Florida has more to lose, and more quickly, from our suicidal energy policies than any other state. Leave aside the threat of offshore drilling to its beaches. More fundamentally, with even modest global warming, Florida gets a lot smaller, and what remains gets pounded by mega-hurricanes. (Check what happens to South Florida with only a five-meter rise in sea level on this Google map!) And since Florida lacks major deposits of coal, natural gas, or onshore oil, and it's not a major producer of polluting industrial products like cars, it has no vested interest in remaining fixated on fossil fuels.
In spite of this, Florida has failed to take the kind of leadership role on global warming that California, New York, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania have done. The state has not passed tough clean car standards, and its major public utility, Florida Power and Light, is now trying to build a whole new generation of outmoded, dirty coal plants. The Florida Congressional delegation, with some notable exceptions like Senator Ben Bill Nelson, has been limp in its opposition to offshore oil drilling and positively craven in its support for proposals to drill the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
So it's a breath of fresh air to be able to campaign here for new Congressional voices like Christine Jennings and Ron Klein, both of whom get that Florida doesn't have a future unless America moves into the future and makes smart energy choices. Jennings is running on the West Coast, for the seat vacated when Katherine Harris decided to run for the Senate, and Klein is running here in Palm Beach County. (And it doesn't hurt that whomever the next governor is, his name will no longer be Bush.)
This Is What the Scientists Told Us Global Warming Would Be Like
A new study by the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction in London indicates that over the next century up to one third of the earth's land area will be subject to such regular extreme drought that agriculture will become almost impossible. The Palmer Drought Severity Index will rise from 25 percent of the earth's land area today to 50 percent by 2100, and the extreme drought index from 3 percent to 30 percent.
And This Is What We Can Do About It
Richard Branson, the head of Virgin Airways, who a few weeks ago pledged $3 billion from his transportation businesses to fight global warming, has already proposed that all major airports should be equipped with "starting grids" that would allow planes to be towed out to the runways rather than powered out, significantly cutting airport fuel consumption and carbon dioxide pollution, by 50 percent at an airport like London's Heathrow, and 90 percent at JFK in New York. Each jet carries about two tons of fuel to cover the time its engines run while getting to the runway.