The climate emergency was already a hot-button political issue in Florida long before devastating back-to-back hurricanes named Helene and Milton barreled into the state in recent weeks.
Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor who considers global warming “leftwing stuff”, angered environmental advocates by signing a bill in May scrubbing the words “climate change” from state statutes and in effect committing Florida to a fossil fuel-burning future.
They saw his comments and actions as merely the latest acts of an extended period of climate denialism by state leaders – including Rick Scott, his predecessor as governor who is seeking re-election as US senator next month in a tight race with the Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
Scott also censored talk of the climate crisis. Nicknamed “Red Tide Rick” by opponents for slashing $700m in water management funding intended to fight toxic algae blooms, Scott “systematically” disassembled “the environmental agencies of this state”, according to the Democratic former senator Bill Nelson.
Now, as weary Floridians head for the polls next month, many in areas still devastated by the deadly storm surge and high intensity winds from two hurricanes, there is evidence that the twin disasters are fueling something of a backlash.
DeSantis is not on the ballot, but Scott is, and so are many among the Republican supermajority in the state house and senate who have been blindly loyal to both governors’ agendas.
Some voters say climate issues have become uppermost in their minds, having experienced or witnessed the wrath of Helene and Milton, as well as other recent Florida cyclones, and frustration over the long history of inaction or denial in the face of rising sea levels and record ocean heat that experts say is powering ever-stronger storms.
The movement is pronounced among younger and first-time voters, whom advocates say have been registering and voting early in unprecedented numbers.
Jayden D’Onofrio, chair of Florida Future Leaders, said canvassing efforts by his group and others have spurred “record-breaking early turnout” on several campuses including Florida State University, Florida Atlantic University and the University of Miami, with students fired up by the climate debate.
“There was a video of a meteorologist in south Florida who ended up crying on air. A number of my friends, who are not political, sent me that video saying, like, ‘Hey, pretty insane dude. What the hell is going on over here?’” he said.
“So if something like that resonates with youth voters who just generally are out of the political sphere, that says a lot, and that’s why we are hammering hard on that issue. We’re distributing over 175,000 pieces of literature all across the state, and 40,000 are on climate change.”
D’Onofrio said his group was deliberately targeting politicians for their records.
“Rick Scott is the worst of the worst on climate, so we’ve sent thousands of text messages to youth reminding them about climate change and how the Republicans have voted on the issue, especially Scott,” he said.
“You have all these Republican congressmen that voted no on Fema [Federal Emergency Management Agency] funding. When we’re campaigning in these districts that have those congresspeople it’s an easy thing for us to bring up: ‘Hey, your congressman voted no on federal funding for Fema and emergency supplies in your county, which just got absolutely hit by a hurricane. What do you think about that?’
“Of course, the answer is like, ‘What the hell is wrong with that guy or girl or whoever it is?’ It really is so simple.”
Tatiana Bell, 20, a third-year student studying business administration at the Tampa campus of the historically Black Florida A&M University (Famu), said the hurricanes were a “stressful” time, with both Helene and Milton at one point forecast to make a direct hit on the city.
“They’re like, ‘OK, all students can stay in their dormitories,’ then like a couple hours later they’re like, ‘OK, students have to leave campus, you have to go to shelters or simply go home,” said Bell, a campus representative for DoSomething, a youth-centered service and activism group.
“People were very anxious, trying to find out if you can go home. Not every student is fortunate enough to be able to get on a plane or do different things to find safety in a situation like this.”
Bell said that anxiety and threat to their personal safety from severe weather events had made many students even more cognizant of the climate emergency as an election issue.
“Honestly, it’s like top two, just after funding for our universities. It shouldn’t be like this, [you start] the fall semester and next thing you know hurricanes are coming,” she said.
Ben Groenevelt, a resident of Coral Springs, relocated to south Florida from Wisconsin with his family in 2009, and has become increasingly concerned by changes to the environment. Last year, he won election to the board of a local water management district and helped save thousands of trees it wanted to fell so they would not be a threat during hurricanes.
“Since we moved, I’ve been seeing more powerful hurricanes, more issues with rising sea levels, flooding, and things like that,” he said.
“It’s such a big issue here, and we need more awareness of what is going on. On a personal level, I think that to deny it, especially being a leader in the state of Florida, I just don’t think that’s an appropriate position they have.”
Groenevelt will vote for Democratic candidates on 5 November. His middle daughter of three, Whitney, has just turned 18 and will be voting for the first time.
“We have conversations, and there’s definitely a concern when they’re talking and thinking about their own futures, and what it’ll be like, you know, is there going to be snow or no snow? Will it be too hot? Or too cold? These things come up,” he said.
D’Onofrio said it would be younger voters, such as Groenevelt’s daughters and the students he has been working with on campuses, who will drive a generational change in climate politics, which is why he said the work of groups such as Florida Future Leaders was so important.
“One thing people always say is that youth voters don’t turn out, but my answer is always it’s not that they don’t care, it’s that they’ve never felt seen, or heard, or talked to,” he said.
“What’s different now is because we are all youth talking to youth, we understand our generation, we know how to talk to them. You don’t want an 80-year-old talking to a 20-year-old about climate change, or any issue. It just doesn’t work. We’re all 20-year-olds talking to 20-year-olds. We understand it, so it resonates.”
