South Florida is no stranger to the effects of climate change. On Thursday, the City of Miami Beach and The Aspen Institute held a round table to discuss the impacts of extreme heat.
“South Florida is ground zero for climate change. It has impacted us tremendously," said Cheryl Holder, one of the panelists and co-chair of Florida Clinicians for Climate Action. "We know the intense storms that have come through and the overall heat and we’ve seen 34 excess deaths per year because of heat."
“The people of South Florida realize that heat affects every part of their lives and it’s going to get worse, not better unless the world community together takes effective action,” said Dan Porterfield, Aspen Institute CEO & President.
The panel gave a preview of their plans for “Aspen Ideas: Climate,” a conference that will return to Miami Beach March 6-9, 2023.
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Leaders discussed how extreme heat can bring about health concerns for those without access to air conditioning and it can affect the safety of outdoor workers.
“We did a survey in Dade County and what did everybody say? Heat, heat, heat. That was their big concern, so with climate change, it’s all about our planet being hotter and the most vulnerable screaming for help but giving us solutions too so I’m glad this is about solutions,” Holder said.
Warmer waters can also bring about stronger hurricanes, which Florida just experienced with Hurricane Ian. Thursday’s panel mentioned some of the environmentally friendly technology and engineering solutions, as well as getting input from various voices in the community to tackle the daunting challenge of climate change.
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“We just had a big hurricane, we have heat and sunny day flooding," said Dan Gelber, Mayor of the City of Miami Beach. "We have challenges, but they’re surmountable if we really have the will to do it. There are solutions so we got to let people know what they are and we got to convince people to do the work to get them done."
