Condo King Jorge Perez: "Besides I'll be dead, so what does it matter?" ... by gimleteye

Politicians plan for sea level rise, by Spanish artist Isaac Cordel

The New York Times repeats a quip by Miami Condo King and local billionaire Jorge Perez about climate change and sea level rise.

The report concerns a contemporary home built on Miami Beach by Mr. Hani Boutros. Concrete pilings elevated his dream house ten feet high -- not exactly a new concept in South Florida -- with a "retractable" stairway -- which kind of is. But a retractable stairway to pull up and away from sea level rise begs the question: what next?

The Times quotes Perez from a 2017 book by Jeff Goodell, "The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World." Miami, being Exhibit A for cities at risk from climate change.

“In 20 or 30 years, someone is going to find a solution for this.” He (Perez) added, “Besides, by that time, I’ll be dead, so what does it matter?”

What does it matter?

I can think of roughly 9 billion reasons, including one grandchild who is sixteen months old, why it matters. But I get it, Jorge.

There is a mind-set at work in the United States that is primitive and powerful. It is about circling the wagons, protecting what is yours, insulating from threats. (For the GOP Ten Commandments on climate change, click here.)

The same way that squirrels hoard in the fall for the winter ahead, powerful corporate interests view climate change -- and impacts like sea-level rise -- as a game they can't influence. Florida Senator Marco Rubio often says so. What he doesn't say, is what comes follows: make as much money as you can, right now this instant, because in twenty or thirty years (basically, one mortgage cycle), it's going to vanish.


Note that Perez is a frequently cited Democratic big ticket donor. The mindset that Perez articulated, also helps to explain how the politics and policies governing growth management in Florida have all but disappeared. It is no coincidence: this game of musical chairs requires speed and the elimination of barriers (ie. regulation) to build as much and as fast as possible.

That is the thinking behind Mayor Carlos Gimenez' determination to open the last remaining farmland and open space in South Florida to more suburban sprawl, through the extension of State Road 836 into the far southwest reaches of Florida's most politically influential county. Unleash more construction and development into the face of sea level rise because we can make billions now, but maybe not so much beyond one mortgage cycle.

All those acorns have to be scoured and collected today, and the price of those musical chairs keeps rising.

For earlier critiques of Perez at Eye On Miami, click here.

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Florida Kids Sue Gov. Rick Scott On Climate Change ... by gimleteye

NOTE: For 7 years, Gov. Scott used his executive authority to trash state environmental rules and regulations, using agencies like the South Florida Water Management District as political cudgels against conservationists. Now that he's running for Senate, Scott claims no one has done more than him, for the environment. Voters: be informed.

Florida Kids Sue Gov. Scott Over Climate Change: You Have 'Moral Obligation' to Protect Us
The case, connected to the federal Our Children’s Trust climate lawsuit, is one of nine pressuring states to take action on global warming and fossil fuels.
Apr 16, 2018

Eight young Floridians, ages 10 to 19, sued their state and its climate-policy-averse governor on Monday for failing to protect residents from the impacts of a warming climate.

They say they already see signs of climate change around them—from powerful hurricanes to extreme heat waves to tidal flooding that now regularly washes into coastal roads and parks as sea level rises—and they want the state to do something about it.

The lawsuit filed Monday is the latest in a wave of legal cases filed by children against states and the federal government that accuse government of depriving them of the fundamental right to a stable climate.

The Florida plaintiffs accuse the state of violating their constitutional rights by "perpetuating an energy system that is based on fossil fuels."

"The plaintiffs are asking the state of Florida to adhere to its legal and moral obligation to protect current and future generations from the intensifying impacts of climate change," the group said in a statement.

Their lawsuit asks that state officials "prepare and implement an enforceable comprehensive" plan to phase out fossil fuel use and "draw down excess atmospheric CO2 through forest and soil protection so as to stabilize the climate system."

Gov. Rick Scott and Climate Change

The lawsuit names the state, Republican Gov. Rick Scott, state agencies and the heads of those agencies as defendants.

In 2015, journalists in Florida reported that Scott had placed a gag order on the terms "climate change" and "global warming" within state's Department of Environmental Protection—an especially notable move, given the state is among the most vulnerable to climate change, with 1,000 miles of coastline and millions of people living in low-lying areas.

Scott has also ducked questions about climate change, using the response: "I'm not a scientist."

The governor's office responded to questions about the lawsuit in an emailed statement: "The Governor signed one of the largest environmental protection budgets in Florida's history last month—investing $4 billion into Florida's environment," said McKinley Lewis, a spokesperson for Scott. "The Governor is focused on real solutions to protect our environment—not political theater or a lawsuit orchestrated by a group based in Eugene, Oregon."

Florida Teens Fight for Their Future

Delaney Reynolds, 18, a fourth-generation Floridian who has become a prominent advocate and is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, wrote to the state's environmental regulators in 2014, asking what the department was doing to address climate change.

She said the agency response was: not much.

In a blog post Monday, Reynolds wrote that the response was "unacceptable" and a reason she decided to sue the state.

"Our climate change crisis is the biggest issue that my generation will ever face, and it's up to us, today's children, to fix this problem," Reynolds wrote. "It is my hope that the court will rule to require that Florida enact and enforce laws to reduce and eliminate carbon emissions so that our state and citizens can have a future here."

Kids' Federal Climate Case Gets a Court Date

Our Children's Trust, a group that advocates for science-based climate policy, is supporting the federal case and other youth-led legal efforts across the country.

In 2015, Our Children's Trust and 21 young people from across the country sued the federal government on the same legal grounds, saying the government was violating the public trust by failing to protect a common resource. The fossil fuel industry has repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, attempted to keep the case from advancing. (Levi Draheim, a 10-year-old Floridian, is a co-plaintiff in that case, as well as in the lawsuit filed Monday.)

Last week, a federal magistrate judge set a trial date for the federal case: Oct. 29, 2018, in federal district court in Oregon.

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