King Tide Floods Streets From Miami Beach To Deerfield Beach As Heb! Pimps Coal, Gas

As if on cue, a king tide powered by a supermoon flooded parts of South Florida Sunday and Monday, setting a soggy stage for international forums aimed at drawing attention to the perils of climate change. In downtown Miami, about 1,200 people gathered to train for a climate corps led by former Vice President Al Gore, who drew mainstream attention to the issue in his 2006 Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. For nearly three hours, Gore walked a crowd that included participants from 80 countries through his now-famous slide show, rebooted with a decade’s worth of new science and data supporting the dire consequences of a warming planet.

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“Miami has an enormous amount at risk,” Gore said as he showed pictures of sunny-day flooding in South Florida during a 2013 king tide. “I just wonder how the governor watches this and says, ‘I don’t notice anything. Do you notice anything?’ Not to make an ad hominem comment, but I’m genuinely curious.”

This year’s king tide coincided with a Sunday supermoon that put the moon closest to the earth in its oblong orbit, fueling higher than expected tides. A second king tide was forecast for about 9 p.m. Monday, followed by a second round just after 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesday and 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. Wednesday.

The seasonal high tides, which scientists say have been inching up with rising sea levels, put Indian Creek Drive underwater for part of the day. Flooding was also reported in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and farther north in the Hillsboro and Deerfield Beach areas, said Jennifer Jurado, director of Broward County’s division of Environmental Planning and Community Resilience.

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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article36876471.html

Jeb Bush released an energy plan Tuesday that was filled with Republican standards: Drill more oil, cut regulations and build the Keystone XL pipeline. But it's more notable for what it dodges: Bush is one of the greenest candidates in the Republican presidential field.

He’s also battling accusations that he’s soft on the issues that are firing up the Republican base right now, and his big energy rollout didn’t mention the term “climate change.” And while he promises to stop President Barack Obama’s climate regulations “in their tracks,” he didn't repeat his previous concerns that the climate is changing "and humans are contributing to it,“ or that Republicans who deny global warming risk being viewed as “anti-science.”

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But while Bush’s plan says Washington should “defer” to states that are pressing to allow oil and gas drilling off their coasts — specifically mentioning Alaska and Virginia — it’s silent on whether he continues to oppose oil rigs in federal waters off Florida, a stance he championed fiercely as governor of the historically anti-drilling Sunshine State.

His fuzziness on climate science and his states-rights position on drilling serves two purposes for Bush, allowing him to run with the GOP pack during the primaries while leaving him room to embrace a more environmentally friendly position during the general election. And the initial reaction from greens might only help with that strategy. “This plan is meet the new driller, same as the old driller,” said Daniel J. Weiss, senior vice president for campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters. “Jeb Bush’s plan is a giant carbon bomb that will accelerate climate change, sea-level rise, smog and health impacts.”

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http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/jeb-bush-energy-climate-change-fossil-fuels-214241