Posted on 19 May 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom, John Hartz

Story of the week

“The legislation I signed today [will] keep windmills off our beaches, gas in our tanks, and China out of our state." — Ron DeSantis, conflating geopolitics and consumer choices with anthropogenic climate change.

Thanks to it being about fake skepticism, our story of the week concerns Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his efforts aided by the Florida state legislature to purge Florida's government of the entire concept of human-caused climate change and the inevitable public policy replies dictated by our clumsy, too-rapid disruption of Earth's more typical climate dithering. Coverage includes:

• DeSantis signs bill scrubbing ‘climate change’ from Florida law
• DeSantis Signs Law Deleting Climate Change From Florida Policy
• DeSantis says he`s `restoring sanity` by erasing climate change from Florida laws

Governor DeSantis joins a small cadre of other elite, empowered cranks who've walked broadly similar paths. Picking on the most notorious person previously afforded the opportunity to attempt conjuring reality out of existence at the highest levels of access, we may ask a question. Who leaves a more lasting impact on our planet by confusing political ideology with scientific knowledge, Joseph Stalin's protege Trofim Lysenko, or Ron DeSantis? The two share a flaw— dictating politically acceptable understanding of matters connected to science even when doing so requires science denial— but whose impact endures the longest? 

By commingling political ideology with science, Lysenko caused acutely disastrous effects on agriculture in his country. However, Lysenko's drastic sway over the USSR's scientific community was fairly narrowly confined in both scope and time. After his ascent to prominence in the 1930s, Lysenko's star was rapidly fading a mere 30 years later. Mass starvation thanks to pseudoscientific practices and liquidations of "wrong-thinking" Mendelian geneticists quietly ended and now appear as relatively small features of the USSR's huge history. Lysenko's longest shadow ended up cast on scientific progress never realized thanks to his critics in academia having a tendency to end up dead or imprisoned. 

Rather than erupting from the scientific establishment as with Lysenko, Governor DeSantis emerged from the world of law and he's also playing a role less directly and immediately lethal to residents of Florida and scientists practicing there. But to the extent that it is successful, DeSantis' legislative accomplishment is similar to Lysenko's. It prohibits fully truthful and useful discussion and acknowledgement of climate science in public policy. To ban the term "climate change" in law and policy is fundamentally a denial of the existence of useful scientific knowledge. As with Lysenko's preposterous but mandatory omissions of true and useful understanding of plant genetics in the former USSR, this will have powerful ripple effects.

From a local perspective, Florida is unusually threatened by multiple aspects of climate change. It's safe to say that any friction applied to Florida's governmental response to these challenges will come at cost to residents of Florida. For instance, the state is already facing a dire insurance problem in connection with intensifying precipitation and rising sea level. It's fair to ask how DeSantis' theatrical stance addresses this conundrum. It truthfully can't, because the legislation's entire point is to avoid and prohibit mentioning "climate change." Meanwhile banned wind turbines, the cost of gas at the pump roughly tracking inflation over the years and Chinese communists hiding beneath our beds have nothing to do with Florida's property insurance problems, which are all about climate change. Governor DeSantis' proudly-signed HB 1645 is what a reasonable person might describe as functionally useless legislation in terms of helping Floridians deal with burgeoning real-world climate problems. 

We don't have the capacity to fully model the larger and longer effects of Florida's law attempting to deny the existence of some fairly basic physics. What we can say is that every procrastination over reducing our CO2 emissions will have a very long tail of effects and expense. The longer we delay modernizing our energy systems, the longer we'll see otherwise avoidable sea level rise, destructive meteorological effects, ecological failures— and needless suffering inflicted on people in Florida and far beyond. A single US state governor isn't determinative of the future of the planet, but much more than most of us such a person can exert more influence on our net outcome in dealing with the climate challenge we've created. By impeding Florida's climate mitigation public policy response, Governor DeSantis is casting a very long shadow on history— effects that with more perfect instrumentation we'd be able to measure— and seems to easily put Stalin's pet pseudoscientist Lysenko in the shade. 

Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:

Before May 12

• Global weather crisis: From Brazil to Houston and Asia, extreme weather grips the Globe, Africanews, Rédaction Africanews with AP. "In Brazil, floods have killed dozens of people and destabilised a city of around 4 million people. In India, at the time of national elections, voters and politicians fainted in heat that reached 46.3 degrees Celsius (115.3 degrees Fahrenheit)."
• Michael Mann: "Defeatism is as much of a threat as climate denial", New Statesman, Megan Kenyon. The renowned climatologist on net zero and the fight for democracy.
• Reparation for Climate Change at the ECtHR, Climate Law Blog, Armando Rocha, Maria Antonia Tigre, Vladislava Stoyanova, Eneas Xavier, Camille Martini and Miriam Cohen. A Missed Opportunity or the First of Many Decisions to Come?
• The world is obsessed with forests` climate benefits. Here`s the problem., Grist, Kate Yoder. People depend on forests for food and income. Offset projects can kick them out.
• As Extreme Weather Batters Schools, Students Are Pushing For More Climate Change Education, Today's Climate, Inside Climate News, Kiley Price. "Though climate change education varies across public schools in the U.S., extreme weather impacts are affecting them all".
• Climate Extremes Slammed Latin America and the Caribbean Last Year. A New UN Report Details the Impacts and Costs, Science, Inside Climate News, Bob Berwyn. "Some scientists in the region said many of the effects seen today weren’t expected until the second half of the century."
• ‘I am starting to panic about my child’s future’: climate scientists wary of starting families, Environment, The Guardian, Damian Carrington. "A fifth of female climate scientists who responded to Guardian survey said they had opted to have no or fewer children"
• Climate scientists have told the Guardian they expect catastrophic levels of global heating. Here’s what that would mean for the planet, Explainer, Environment, The Guardian, Damian Carrington. "Climate scientists have told the Guardian they expect catastrophic levels of global heating. Here’s what that would mean for the planet"
• How to talk about climate change – and what motivates people to action An interview with Katharine Hayhoe, Eset, Tomáš Foltýn. We spoke to climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe about climate change, faith and psychology – and how to channel anxiety about the state of our planet into meaningful action

