'I Don't Subscribe to Your Religion': DeSantis Blasts Media, Climate Change Questions

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday claimed that eliminating fossil fuels would cause the country to "collapse" as he blamed the media for propagating policy driven by "climate ideology" as part of an allegedly dishonest agenda.

This is only the Governor's latest attack on climate change. He scoffs at reporters' suggestions that it can cause worse storm activity in the wake of two major hurricanes blasting the Florida Gulf Coast in 13 days. This time, he's taking a financial angle with a bullseye aimed at the umbrella "media."

"The chance of me virtue signaling for people in the media is zero, so do not count on that," DeSantis said at a Thursday morning press conference in Sarasota, responding to a reporter who asked him when the Governor would use the words "climate change" to describe the disastrous Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

"I don't subscribe to your religion, and it's just a tired refrain and song and dance. I get you have an agenda, I understand that; I think you should be more honest about what that would mean for people," DeSantis continued, claiming only affordable energy allows governments to "adequately" assist in storm recovery. "Taxing them to smithereens, stopping oil and gas, making people pay dramatically more for energy; we would collapse as a country."

Last week, a Category 3 Milton rocketed into Siesta Key claiming 25 lives statewide. 13 days earlier, Category 4 Helene barreled into the Big Bend, killing at least 20 Floridians, before it traveled north and devastated the Carolinas; its death toll is now estimated at 300 total with almost 100 people still missing.

The powerful one-two punch into the Southeastern U.S. led to questions: did man-made climate change from the long-term, increased use of fossil fuels contribute to worse hurricanes? Some scientists, like those at the Environmental Defense Fund, say yes, pointing out that hotter water fuels more storms.

Hotter overall temperatures lead to glaciers and ice caps melting, raising sea levels and thus causing higher and more destructive storm surges during hurricanes. These scientists also say that U.S. hurricanes are three times more frequent than 100 years ago, and the number of major hurricanes in the Atlantic has doubled in the past 45 years.

According to NASA researchers, Earth's air temperatures began to climb after the Industrial Revolution, and have now risen at least 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880.

Critics, including DeSantis, point out that the worst hurricanes to hit Florida were in the early 1900s: the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 hit the Sunshine State with a record 183 mph maximum sustained winds and killed over 400 people, while Hurricane Okeechobee in 1928 may have killed up to 3,000 people, making it the deadliest hurricane in Florida history.

Florida also went 11 years (2005 to 2016) without a hurricane.

This past Legislative session, DeSantis signed a bill striking most references to climate change from a state law revamping Florida's energy policy. This new law, battered by critics as "dangerous", bans offshore wind development within a mile of coastlines and removes former goals aimed at achieving 100% clean energy by 2050.

Climate change? Or government-ordained storms?

Others, including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, believe that something has changed with hurricanes as of late—but it has nothing to do with the man-made wearing down of the ozone layer.

But it is man-made.

"Yes they can control the weather. It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done," Rep. Greene posted to her social media in the days following Helene. After backlash, she doubled down on the belief that the federal government is whirling up hurricanes, suggesting that "lasers" are used and that "they" hate people trying to expose the alleged truth.

Other social media users agreed, claiming that it cannot be a coincidence that major hurricanes destroyed primarily Republican areas weeks before the election.

Last week, the Governor and his team claimed that people who blame climate change for weather changes and those who fear President Joe Biden can control hurricanes are two sides of the same "unscientific" coin, or part of a horseshoe theory: those who believe in either one are so extreme their views nearly touch.

"The 'government controls the weather' crowd and the global warming/climate change alarmists are 2 sides of the same coin: unscientific, agenda-motivated, & unhelpful following a storm," said DeSantis' communications director Bryan Griffin on social media.

"Weather is weather. Thankfully, @GovRonDeSantis leads FL in world-class storm response."