With Florida’s southwest coast facing a difficult recovery from Hurricane Ian, environmental issues have advanced to the fore in the US Senate race.
Democratic Representative Val Demings has criticized her opponent, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, for ignoring the idea of climate change for years.
Demings said in Tweet September 23. Florida deserves better.
Broadly speaking, climate change refers to shifts in temperature and weather patterns that are largely driven by humans burning fossil fuels. PolitiFact stated that the relationship between climate change and hurricanes is complex and involves ongoing research.
Rubio’s earlier skepticism about the science of climate change is well documented.
When a liberal group said in 2013 that Rubio was a “climate change denier,” we mostly rated the statement as true. The caveat was that some of Rubio’s observations about climate change limit skepticism rather than outright denial.
But Rubio’s position has changed in recent years. Since 2018, Rubio said Earth’s climate has been changing and that humans, to some extent, have contributed to those changes.
Rubio has questioned the idea of climate change many times
Rubio’s position on climate change seemed ambiguous before he set his sights on national office. As a speaker at Florida House in 2007, for example, Rubio noted the existence of global warming and embraced energy diversification.
“Global warming, dependence on foreign fuel sources and capitalism have combined to create opportunities that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago,” Rubio said in a speech to state lawmakers. “Florida has the opportunity to pursue bold energy policies, not only because they are good for our environment, but because people can actually make money doing it.”
At the time, Rubio did not explicitly acknowledge the impact of humans on the environment. By 2009, when he launched his bid for US Senate, Rubio began to question whether humans had caused climate change.
In response to a question about human impact on climate in 2009, Rubio told the Miami Herald, “I’m not a scientist. I’m not qualified to make that decision. There’s a huge scientific dispute about that.”
Rubio took a firm stand against the notion that people could affect the environment in 2010, telling the Tampa Tribune ahead of the election that he “doesn’t think there is scientific evidence to justify it.”
He won that election and served in the US Senate for more than a decade. Throughout his early years in Congress, Rubio opposed environmental legislation spearheaded by former President Barack Obama.
On ABC News’ This Week in 2014, he said, “I don’t think human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists portray them. I don’t think the laws they’re suggesting are going to do anything about it. our economy.”
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We classify Rubio’s claim that human activity does not contribute to climate change as false. Other times, Rubio has avoided the question without an outright denial of the human role.
“Sure, the climate is changing. There has never been a time when the climate hasn’t been changing,” Rubio said at the March 10, 2016 GOP presidential debate. In the discussion, he did not acknowledge the human contribution to climate change.
Rubio acknowledged humans’ role in climate change in 2018
By 2018, Rubio began saying in public statements that humans, to some extent, contributed to climate change. His comments came after Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida Panhandle and caught the attention of the national media.
In an interview with CBS’ John Dickerson, Rubio said, “My point is climate, sea level rise, these are measurable things. You can measure that. So there’s, it’s not even a scientific debate at some point, it’s just a factual debate.” .
Dickerson pressed Rubio more about whether he thought humans were the main contributors to climate change, with Rubio saying, “That’s what a lot of scientists are saying.” But Rubio noted that some scientists are “skeptical about the percentage” that can be attributed to humans.
PolitiFact has studied similar attempts to downplay the role of humans in climate change. We found that increased levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can cause global warming. Humans have increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by about 50% since 1750, according to NASA.
The Rubio campaign also referred to two op-eds that Rubio wrote for USA Today in 2019. In his first opinion piece, he acknowledged that “the Earth’s climate is changing.” In his second opinion piece, he encouraged “proactive adaptation,” which he said “could reduce the damage from climate change.”
He also joined the bipartisan Climate Solutions Conference in the Senate in February 2020. “Changes in our climate, such as rising sea levels, are measurable facts,” Rubio said in a press release. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to find real and responsible solutions in a bipartisan manner.”
Democrats and environmentalists have criticized Rubio’s actions as “greenwashing” – meaning he supports climate change solutions but rejects actions that would make the most impact, such as reducing carbon emissions through caps and trade. Meanwhile, Rubio has criticized the Democrats’ approach to climate change as an excuse for bad policies.
our judgment
Demings said Rubio had “denied climate change”.
For nearly a decade, Rubio denied or downplayed the role of humans in changing or exacerbating the climate. In recent years, it has been recognized that humans contribute to climate change.
He is not on board with Democrats’ plans to respond to the crisis, but he has shown more interest in what he calls “responsible solutions” to climate-related issues such as rising sea levels.
Demings’ claim ignores the details of Rubio’s current position. We classify it as half true.
Originally published at San Jose News Bulletin
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