Environmental alarmists are pestering Mayor Lenny Curry to spend more money and increase the bureaucracy in order to save Jacksonville from climate change.
Precisely how climate change, which has been happening some 4.5 billion years now, is to be eliminated they conveniently leave out of their plea.
We trust that Curry will not rise to the bait.
Other cities in Florida are creating “chief resilience officers,” with accompanying hordes of bureaucrats, to formulate plans to cope with the rising of the seas.
Curiously it is mostly in areas where Democrats are in control of the local government that such government expansions are taking place.
Apparently, they are unfamiliar with the story of King Canute. In 12th century England, this monarch set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the incoming tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes. It did not stop, of course, and Canute then pointed out to the alarmists of that time that the power of kings (i.e., government) is not the equal of God’s.
According to NOAA, sea level is rising at a rate of about one-eighth of an inch per year, although it varies according to location.
But the climate alarmists are wildly predicting both drought and flooding, more storms and other calamities, and attributing them all to human activity.
Yet the only plans they have to save humanity are the ones liberals have been pushing for decades prior to the global warming scare – much, much higher taxes – largely paid by Americans — and a global government approach that would require the U.S. to cede much of its sovereignty.
Even with all that, they don’t promise to solve the alleged problem, only to slightly mitigate it. Since some already are saying the Earth is doomed, it hardly seems worth the effort.
As for evidence of the need to increase bureaucracy, the letter cites only the Fourth National Climate Assessment, a doomsday scenario produced by alarmists.
The same vague arguments are being used to push for a carbon tax in Congress – a really bad idea.
Obviously, if coastal cities in Florida begin to notice incursions, homes and businesses will move inland. Why that should require huge government intervention, or relinquishing freedoms, is unclear.
The historical fact is that over the eons, Florida has been both larger and smaller as the seas rose and receded.
Curry apparently has not responded to the letter from the alarmists, which has signatures from several local academics.
There is no apparent reason for Curry to do so. He has plenty of more pressing issues on his plate already.
