Amid Climate Change Woes, South Florida Official Threatens To Secede

Amid reports that Florida state officials have been banned from using the term “climate change,” one South Florida official is continuing to push for the southern part of the state to secede over the state government’s failure to recognize and address global warming.

“North Florida is completely indifferent, if not completely oblivious to it,” South Miami Vice Mayor Walter Harris told TPM about rising sea levels impacting southern Florida.

The South Miami City Commission last week passed a resolution proposed by Harris pushing officials to look into secession. The resolution asks that the “Miami-Dade County League of Cities form a committee to investigate the possibility of the creation of South Florida as the 51st state.”

The city commission passed a resolution in October proposing that South Florida secede, and Harris said that he thinks the secession movement will have a greater chance of success if the League of Cities looks into the issue.

Harris has received positive feedback and has been pushing the League of Cities to take up the matter. He told TPM that reports that Florida state officials being banned from using terms like “climate change” inspired him to propose the latest resolution at last week’s city commission meeting.

“You’ve got a governor who refuses to even use the term ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change,’ much less rising sea levels,” Harris said. “Everybody down here is stunned to hear such stuff.”

Harris said that while many citizens of southern Florida have pushed for secession before for political or financial reasons, the rising levels makes the situation urgent.

“We’re talking about survival. We’re talking about physical reality. We’re talking about a situation that is totally real,” Harris told TPM.