‘It is hurricane season’: DeSantis pushes back on climate's role in fueling stronger storms

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday pushed back against those who blame stronger hurricanes on climate change as Florida deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

Some environmental activists are trying to highlight Hurricane Milton to push climate as an issue in the elections this year, after the storm made landfall Wednesday in Siesta Key as a Category 3 hurricane and Hurricane Helene made landfall in northern Florida two weeks ago.

DeSantis, during a media briefing in Port St. Lucie on Thursday, pushed back against those who blame stronger hurricanes on a warming planet. He's previously voiced skepticism about climate change and signed legislation earlier this year to remove climate goals from state statutes.

Asked Thursday whether the number of tornadoes during Milton was unusual, DeSantis responded that "you can go back and find tornadoes through all of human history" and then cited a history of intense hurricanes hitting Florida, including a significant number of them prior to the 1960s.

"There is precedent for all this in history," DeSantis said. "It is hurricane season. You are going to have tropical weather."

Scientists say a warming planet caused by fossil fuels is creating warmer ocean temperatures, which is causing hurricanes to grow stronger.

Jeff Chanton, professor of environmental science and oceanography at Florida State University who has been outspoken on climate change, said it was clear climate change was contributing to more intense storms. He cited five scientific papers connecting warmer ocean temperatures with more intense tropical storms.

"He is assuming that this is all cyclical, whereas many scientists believe there is a trend towards stronger hurricanes and increased intensification," Chanton said. "There is evidence of that in the scientific literature."

Chanton said he was unsure where DeSantis got the information on historic hurricane strengths that the governor cited at his press conference. The governor's office acknowledged POLITICO's request for the source of their data, but did not immediately provide the historical data when asked a follow-up.

Some environmentalists having increasingly been agitating to talk about climate change on the campaign trail. Scientists and activists have pushed candidates to more directly confront it, including in the Senate race in Florida in November between Republican Sen. Rick Scott and former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat.

Scott, after Hurricane Helene made landfall late last month, said in an interview with CNN that “the climate is clearly changing.” Mucarsel-Powell has tried to challenge Scott on his climate policies .

“The Democrats want to push their narrative, but the reality is he didn’t say anything different than he did all along,” Chris Hartline, an adviser and spokesperson for Scott, said of the senator's recent comments to the Tallahassee Democrat . Hartline referred the Democrat to an Orlando Sentinel op-ed by Scott from 2019 , where he wrote that "climate change (which is real and requires real solutions) is the religion of the new Left in America," while railing against the "Green New Deal."

Vice President Kamala Harris has also attacked former President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the hurricanes for spreading misinformation about the storms. Trump has called the federal response a failure, something that even some members of his own party has pushed back against.

Hurricane Milton developed rapidly this week off Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, developing into a Category 5 hurricane before weakening and making landfall Wednesday night. DeSantis said the 1930s Labor Day hurricane was "head and shoulders above any powerful hurricane we've had in the state of Florida."

"I just think people should put this in perspective," DeSantis said. "They try to take different things that happen with tropical weather and act like it's something. There is nothing new under the sun."

Asked to dispel misinformation about governmental entities "controlling the weather," DeSantis said if he could do that "I would do 78 and sunny year round."

"This is on both sides," DeSantis said. "You have some people think government can do this. Others think it's all because of fossil fuels. The reality is what we see."

Chanton on Thursday said that hurricanes "are agents of heat distribution" fueled by a warming climate caused by increased greenhouse gas emissions.

"As the oceans become warmer we can expect that hurricanes will respond to distribute that heat," Chanton said. "And one of their responses is to be stronger."