Senator David Perdue lives in elite beachfront community that is reinforcing for sea-level rise – while voting against climate crisis action

The Georgia senator might wave off concerns about the climate crisis from public office but behind the gates of his private waterfront community, the issue is real

David Perdue, one of two Georgia Republicans facing an election run-off in January that will have significant consequences for the US Senate, is a longtime climate science denier.

He was among the band of Republicans who urged Donald Trump to exit the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international deal aimed at limiting global heating. At a debate last month he refused to say human activities are driving the climate crisis and voted against a Senate amendment that stated as much.

He has voted with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to support the coal industry, and said “in science there’s an active debate going on”. (There is not.)

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He has also attacked the Green New Deal, the proposal for addressing climate change in parallel with economic inequality, as an “outrageous spending plan” and “a Socialist Wish”.

But despite his repeated dismissals of the climate crisis, and voting against policies to tackle it in public office, his personal risk is being mitigated by the wealthy enclave where he lives in Georgia.

As The Intercept first reported on Thursday, Sen Perdue, the former CEO of Dollar General whose net worth is valued conservatively at $16million, lives in a 9,000 sq ft, six-bed mansion worth more than $4m, according to real estate site, Zillow, in the gated Sea Island beachfront community. 

The community is on St Simons Island, among the top 15 per cent highest-income neighbourhoods in America.

Sea Island Company, which owns the private community, is constructing sea walls and jetties to protect the mansions of its wealthy homeowners from rising sea-levels, The Intercept reports.

The Sea Island Company declined to comment to The Independent. Senator Perdue’s re-election campaign did not respond to a request for interview.

Jeff Schoenberg, chair of Georgia’s chapter of the Sierra Club, America’s oldest grassroots environmental organisation, told The Independent: "We're not surprised David Perdue is again putting himself above Georgians. 

"After all, this is the same person who was all too happy to hide the Covid crisis from us while he was busy lining his pockets. Enough is enough. Georgians deserve a senator that doesn't put their personal interests above our own."

Senator David Perdue at a campaign stop earlier this month (AP)

The sea level is up to 11 inches higher than in 1950 off Georgia, leaving coastal real estate increasingly vulnerable to tidal flooding with some 40,000 homes worth $13bn at risk, according to a 2018 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

And climate change is not only impacting the peach state’s coastline. The last federal National Climate Assessment found that in the southeast “increasing temperatures, extreme heat events, heavy precipitation, and decreased water availability continue to have numerous consequences for human health, the built environment, and the natural world”.

Preisdent-elect Joe Biden made tackling the climate crisis a key pillar of his campaign but how much of his legislative agenda he manages to get done hinges on the Senate makeup. At the moment, Democrats have secured 48 seats and Republicans control 50 seats.

All eyes, then, are on the Georgia races – Senator Perdue against Democrat Jon Ossoff and Democrat Raphael Warnock against appointed incumbent Kelly Loeffler. Democrats need to win both seats to take control (the tie-breaking vote is held by vice president-elect Kamala Harris).

In Georgia, like across the US and globally, the impacts of climate change will not be felt equally. Time and again, it is communities of colour and low-income families who bear the brunt of the climate crisis.

In fact, elsewhere in Glynn County, where Senator Perdue’s mansion is located, widespread and devastating flooding that followed Hurricane Irma ins 2017 led to untreated sewage to flow in the streets of Brunswick. The city’s ageing sewage system is facing increased strain from flooding.

In March, Mr Perdue was one of a group of senators from both political parties forced to deny that they had exploited advance knowledge when they dumped stocks and other financial holdings before the coronavirus wreaked havoc on the economy, AP reported.

The senator sold off as much as $770,000 in stock in February 2020 just as public officials began to get briefings on the virus, according to records. 

In more than 40 separate transactions, he dropped a wide array of holdings, including as much as $165,000 in stock in the Nevada-based casino company that owns Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The industry has been battered by the virus, which has led casinos to shut down. In the days after he sold the shares, the value of Caesars Entertainment Corporation stock cratered.

He also purchased shares in Disney and Delta, two companies hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, who have made massive lay-offs of employees.

Mr Perdue attended a February 25 Senate Armed Services committee meeting where spread of the coronavirus was discussed. In the days after, he invested as much as $260,000 in pharmaceutical company Pfizer, according to a disclosure.

Perdue spokeswoman Casey Black said at the time the senator has an outside adviser manage his investments and “goes above and beyond to fully comply with the law.” 

AP contributed to this report