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Robert Delaney
Robert Delaney

On Balance | Flailing DeSantis would do better focusing on climate change than targeting Trump

  • As Ron DeSantis keeps losing ground in Republican primary polls, the effects of climate change are making themselves known across Florida
  • Insurers are ending coverage in the state and ocean waters are warmer than ever, putting climate change at the fore despite Republicans calling it a hoax

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Bleached corals lie below the Port of Miami in Florida on July 14. Ocean temperatures around Florida have hit the highest on record, further evidence of climate change’s effects on the state despite Governor Ron DeSantis and fellow Republicans’ continued insistence it either doesn’t exist or isn’t that bad. Photo: Reuters
Robert Delaney
One of the most significant developments in US politics last week crossed paths with attention-grabbing news on the environmental and business fronts, a confluence of factors that is becoming increasingly inconvenient for the Republican Party’s two leading presidential candidates.
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The fact that they are all centred in, or including, the state of Florida is also not an accident, considering that it is one of the most vulnerable to extreme weather related to climate change.

The first development in this set of three is an apparent slide in the popularity of former president Donald Trump’s closest competitor in next year’s White House election, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Explanations for the ground DeSantis is losing to the front-running Trump include his shunning of media outlets that don’t idolise him and a persona that is about as warm as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s.

There was also a backlash among Republican moderates against a profoundly bizarre ad run recently by DeSantis’ campaign. It featured muscled up and square-jawed manly men – ironically intended to burnish his credentials as the most anti-LGBTQ candidate.

This episode revealed the governor’s inability to learn a lesson from his ongoing war against Disney – which is among Florida’s biggest employers – for opposing the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. It also hasn’t played well among moderates, who wonder why DeSantis doesn’t see that he has bigger fish to fry.
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The subject of frying fish brings us to our second development. Water temperatures in the ocean reefs around DeSantis’ state reached levels not seen in modern measurements when National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration monitors put them as high as 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36.1 degrees Celsius) in some areas.

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