In the News
Earth Day Reminder: Marco Rubio Has Spent Years Denying Climate Change
As Floridians mark the 52nd Earth Day today, strong majorities of Democrats and Republicans across the state are worried about climate change. Not Marco Rubio. He’s spent his time in the Senate catering to the corporate polluters who fund his campaign instead of doing what’s best to protect Florida communities from flooding and other damaging effects of climate change.
“While Floridians have spent years battling rising flooding, pollution, and superstorms, Marco Rubio spent years ducking responsibility,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesperson Grant Fox. “Rubio’s history of climate change denial is more proof that he will follow his party leaders and special interest donors instead of standing up for the Floridians he represents.”
For years, Rubio refused to admit that climate change is driven by human activity and voted against legislation that would help Floridians manage rising sea levels:
- He said that there was no “scientific evidence to justify” the claim that climate change is caused by humans and went as far as to say, “I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it.”
- Even after fact checkers debunked Rubio’s claim that humans were not responsible for climate change, he still repeated it.
- When asked what he’d do to tackle climate change, Rubio countered, “the climate’s always changing” and said, “I don’t have a plan to influence the weather.”
- Rubio has been slammed by editorial boards across Florida for not taking climate change seriously. The Tampa Bay Times hit Rubio for being “a politician in denial who is not up to responsibly tackling a complicated, serious challenge facing the nation and the world.” The Palm Beach Post called out his denialism as a craven political calculation. And the Sun Sentinel blasted him for comments that “ignore reality.”
- Just recently Rubio voted against legislation that would help protect critical infrastructure in Florida from flooding
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