Climate Change & Environment

I support and endorse the platform of the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida.

Clean Water
Clean Air
Protect our Estuaries
Not Enough Infrastructure to Support Growth Trend in Florida

https://www.environmentalcaucus.com/florida-environmental-caucus/

The Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida affirms that:

The climate crisis is upon us, and Florida’s welfare and natural resources are at the epicenter of climate risks;
The Florida Constitution provides for the conservation and protection of its natural resources and scenic beauty;
Our elected representatives have a moral and legal obligation to be good stewards of our environment;
The people and natural inhabitants of Florida have an intrinsic right to clean water, air, and land;
Florida’s natural environment is essential to our health, well-being, and prosperity;
We are interconnected by environmental resources and the need to be mutually supportive in the use of those resources, and;
The people of Florida have the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural, and environmental self-determination and access to information.

Our Environmental Objectives

To promote environmental justice, equitably applied to all peoples of Florida regardless of socio-economic, gender, racial, citizenship, political or geographic status.
To reduce Florida's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% from the 2005 levels by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2050.
To transition Florida to clean, sustainable energy, and to phase out our state’s dependence on fossil fuel.
To ensure the right of the people of Florida to clean and healthy air.
To protect Florida's surface and aquifer water quality, quantity and associated ecosystems from misuse, depletion, and degradation.
To sustainably conserve the waters of Florida as drinkable, fishable, and swimmable.
To forbid hydraulic fracturing in all its forms.
To restore and preserve Florida’s urban, rural and natural areas such as forests, wetlands, coral reefs, and estuaries, vital to the State’s ecology and economy.
To protect and restore environmentally damaged, sensitive, or rare natural areas of Florida.
To promote the recovery of Florida's threatened or endangered flora and fauna.
To work with state and local governments – regardless of party affiliation – to adopt all possible legislative measures to fight the climate crisis

Resolution Title: Climate Change Requires Comprehensive Public Policy and Education to Protect Floridians

Summary: The Florida Democratic Party (FDP) resolves to support public policy and education that connects reversing climate change with serving the full range of Democratic goals and values.
WHEREAS, scientists agree that climate is changing and that human ci vilization is largely responsible for the current changes through the burning of fossil fuels and the release of other greenhouse gases;
AND WHEREAS greenhouse gas emissions and climate change are causing the melting of ice sheets, the warming of oceans, the rise of sea level, the acidification of oceans, the increasing strength, frequency, and duration of many weather-related disasters across the globe , but especially in coastal states like Florida, the intrusion of salt water into coastal aquifers, and the migration northward of biomes and tropical diseases and other deleterious effects;
AND WHEREAS climate change associated sea level rise and precipitation changes increase the frequency of flooding in coastal areas, lowers water quality, damages eco nomic stability, hurts agriculture and tourism-related employment, lowers real estate values, drives economic impacts related to health, infrastructure, insurance, electricity, water resources, agriculture, and ecosystems, forces human migration and immigration, and can make chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and asthma, deadlier;
AND WHEREAS vulnerable populations including those with low incomes, some communities of color, immigrant groups, Indigenous peoples, children and pregnant women, older adults, vulnerable occupational groups, persons with disabilities, and persons with preexis ting or chronic medical conditions suffer disproportionately from climate change impacts, are more a t risk for displacement, suffer disproportionately from climate economic impacts related to health, infrastructure, electricity, water resources, agriculture, and ecosystems, are most at risk for displacement, and are the targets of violence, especially in times of climatic stress;
AND WHEREAS climate change topics have been ignored or actively denied in the past and are neither adequately covered in Florida schools, nor adequately discussed by local and state governments;
AND WHEREAS the socioeconomic impact of doing nothing is too great to bear, both in dollars and human struggle;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED the FDP views climate change not as a single issue but rather as an umbrella issue under which the full range of Democratic prior ities and values can and must be advanced in order to preserve humanity. Therefore FDP hereby supports a comprehensive and integrated public policy initiative that reflects the needs of communities affected by and at risk due to climate change.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that appropriate curriculum regarding climate science, prevention of global warming, mitigation of potential damage, adaptation to rising sea levels and the possible need for evacuation and migration will be developed and incorporate d into State Standards for every grade level from elementary through high school;
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that classroom and science teachers throughout Florida will be trained in climate science so that they can adequately respond to citizen inquiries on these topics.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that FDP commits to support public policy that recognizes climate change is the reality of all Floridians and will encourage Democratic representatives to consider how climate change mitigation and adaptation can be incorporated into state le gislation, including the transition of electric utilities to 100% renewable energy by 2035 and develop a state-level prog ram to support the carbon fee & dividend concept.