Florida appoints first chief science officer to take on climate crisis
Source: The Guardian
Florida appoints first chief science officer to take on climate crisis
Tom Frazer plans to make water quality a priority in new role created by Republican governor Ron DeSantis
Richard Luscombe in Miami
Tue 28 May 2019 07.00 BST
To say Dr Tom Frazer faces a daunting workload as he begins his new job as Florida’s first chief science officer would be an underestimation. From the increasing risk of ever stronger Atlantic hurricanes, toxic algae blooms that have inundated the state’s beaches and inland waterways, and rising sea levels that threaten to leave Florida underwater by the end of the century, the challenges appear immense.
But where many see a five-alarm climate emergency laying siege to his state, Frazer, with a measured approach honed from more than three decades’ experience of working in environmental science, sees only opportunity.
“It’s a very exciting time in the state of Florida,” he said in an interview with the Guardian and several local reporters as he assumed the role created by the new Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, soon after he took office in January.
“There’s a clear focus in this state right now on water quality issues, so that is my priority moving forward. Rising sea levels are [also] a priority issue and factor prominently in how we’re looking at some of the other issues we’re dealing with. I don’t know how to say it any clearer than that.”
While Frazer and his new boss, Noah Valenstein, Florida’s secretary for environmental protection, were reluctant to characterize it as such, the appointment of a chief science officer – the first such state-level position in the nation – is a literal sea change from the approach taken by DeSantis’s predecessor, Rick Scott.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/28/florida-tom-frazer-chief-science-officer-climate-water-quality