual surgery. I don't know about you but that doesn't seem to be a problem that is plaguing the future of our nation. I don't know of a single person in my community of 100 condos that is contemplating surgery to become another sex. I do know that everyone of those 100 units and really the entire surrounding area is at risk because of climate change. The damage that Ian did you can still see everywhere. Ft. Myers Beach isn't even 50 percent back, neither is Sanibel Island. It is the dangers to our communities that they are ignoring and talking about things that just become smoke screens so they don't have to discuss the real problems. Banning transsexual surgeries may make my religious relatives happy but it will do absolutely nothing  to make any of our lives better here in Southwestern Florida. In fact it will do nothing to really improve anyone's life. 

We have an election. We have two choices. One choice as I see it is we can stay stagnant and watch everything around us get worse while the one percent get richer. Or,  we can vote for the one that wants to bring about change and hope for a better future. I am a parent and a grandparent and when I leave this earth I want to leave with a sense of hope for the future generations that will come after me. Trump will not bring that but I really think that Kamala Harris will try. I am voting for Kamala.