Motley Moose – Archive

On April 22, Earth Day 2015, President Barack Obama will travel to Everglades National Park in Florida and talk about man-made climate change.

… on Earth Day, I’m going to visit the Florida Everglades to talk about the way that climate change threatens our economy.  The Everglades is one of the most special places in our country.  But it’s also one of the most fragile.  Rising sea levels are putting a national treasure – and an economic engine for the South Florida tourism industry – at risk.

 – President Barack Obama, Weekly Address April 18, 2015

#ActOnClimate

UPDATE: The President’s speech



Transcript

Great Egret at Everglades National Park in Florida – nps.gov

Rachel Maddow Show

Obama’s choice of the Florida Everglades as the setting for the speech is significant for the ecologically delicate nature of the area, as well as the fact that parts of the state are already routinely dealing with the effects of sea level rise as a result of climate change. Miami is regularly subject to “sunny day flooding” when tidal waters back up through the city’s drains. […]

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican candidate for the presidency in 2016, has questioned the role of humans in climate change and voted against an amendment holding Congress to the view that humans are causing climate change.

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Washington Post:

With legislative efforts dead on Capitol Hill in the face of Republican opposition, Obama has sought to move forward on his own in ways large and small. The trip, on Earth Day, to the 734 square-mile tropical wetlands is aimed at highlighting a region that the administration said is threatened by global warming.

“The Everglades are flat, and they border a rising ocean,” Brian Deese, a senior adviser to Obama, wrote on the White House blog. “As the sea levels rise, the shorelines erode, and that salty water travels inland, threatening the aquifers supplying fresh drinking water to Floridians.”

Deese tied the potential damage to the economy — namely, the state’s tourism industry — and added that “we’re far beyond a debate about climate change’s existence. We’re focused on mitigating its very real effects here at home.”

More on the Everglades below the fold …

John McCain passed through Tampa today, stopping at the 65,000 seat Raymond James stadium.

It was closed.

But wait!  There was a rally in a field across the street setup for him with an overflow area for the burgeoning crowds of Red State Floridians.  

The overflow area was empty.

Barack Obama came to Sarasota Florida today for an intimate gathering with about 15,000 people.

I volunteered and had the honor of assisting the elderly and disabled into the stadium, keeping them all hydrated and otherwise fussing over them.

And gosh but it felt good!

The New York Times is reflecting what I see here on the ground:

Jim Piccillo lost his job as a bank vice president in August, applied for food stamps to support his two young daughters and swore off a life of loyalty to the Republican Party. He now volunteers here in Pasco County for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

I had the pleasure of volunteering at a Joe Biden event last night here in Sarasota.  In Booker Highschool’s gymnasium (the school Syesha attended, for you Idol fans), a standing-room only crowd gathered.  My team of folks helped the elderly and disabled in and took care of them, two elderly ladies had a hard time with the heat and it was my honor to walk them into the gym and fuss over them with water and attention.

Senator Biden showed up just about on time, not bad for having done three previous events yesterday.  He gave a twenty minute speech that was very well delivered and very well received, followed by an hour of question and answer.  

Well, now we know.

At Barack Obama’s Economic Security Townhall yesterday, the Senator held up Friday’s St. Petersburg Times.  The front page tells the story: