Only In Florida

I’ll be in Tallahassee, Florida tonight for a screening and discussion at Florida State University. If you’re anywhere nearby please come join.

We were invited to FSU by grad students representing the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. It took zero minutes to consider.

Tallahassee is where law and policy are made in Florida, which is the home of one of the stranger alchemies of climate change reality and denialist policy that you’ll find anywhere.

Florida is a low-lying, fast-growing state with hundreds of miles of coastline, a porous limestone substrate and front-line exposure to Gulf Coast hurricanes. These and other factors make it one of the regions in the U.S., or for that matter the world, that’s most vulnerable to the impact and costs of a warming climate. And so it makes sense that for the past 15 years Florida’s governors and legislature have spent huge political capital and taxpayer money to battle climate change by…banning the use of the term climate change. Or any policy that acknowledges it.

“We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability,’ ” said Christopher Byrd, an attorney with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee.

“Sea-level rise was to be referred to as ‘nuisance flooding.’” said DEP employee Kristina Trotta.

In 2011, then Gov. Rick Scott, a noted climate change denier, quietly and unofficially instructed state agencies and employees to, well, actively ignore climate change despite (or, perhaps, because of?) the state of Florida being the region of the U.S. most susceptible to the effects of climate change.

If such policies prove effective at preventing phenomena such as sea level rise, perhaps a future rebranding of “tooth decay” as “sore mouth,” could eventually eliminate the need to floss.

Fast forward to 2024 as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation (HB 1645) to erase several remaining instances of the words “climate change”, stating “Radical green zealots want to impose their climate agenda on people through restrictions, regulations, and taxes.”

Apparently this still wasn’t enough to stop the “radical green zealots,” so under HB 1217, a bill passed by the legislature in 2026 and now moving to the Governor’s desk, all government entities in the state are banned from pursuing any “resolution, ordinance, rule, code, or policy” to support a net-zero policy.

These efforts are designed to force citizens and local governments to reverse any transition towards readily available and affordable - gas prices anyone? - renewable technologies and away from pollutants warming the atmosphere. The same ones that create “persistent flooding” in Florida at high tide on sunny days. While these “anti”-zealot laws won’t stop the transition (market forces, etc.), they’ll certainly slow the pace.

But of all the climate-related laws passed in Florida recently, there’s one that really stands out for its…distinctive focus. Senate Bill 56, passed in 2025, “prohibits the intentional injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere to affect temperature, sunlight, or climate.”

In other words, in addition to a uniquely aggressive regulation of its local municipalities and arbitrary censorship of science, Florida became the first state in the U.S. to ban solar geoengineering and weather modification.

Rather than be distracted by the question of whether or not geoengineering or weather modification is happening in Florida (spoiler, they’re not), or who has been promoting this type of wasteful and misinformed legislation that has appeared in over 30 states (for-profit influencers and well-funded advocacy groups like ICAN), let’s take the opportunity to ask a different question.

Why are climate vulnerable states like Florida passing laws that undermine efforts to address the root causes of the problem? And instead, banning technologies that aren’t occurring in Florida such as weather modification to produce rain in drought-stricken regions, or don’t yet exist, such as solar geoengineering?

Solar geoengineering is a topic that is unfamiliar to most, and for those who have heard of it, deeply controversial. And to be clear, many are rightfully concerned - furious even - about what’s going on in the skies above us and the effect that’s having on our health, wellbeing, and ecosystems. And the government does have a responsibility to act to protect us, that’s their job. But rather than addressing the problem, the government of Florida is actively distracting us from the real risks we face which come not from the “chemtrails” of conspiracy, but from carbon dioxide.

As Florida’s legislature nods along with conspiracy super-spreaders like ICAN (the Informed Consent Action Network) and Dane Wiggington raving about jet contrails (i.e., frozen water vapor) and profiteers like supplement-selling Alex Jones, a truly dangerous pollutant, CO2, continues to pour into the atmosphere. The effects of that CO2 will last centuries after these legislators retire. But for now these laws provide savvy politicians with a convenient distraction and cover to avoid the real work of ending this pollution.

A political economist friend, Gernot Wagner, once noted to me that if only CO2 left a mucusy, orange stain above us we’d have dealt with this problem long ago. If only. Instead we get politicians who shamelessly pander to fake conspiracies - which to be effective would have to have been organized and executed by…them - to distract from the problems, and the solutions, that already exist.

See you in Florida!

• Ben Kalina

“Changing the Climate”