Earlier opinion pieces in South Florida media about climate, rising seas

Here are opinion pieces published in the Palm Beach Post, Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald before we started the “Invading Sea” project.

Sun Sentinel

Editorials:

South Florida business leaders add muscle to call on climate change | Editorial

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-editorial-climate-action-plan-20171219-story.html

Trump should hear South Florida on climate change pact | Editorial

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-editorial-climate-agreement-20170531-story.html

Continued denial leaves Florida in climate change crosshairs | Editorial

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-editorial-hurricanes-climate-change-20170919-story.html

Columns:

Why Florida needs Gov. Scott to engage on climate change | Opinion

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-column-randy-schultz-climate-change-20170606-story.html

King tides wash away South Florida’s climate change skepticism | Fred Grimm

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/fl-op-column-fred-grimm-king-tides-climate-change-20171102-story.html

Viewpoints:

Trump ignores science. It’s time to take a stand. | Opinion
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-op-viewpoint-trump-ignores-science-20180206-story.html

Accepting climate change first step to protecting Florida land | Opinion
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-viewpoint-south-florida-climate-change-20170425-story.html

Challenge of sea level rise cuts across the aisle | Opinion
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-viewpoint-sea-level-20161219-story.html

Miami rises to meet climate challenge | Opinion
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-op-viewpoint-miami-climate-change-challenge-20171127-story.html

Climate action key to moving Florida forward | Opinion

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/fl-op-climate-change-action-naacp-20170720-story.html

After Hurricane Irma, Florida must rebuild for resilience | Opinion

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-op-florida-rebuilding-after-hurricane-irma-20171020-story.html

PALM BEACH POST
Editorials and opinion pieces

Sept. 8, 2017

Editorial: Gov. Scott’s Irma leadership undercut by his climate denial
Applause to Gov. Rick Scott for responding so quickly and decisively to Irma, this monster bearing down upon us.
On Monday, Labor Day, while the then-Category 4 was hundreds of miles away, nearly a week before projected landfall at Florida’s tip, Scott declared a state of emergency for all 67 counties. For days, he has appeared in his “Navy” ball cap in the role of commander of Florida’s emergency response, issuing orders and advice and demanding that citizens take the storm seriously. Scott’s quick action undoubtedly will have saved lives.
Once the wind dies down and the water recedes, we hope he can be just as decisive in abandoning his tunnel vision when it comes to the threat of climate change. His shortsightedness, and that of other climate “skeptics” have kept this nation from doing all it could to slow the escalation of such weather-driven catastrophes as this.

https://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/opinion/editorial-gov-scott-irma-leadership-undercut-his-climate-denial/44qVCYgU4Wg6kWlwzVpW1J/
April 21, 2016
Editorial: GOP congressman may signal thaw in climate debate

“I’m going to tell you something you rarely hear a member of Congress say,” U.S. Rep. David Jolly told a University of South Florida audience recently. “I think the climate’s changing. I think man’s had an impact, and we need to stop arguing about the science.”
What makes this news is that Jolly, of Pinellas County, is a Republican. And it’s practically holy writ within the GOP to say that man-made climate change isn’t real, that the science is inconclusive and that steps to curb greenhouse emissions would scuttle the economy.
But as Jolly, a candidate for his party’s Senate nomination, elaborated to the Tampa Bay Times, he has become frustrated “with those in my own party who insist on fighting over the science instead of fighting over the solutions.”
https://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/opinion/editorial-gop-congressman-may-signal-thaw-climate-debate/yTLTTxQ7EDqVcd8zr7hBjN/
December 2017
Goodman: Counties, and now some businesses, focusing on climate threat
In a state where the governor is famous for reportedly banishing the words “climate change” from state employees’ vocabularies, you might think that no one is preparing for a world where sea levels are rising.
A rise that poses a vital threat to that very same low-lying coastal state.
You’d be surprised. For the last nine years, government leaders from the four counties of Florida’s southeast corner — Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe — have been meeting regularly to figure out how to meet the common challenges from a future of greater flooding, fiercer storms, bigger storm surges, worse heat waves. A future that looks like it’s arriving faster all the time.
Without drawing much public attention, they’ve been working together as the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact, thinking about problems as big and diverse as sea walls, flood insurance and building codes. The group has been growing, quietly, year by year.

https://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/opinion/goodman-counties-and-now-some-businesses-focusing-climate-threat/ZjIHiFlMGmkxzgVQLUx6qI/

June 2017
Goodman: Mayors of West Palm, Delray Beach defy Trump on climate change. Good for them.

West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio and Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein deserve praise — and their citizens’ thanks — for standing up with 184 other mayors for the Paris Climate Agreement despite President Donald Trump’s wrong-headed renunciation of the global pact.
The two mayors from Palm Beach County joined the so-called Climate Mayors, a group that stretches from Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti to New York’s Bill de Blasio, in making a strong response to Trump’s withdrawal from the accords of 195 nations to curb the planet’s warming from the burning of fossil fuels.
“As 186 Mayors representing 40 million Americans, we will adopt, honor, and uphold the commitments to the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement,” the Climate Mayors declared Thursday, adding:
We will continue to lead. We are increasing investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. We will buy and create more demand for electric cars and trucks. We will increase our efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, create a clean energy economy, and stand for environmental justice.

Goodman: Mayors of West Palm, Delray Beach defy Trump on climate change. Good for them.