This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
A life-sized statue of Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, was unveiled and promptly began melting in front of an audience in Tallahassee in a symbolic protest at his rejection of action on the climate crisis.
The silvery statue, revealed to an audience of onlookers last week, melted away to show a skull under DeSantis’s face. The structure was cast from solid gallium, a metal that melts at 85.6 F, which is below summertime high temperatures frequently reached in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital.
The environmentalists behind the statue-based protest said it was a fitting monument to DeSantis’s eight years as Florida governor, which comes to an end in January.
The Republican has frequently criticized what he has called a “radical climate agenda,” blocking the ability of Florida municipalities to slash planet-heating pollution, and even signed a bill to erase terms such as “climate change” and “greenhouse gas emissions” from state law.
This law has hindered the ability of state agencies to even mention a climate crisis that poses an outsized threat to Florida. In classrooms, meanwhile, state education regulations are also ensuring the steady elimination of any reference to climate change.
“I am not a global warming person, I don’t want that label on me,” DeSantis, who unsuccessfully ran to become the Republican nominee for president in 2024, said in 2018.
Southern Florida is acutely threatened by sea level rise, while homes and businesses across the entire state have been lashed by powerful hurricanes, worsened by rising global temperatures. The increasing damage wrought by storms supercharged by ocean and atmospheric heat has proved so costly that several major insurers have exited Florida entirely.
The state’s stance towards the climate crisis looks unlikely to change, however. Florida has become a Republican bastion in recent years and Byron Donalds, the GOP candidate, is heavily favored to win the governor’s race in next month’s midterm elections.
Donalds has said he wants to maintain Florida’s environment but has said he doesn’t accept the link between climate change and human actions, despite scientific consensus that the burning of fossil fuels is causing temperatures to rise.
“The climate crisis is one of the top issues facing our planet today. And yet, some candidates running for office still deny it’s happening, and deny the bold climate action that the people want.” said Candice Fortin, campaign manager at 350Action, the environmental group behind the DeSantis statue, along with advertising agency Uncommon.
“That’s why it’s more important than ever to deny them back at the ballot box,” Fortin added. “If everyone who cares about people and our planet makes their voices heard on election cay, we’ll be too loud to deny.”
DeSantis has defended his position on climate. “We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots,” he said in a post on the X social media platform when making climate a lower state priority in May 2024.