May 12

• 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #19, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler, Doug Bostrom & John Hartz. A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 5, 2024 thru Sat, May 11, 2024.

May 13

• Climate change is affecting mental health literally everywhere, Yale Climate Connections, Daisy Simmons. Extreme weather, water scarcity, air pollution, and more are taking a toll on people across the world.
• Q&A: What do India`s elections mean for coal communities and climate change?, Carbon Brief, Carbon Brief Staff.
• Banks have given almost $7tn to fossil fuel firms since Paris deal, report reveals, Environment The Guardian, Damien Gayle. Among world’s top 60 banks those in US are biggest fossil fuel financiers, while Barclays leads way in Europe
• Children pulled from mud as hundreds die in severe flooding in Afghanistan, World/Asia, CNN, Hilary Whiteman, Anna Coren & Abdul Basir Bina.
• China and India still rely heavily on coal, climate targets remain ‘very difficult’ to achieve, energy, CNBC, Charmaine Jacob,.
• African health experts warn of climate change & rising vector-borne diseases, Mongabay, Juliet Akoth Ojwang.
• The Carbon Brief Interview: Octopus Energy’s Greg Jackson, Renewables, Carbon Brief , Leo Hickman & Simon Evans.

May 14

• Dozens of blazes burning in Canada are sending smoke to the US. Several major fires have forced hundreds of evacuations, US, CNN, Eric Zerkel, Joe Sutton, Paradise Afshar & Sara Smart.
• At a glance - What ended the Little ice Age?, Skeptical Science, John Mason.
• Rapidly-spreading fires are threatening to burn through Canadian towns and degrading air quality, Weather/Canada, CNN,, Mary Gilbert, Eric Zerkel & Joe Sutton.

May 15

• Don`t despair about the climate. Be part of the social tipping point | Letters, The Guardian, Guardian Staff. A Guardian survey of leading climate scientists revealed their despair about the future. John Coghlan, Rachael Orr, Natalie Bennett, Dr Robin Russell-Jones and Gregory Johnson find reasons to keep on fighting
• What Does the European Court of Human Rights` First Climate Change Decision Mean for Climate Policy?, Climate Law Blog, Isabela Keuschnigg, Catherine Higham, Joana Setzer and Tiffanie Chan.
• DeSantis signs bill scrubbing ‘climate change’ from Florida law, Climate, Washington Post, Anna Phillips. "Climate advocates said the bill is a bid for national attention from a Republican governor eager to use global warming as a culture war issue"
• Oil Companies Use Paid News Media Partnerships to Protect `Social Licence to Operate`, Documents Show, DeSmog, Ellen Ormesher and Rebecca John. BP sees sponsored content as a crucial tool to reach “Washington, DC, elites,” according to subpoenaed memos.
• How Much is a Planet Worth?, The Crucial Years, Bill McKibben. Read all the way through for some truly staggering numbers

May 16

• As Zambia schools take on climate change, one teen is spreading the word in sign language, ABC News (via AP), Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi. Bridget Chanda is intent on helping educate Zambia’s deaf community about climate change
• DeSantis Signs Law Deleting Climate Change From Florida Policy, NYT > Climate and Environment, Coral Davenport. The law also stops programs designed to encourage renewable energy and conservation in a state that is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
• DeSantis says he`s `restoring sanity` by erasing climate change from Florida laws, Grist, Kate Yoder. While Floridians suffered through record heat, DeSantis signed legislation keeping "windmills off our beaches."
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #20 2024, Skeptical Science, Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack. Skeptical Science's own weekly compendium of climate research.

May 17

• Economic damage from climate change six times worse than thought - report, The Guardian, Oliver Milman.
• Week of Protests Over Equinor`s Media Sponsorship Greenwashing, DeSmog, Adam Barnett, Phoebe Cooke and Ellen Ormesher. Campaigners likened the fossil fuel company’s patronage of climate events to letting an “arsonist sponsor a fire safety conference”.
• Thinking a greener future is costly? The fingerprints of climate change are already all over this budget, ABC News, Jess Davis and Tim Leslie. If budgets are the government's attempt to chart the course for the next few years, what can this one teach us about how climate change is leaving its mark, and how the government is looking to tackle it?

May 18

• Fact Brief - Does breathing contribute to CO2 buildup in the atmosphere?, Skeptical Science, Sue Bin Park & SkS-Team. Short answer: No
• Q&A: The Dire Consequences of Global Warming in the Earth`s Oceans, Inside Climate News, Aynsley O’Neill. Imagining a world without fish in the world’s tropical oceans.