Milton’s not caused by fossil fuels, says the Guv

So, what is causing it?

“Mass evacuations from heavily populated areas in Hurricane Milton’s path helped to limit the death toll, with 80,000 people in shelters overnight. But homes were destroyed, construction cranes collapsed and high winds ripped the roof off Tropicana Field, home to baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays. At a news conference, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, said the storm had thankfully weakened by the time it made landfall, avoiding the ‘worst case scenario’ but had still caused ‘much destruction and damage’.”

Image: Florida’s well known as a great place for sailing and swimming (apologies to The Guardian).

Climate deniers cannot, in truth, deny the climate. It’s a bit of an oxymoron. Like when the BBC’s weather service broke down one morning and the breakfast show announced, quizzically, “Today, there will be no weather.” Whether you report on weather or not, there’s always weather.

Even Mr DeSantis, the Governor of the State of Florida, has to concede that there is weather. Bad weather in Florida’s case, twice in a period of two weeks. Enough weather to kill people. Mr DeSantis and the cohorts of climate deniers who rally behind him in support of the fossil fuel industry cannot surely deny the weather, such as it has occurred.

There are aspects to this that raise questions. I watched videos of people being evacuated by the police in Florida, who tripped out to the patrol car dressed in tee-shirts and flip slops. Not so much as a raincoat. It is as if some residents expect just to continue their normal existence as 155-m.p.h. winds rage above them. Perhaps they want to stay in their home to protect it from marauders. Well, having their home strewn across the countryside is a real danger, and, if they stay, having themselves strewn across the countryside is no great comfort: the marauders will take their pickings of both.

The Guardian, from which the initial quote is taken, talks of collapsing construction cranes. I don’t know what a construction crane costs, but I imagine it’s a pretty penny. There were several days of warning about this storm, and yet the erectors of construction cranes were unable to take preventive measures to protect their property and prevent the danger that a collapsing construction crane poses for passers-by and local residents? (I bet they checked their insurance policies, nonetheless.) Could they not have deconstructed, or at least lowered the height, of their construction cranes, rather than trusting to luck (while probably making sure they themselves were well out of range of falling bits and pieces of construction crane)?

And what of all the garbage from the previous storm, left lying by the roadsides to form projectiles for Milton to whip into the air? With so much advance warning, why was it not collected and safely stowed to reduce the danger? Isn’t that the sort of thing that conscientious state governors do? It’s as if insurance just gets relied on to cover the damage that is fully expected, and of which all parties are entirely aware. Insurance—which spreads the loss of the careless among everybody: the policies that pay out cost money, which is simply added to the price of goods and services, so that it’s not insurance companies that pay out on insurance; it’s the entire population.

Mr DeSantis disputes not the weather, but the cause of the weather. Yes, storms are more frequent and are especially devastating nowadays. But, no, they have nothing to do with fossil fuels. After years of scientists predicting that excessive burning of fossil fuels would cause global heating and, with it, extreme weather, and the deniers poo-pooing that projection, now we have that extreme weather (I think we can call 155 m.p.h. extreme). Yet, the deniers admit the weather is extreme, but still deny that it’s the result of burning fossil fuels. I have two such deniers within my personal circle, so I am well aware of the arguments.

You can warn a racing driver that driving fast may result in an accident; when he has the accident you spoke of, he will turn to you and say it was not caused by his speed, but by an extraneous factor over which he had no control. To which there is little or no answer. Until, that is, the day he kills himself, and then there is no wasn’t my speed explanation to counter in any case. I sometimes wonder how many climate deniers there are in Pakistan (a third of whose territory got inundated by floodwaters two years ago). In fact, I wonder how many there are in Florida right now, aside, that is, from Mr DeSantis, who will likely be insured and whose residence will undoubtedly be built of brick, and not wood.

One argument I don’t hear is a persuasive one as to what, then, is causing the rise in extreme weather, if the burning of fossil fuels really has nothing to do with it. That is a question that rarely gets answered in any cogent manner. The weather just happens, and that’s that. Or, occasionally on the BBC, there simply is no weather, and that, likewise, is that. Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you.