Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses a news conference in Fort Pierce on Oct. 10, 2024, following landfall for Hurricane Milton, via screenshot from his Facebook page.
Gov. Ron DeSantis dismissed the idea that burning fossil fuels affects the frequency or intensity of hurricanes Thursday, after Hurricane Milton racked the state, when a reporter asked him about a conspiracy theory that the government can control hurricanes.
He dismissed that conspiracy theory, too.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, was among those posting the weather-control theory on social media. “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done,” she said in an X post.
DeSantis straddled the issue during a Fort Pierce news conference called to update the public on Milton recovery.
“This is on both sides. You kind of have, some people think government can do this [control the weather], and then others think it’s all because of fossil fuels,” he said. “The reality is, is what we see. There’s precedent for all this in history. Like it is hurricane season, you are going to have tropical weather.”
A similar claim was echoed by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who said the federal government could have stopped Hurricane Helene, which caused catastrophic damage from Florida’s Big Bend through to the hills of North Carolina and Tennesee.
When asked if the number of tornado warnings and touchdowns for Hurricane Milton could be associated with climate change, the governor said, “I think you go back and find tornadoes for all of human history, for sure.”
“I just think people should put this in perspective. They try to take different things that happen with tropical weather and act like it’s something. There’s nothing new under the sun,” DeSantis said. “You know, this is something that the state has dealt with for its entire history, and it’s something that we’ll continue to deal with.”