Florida is environmentally unsustainable.

Last edited Sun Oct 13, 2024, 12:56 PM - Edit history (1)

People flock to Florida as tourists and as retirees relocating from colder, higher-taxing states. Governor DeSantis crows about Florida's growth rate as vindication of his libertarian, authoritarian "freedom" agenda. Politically, Florida is built on the idea that growth is good.

Unfortunately, all living systems encounter limits to growth when the conditions necessary to sustain that growth change. The state of Florida is itself a living system defined by geographical boundaries and operating under its own set of laws. In Florida, the most important growth-limiting change is the one that the governor is trying to banish from our vocabulary- climate change.

The Sunshine State has no effective defense to the inevitable increase in more frequent, powerful, and damaging storms associated with Earth's warming oceans. The only realistic options are mitigation with no-growth policies or even promoting net emigration. Florida needs to slow down or stop adding to the existing housing stock. More people means more pavement and less natural land to absorb excess runoff. Florida should discourage the rebuilding of expensive coastal properties that are also the most vulnerable to storms and storm surges. Flat, low-lying Florida is the proverbial frog in the slowly boiling pot of global warming. Rising seas will relentlessly reduce the amount of available habitable land. Saltwater intrusion and the current unsustainable level of withdrawals from fresh water aquifers will create potable water issues even as rivers of storm water rush to the sea, overwhelming drainage systems designed for a smaller population and a more hospitable climate.

The parrot in Florida's figurative fossil fuel mine is the homeowner’s insurance industry. Floridian homeowners' insurance is already the highest in the country, quadrupling the rates found in some other states. It's going to go up again. A big part of the problem is the need for reinsurance- support from the insurers of last resort. Those financial institutions are dominated by the Swiss. The Swiss can look out their windows and see rapidly melting glaciers. When it comes to climate change and global warming, they believe.

Promoting rapid growth when the existing infrastructure is already deteriorating and inadequate to serve the needs of the current population is foolhardy and irresponsible.