As Irma closes in, Republican mayor of Miami blasts Trump for ignoring climate change

[question everything]

Source: ThinkProgress

As Hurricane Irma continues on its collision course with Florida, Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado, a Republican, criticized President Donald Trump and his administration for refusing to acknowledge the connection between climate change and more intense and destructive storms.

“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,” Regalado told the Miami Herald on Friday. “If this isn’t climate change, I don’t know what is. This is a truly, truly poster child for what is to come.”

(snip)

But, as Regalado explained, failing to address the underlying cause will doom major U.S. cities like Miami to keep repeating the same mistakes, leaving Americans unprepared to cope with ever-worsening natural disasters.

South Florida has long been considered ground zero for some of the most severe impacts of climate change, as sea level rise and coastal flooding meet decades of unchecked development. “Tidal flooding now predictably drenches inland streets, even when the sun is out, thanks to the region’s porous limestone bedrock,” Bloomberg’s Christopher Flavelle reported earlier this year. “Saltwater is creeping into the drinking water supply.”


Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/miami-mayor-irma-climate-change-06f79acce55d/

[janterry]

1. Gov. Scott, too

Shame on them both.

[nycbos]

18. Like typical Republicans they only care when something personally effects them

[NCjack]

2. But, Mr. Mayor has remained a Repug and betrayer of Miami. They day Regalado realized that

turned their backs on the America people and their great cities to deliver favors to the fossil fuel extraction and refining industries, he should have resigned the GOP and helped progressive DEMs advance an agenda to stop and reverse global warming. Apparently, he likes the perks of being a Repug.

[Achilleaze]

3. repuiblican lies about climate change have endangered America

republicans need to STFU, and stop lying about it.

[DFW]

4. "This is the time to talk about climate change." Really?

Twenty years ago was the time to talk about climate change, but you and your pals wanted no part of any such discussion at the time, or even a year ago.

How long can you tread water?

[hatrack]

5. Oh, you can talk about climate breakdown any old time . . . .

However, the time to talk about it in the hopes of actually doing something, or at least blunting the impact came and went.

That ship sailed 30 years ago.

[iluvtennis]

6. Agree that climate change initiatives hould have started 20 years ago, but it's never too late...

...our children's futures depend on it.

[OnlinePoker]

8. Well, Gore said in January 2006, we only had 10 years.

As quoted in an AP interview for his Sundance screening of An Inconvenient Truth, "And politicians and corporations have been ignoring the issue for decades, to the point that unless drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gases are taken within the next 10 years, the world will reach a point of no return, Gore said." In those 10 years, I heard numerous experts make similar claims. We've reached beyond those timelines and no concrete action has taken place. Your kids will inherit the world as it is, warts and all. There will be challenges and they will have to live up to them or fall by the wayside. Their future is now.

[Sunlei]

21. I still have the CD Gore put out & I heeded his science to buy the house & land I own now.

drainage plans, area above sea level, how far from bayous/rivers, have lots of good trees and grass cover.

barely withstood 50 inches of rain in a week! I can't wait to move out of Houston area, away from coastal zones.

IMO there will be more 50 inch rain weeks ahead because of global warming/climate change. Maybe 100 inches in a week with 185MPH hurricane winds- not enough for even the best drainage and highest above sea level property in any coastal areas.

[SunSeeker]

7. And yet he stays a Republican.

[moonscape]

23. The idea that science has become political

is so baffling.

[SunSeeker]

24. Science didn't become political. Republicans politicized reality as an excuse to deny it.

It is ONLY the Republicans who claim scientific facts are "political." They do this in order to deny them as if they were opinions, not facts. So please do not adopt the nomenclature of their propaganda, because that lets the GOP off the hook by suggesting science became politicized on its own or that all people are politicizing it.


What is baffling is the idea that the Republicans would rather deny reality in order to save the short term profits of the oil industry, instead of saving future generations. The craven shortsightedness is mind boggling. The choice of some to remain a Republican in the face of this, even when they recognize how wrong the Republicans are, is even more baffling.

[moonscape]

25. Yes, shorthand comments can give erroneous impressions.

[Nitram]

9. Why isn't the Mayor blasting the Governor of Florida?

[PSPS]

10. "cope with ever-worsening natural disasters" - We can stop referring to these as "natural" disasters

[left-of-center2012]

11. Mayor Regalado is wrong !

Trump has said:

1. Climate change is a Chinese hoax

2. That he (Trump) would never lie to us.

[rurallib]

12. republicans only care when their asses are on the line

Ever wonder how much of the climate change gasses can be attributable to Republican obstruction since - what - 1985 or so? I do.
Aren't they the party that always talks about taking responsibility for their actions? This would be a great place to start.

[red dog 1]

13. I say "Good for you, Mayor Regelado!"

I wish there were more Republican mayors with the courage to speak out against the evil, stupid, climate change denier that parks his fat ass in the Oval Office and spews nothing but hatred and lies every single day.

You, sir, are very likely now on Trump's shit list... which probably gets longer every day.


K&R!

[ananda]

14. Well ..

45 does need to get real about climate change.

However... the state of Florida is in such bad shape
politically and mentally that it's really futile to worry
about what 45 thinks or does.

Same for Texas. You reap what you sow, Reeps.

[BigmanPigman]

15. As the mayor, does he have any input about city planning?

Miami is expanding and building more and more. Why? They need to put funds into protecting what they already have and is in peril of being destroyed instead of expanding the city. All cities need to do this on their own and NOT wait for support from the Fed Govt. which will not come to the rescue and if it does it is already too little and too late. Countries like Holland are spending a ton to protect their cities which are at or below sea level. Republicans want less government regulations so they should put their money where their mouth is and act independently of Fed Govt.

[Sunlei]

22. new builds are 3/4 feet higher with concrete reinforced lower walls. roads/highways are old & low.

same problem Houston has, newer build homes/city buildings are regulated to build higher.

people stuck in homes because almost ALL roads & highways were under water.

America has a crumpling, old infrastructure problem, made worse because of global warming changes.

[CountAllVotes]

16. Day late and a $ short

for Don the Con.

Where's that government when you need it they ...

[sarcasmo]

17. Shame works, just ask Joel Osteen.

[3_Limes]

19. Aren't Florida officials barred from usimng that phrase?

Or maybe the Guv's orders are only at the state level?

[Sunlei]

20. soon the republican /w plagiarize all the climate change/global warming off Obama WH archives.

entire archives for white house.gov "Obama archives" right there online forever for the entire real world to read and understand.