Tonight on All In with Chris Hayes, Florida Republican Penny Taylor was asked about climate change and EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt's, comments about it. Her response: priceless.
"Taylor: The folks that say "oh, you know, it ebbs and it flows" and whatever, well, it does, but this ebb might be longer than we have ever experienced and so to me, there is much more willingness to work, as horrible as this event has been, what an extraordinary opportunity to gain data. In fact today we're flying over the county mapping where the flooding is. There is still flooding in a lot of areas. So we're doing that today...and that, you know, all of the sudden "oh, you mean you live on a hill, you don't flood" that doesn't always hold true.
Hayes: So how do you talk to fellow Republicans about this issue? You've got the President* of the United States, you know, sort of dismisses it. Scott Pruitt said now is not the time to talk about this.
Taylor: [ extended laughter ]
Hayes: You think that's not true?
Taylor: [ more laughter ]
Taylor: You know, we -- where is this man? Get him here! There has never been a storm acting like Irma did in the Atlantic. We've never had such a strong storm acting like Irma. The scientists say our storms are going to get stronger. They're going to come at us more, with more frequency. There is more water pushed in. The water is going to come up. There will always be the doubters, you know, but I think rational people in quieter moments will understand that this isn't the end of the world, but my gosh, we have to prepare there has to be an adaptation, technologically, to accept the fact that the sea level is going to get higher.
Hayes: Maybe you guy can engineer your way out of four feet of sea level rise, but maybe not eight.
Taylor: Right.
Hayes: At a certain point, do you feel we need to be doing something on the cause side?
Taylor: Oh, my gosh, yes. It's a duet.
Hayes: Right.
Taylor: You can't just say "oh, we can handle this. bring it on. We can do it."
Hayes: We've got some good engineers here.
Taylor: If it's engineering, that's never going to happen. No, no, no. We have to make changes and it's so difficult with people to make changes to understand that they need to adapt to the changing times. And that's part of the challenge we have and that takes time, but you have to be persistent. You can't go and pretend like, you know, it doesn't exist.
Hayes: So you're a rare Republican office holder who has this set of beliefs. I mean, it's true, you know. I wonder when you talk to other people, you're running a county here. So I get the feeling that you're not involved in particularly brutal partisan fights down here. I imagine the politics here have to do something much more with local and municipal issues...but I guess like -- do you feel like -- does it frustrate you that the leaders of this party are just whistling past the grave on this?
Taylor: Yes, frankly. it's nonsense and I think that, you know, I think they say "oh, no, we can't say this because people will be afraid to come" I've heard this. People will be afraid to be here. it will take care of itself. Well, maybe if you're 88, you know, and you have another 20 years in your life, if you're lucky, it might take care of itself. But we're looking for our children and our grandchildren to be able to live in a place that we love and cherish, and we want to work with the climate and we want to be able to not master, but adapt to the change. Because it's an old story. Mother Nature bats last. Hello, Irma. We really need -- this is a wake-up call i think for everyone here. and I think it's a wake-up call for the state of Florida. and I think as we move, you know, hopefully we don't these wake-up calls to make those adjustments."
Mother Nature bats last. Isn't that the truth. Will the one-two punch of Harvey and Irma make the Trump administration reconsider its belief that climate change is a hoax or not worthy of discussion? Who knows. Maybe they figure they'll all be serving long prison sentences anyhow, so who cares about the rest of America?
