A Brave Man…

It’s all too rare to see true bravery in the face of catastrophe. A couple examples spring to mind: Jesus standing in the dock in front of Pontius Pilate, Davy Crockett at the Alamo, William Wallace facing torture and certain death in Braveheart, Charlie Brown sprinting toward Lucy and the football… I’m sure there are more, but these few should give the idea.

And then there is Steve MacLaughlin, a simple weatherman on the NBC affiliate in southern Florida (an area dangerously close to sea level — kinda/sorta like New Orleans).

As best as I can understand it (and admittedly without doing a deep dive into the legal nuance of the new legislation), the state government in Florida objects to the term “Climate Change” and has passed a bill that will “remove the requirement for the state to consider climate change when creating energy policy and roll back nearly all references to climate change in state law.” As a responsible meteorologist who can apparently observe and assess the world around him — and one that clearly understands that, yes, two plus two actually does equal four — Mr. MacLaughlin took umbrage to this.

Instead of hunkering down and reading the forecast from his teleprompter on the NBC 6 News in Miami a couple nights ago, he went off script and pretty much slammed the governor (Ron DeSantis, in case you had forgotten), and the Florida State Legislature. Click here to see what NBC is saying as of this writing (5/22/24), or this one from The Hill.

To quote in part (from several sources):

Don’t say Climate Change! As Florida is on fire, underwater and unaffordable, our state government is rolling back climate change legislation and language…

In spite of the fact that the state of Florida over the last couple of years has seen record heat, record flooding, record rain, record insurance rates, and the corals are dying all around the state…

…the entire world is looking to Florida to lead in climate change, and our government is saying that climate change is no longer the priority it once was.

For his part, Governor DeSantis says on X:

…the bill is restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots.

WOW! Didn’t know I was a Radical Green Zealot. I’m so excited!

I encourage you to do your research, keep up with the news, and VOTE IN NOVEMBER (click here for an earlier rant about the importance of exercising your constitutional right, and here for a glimpse at the alternatives…)

Sorry if this one strays a bit from the science and brushes up against politics, but, sadly, the current polarization of our social discourse is making it increasingly impossible for me to separate the two.

Anyway, I do have two additional concerns (beyond the obvious): What will be the response from the state government, and how long will Mr. MacLaughlin still be on the air, holding forth and attempting to speak the truth?