Marco Rubio

Opinion contributor

The world is not going to end in 12 years as some climate alarmists claim, but I can tell you Florida will be forced to continue making adjustments in the coming decades because of the changing climate. Trend lines suggest sunny day flooding will become increasingly common as local sea levels rise from a variety of causes. As a result, some researchers predict that the 30-year mortgage will die out in low-lying parts of our state.

To be clear, attempting to reverse engineer the U.S. economy to absolve our past climate sins — either through a carbon tax or some "Green New Deal" scheme — will fail. The cost would set our state back, depriving us of the resources we desperately need to continue to adapt. Despite the high costs, none of those advocates can point to how even the most aggressive (and draconian) plan would improve the lives of Floridians.

Realistic solutions to climate change do exist

But just because the accepted conventional wisdom of global elites and American leftists will fail does not mean we can ignore the challenges we face. Regardless of one’s specific beliefs, Floridians have a challenge that we must confront. To do so successfully requires a clear-eyed assessment of the problem and the choices available to us.

The good news is these problems are manageable.

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Through proactive adaptation alone, the Environmental Protection Agency predicted in 2017, Americans could reduce damage caused by climate change to coastal property through 2099 by 90%.

That doesn’t mean building sea walls around Florida or forcing Americans to move to higher ground.

Collaborative efforts such as the Central Everglades Planning Project, whose authorization I spearheaded in 2016, will help. By restoring the Everglades’ natural flow of water, CEPP will prevent flooding, rehydrate America’s only subtropical wilderness and limit saltwater intrusion into the region’s sole source of drinking water.

My bipartisan Restoring Resilient Reefs Act is a similar, necessary step to rehabilitate America’s extensive coral network — a natural wonder and critical breakwater against wave energy and storm surge. Healthy coral reefs play a critical role in our economy as well.

Looking forward, the work will come as the fruit of research, like the Army Corps of Engineers’ South Atlantic Coastal Study, which will realistically plan for the impacts of climate change on our coastal infrastructure.

Climate policies that cost a fortune only hurt us in the end

Americans, particularly Floridians, are right to be concerned about the changing climate. But they are also right to be concerned about a regressive overreaction. Plans stemming from panic will constrain our economy and cripple our ability to invest future resources in solving longer-term issues. They would also neutralize our tenuous economic advantage over China, which is doing barely anything to reduce its emissions.

Alarmists look at the challenges ahead and reject America’s legacy of great innovation in the face of obstacles. Their plans will fail Florida and the nation as a whole.

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Adaptation has been perhaps the most quintessential human trait. Instead of restricting options for our next generation by borrowing against their future, we should choose adaptive solutions deliberatively, buy time and maximize the choices available to them in the decades and centuries to come.

Marco Rubio is a Republican senator from Florida. Follow him on Twitter: @MarcoRubio