Now is Not the Time to be a Science Denier

For the record I have never been a big fan of Florida. Not just the recent very red Florida, but The Florida that feels like nothing is very old or permanent, even if it might be old. The big difference in the nice places and the rest of the place make me uneasy. So in spite of my general dislike of Florida I am praying that everyone in the center of the state has gotten out.

This Milton is going to be a bitch and no one deserves that kind of hit, let alone two in two weeks. Storm surge is a killer and water always wins. Poor Naples has barely gotten over their last big hit and if the storm moves any further south it could happen again. Tampa hasn’t had a storm like this in 100 years, but then again 100 years ago no one much lived there, it was too awful before air conditioning was invented.

The real sucker punch is going to come when it is over because home owners insurance in Florida was already a nightmare with many insurance companies pulling out of the state in the recent past. The state created an insurance company, but the problem with that is it is certainly not collateralized enough when it only insures Florida properties. The risk is not spread out across the country.

If enough homeowners don’t have flood insurance then who knows how Florida is going to recover. It is the same problem with Hurricane Helene. People that live in Mountains don’t think about flood insurance and yet, it was floods that got most of them. The land scape and the futures did a wholesale change. And yet there are still climate change deniers.

I’m not sure getting wiped out by a weather event will change the minds of people who are hard core deniers, but it might be Darwin situation. If you don’t believe in listening to expert advice, or education, or think that by not teaching certain things means they don’t exist, then survival of the fittest might get you. If you listen only to fake news you might not get the information you need to make good decisions. In this case, not making a good decision could lead to your death.

Please, make good decisions and don’t stay in the path of a monster storm. Everyone who ever did stay in hurricanes and survived report afterwards that wished they had heeded the warnings. You have been warned. Just because you never left for any storm before, does not mean that you can survive this one.

Climate scientists are fairly good at giving you advance warnings. Now is not the time to stick to your “anti-science” beliefs. If you think God is going to save you he sent you scientists to tell you to get out. Don’t think God is going to save you beyond this warning. He already told you. Don’t be a Florida Man.