If you don’t talk about it, it’s not real
A bi-partisan bill passed in the Florida legislature last week would have mandated the Department of Health to monitor polluted beaches and report the data to the public. Florida SB 165 authorized the Department to close coastal beaches and public bathing spaces if necessary “to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”
I say “would have” because Gov. DeSantis vetoed it.
The bill required counties and municipalities to warn the DOH within 24 hours of unsafe of fecal matter (shit) or enterococci bacteria levels in the water and post health advisory warning signs. There is a lot of water in Florida, and a whole lot of it is impaired by everything from toxic algae blooms, sewage, nitrogen and phosphorus. Ask any manatee.
Ron is no more concerned about dirty swimming water than he is about human rights, actual history or climate breakdown. Ron cares about tourist dollars and the effect that warning visitors about threats to their health might have on revenue. Ron cares about the money flowing into his campaign coffers from the people responsible for the pollution.
That’s why he vetoed this common sense law.
It’s also why he happily signed legislation that bans the use of “climate change” or similar terms in any official state document or communication
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This accounts for his popularity among the magical thinking segment of the public.