TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A panel of scientists, tourism operators, and a leading civil rights leader announced a campaign of billboards along the Interstate 4 corridor to warn that President George W. Bush has ignored the threat global warming poses to Florida's famous coasts, economy, and way of life.

"The damage from this year's hurricanes should be taken as a sign of things to come," said Michael Oppenheimer, Ph.D., professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University and one of the world's leading authorities on global warming. "The warming ocean surface will supply more and more heat to future hurricanes, causing their winds to strengthen and their destructive power to increase disproportionately."

Aimee Christensen, executive director of Environment2004, said President Bush has ignored the science.

"The Bush/Cheney administration has pursued an energy policy driven by industry, which puts polluters before people," she said. "That's why we are launching our billboard campaign, to raise awareness of how that is harming the people of Florida. Tampa and Orlando were critically hard-hit by hurricanes. People there need to know that Bush is doing practically nothing to prevent hurricanes from getting worse in the future from global warming."

"We want to raise awareness of the impacts of global warming on our communities," said Gregory T. Moore, head of the NAACP's National Voter Fund. He said his organization is doing so in a "Campaign for Communities" that tells how people of color are more heavily impacted by environmental threats - such as worse storms. Moore added, "Here in Florida, there are still 90,000 people homeless because of the hurricanes, and they should have the right to vote."

The event was attended by the Wilkerson family of Indian Rocks Beach, who for three generations have owned seaside rentals near Tampa.

"Tourism brings many dollars into the state, and is one of the reasons Florida doesn't have a state income tax," said Mary Wilkerson, past president of Gulf Beaches Chamber of Commerce's Board of Superior Small Lodging. "So even if you loathe the beaches and drive a Hummer and think you don't have to care about the environment, it lowers your taxes."

She pointed out that 5,200 jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry were lost in Florida because of this year's hurricanes.

The billboard campaign announced Monday features the message, "Global warming equals worse hurricanes. George Bush just doesn't get it," with a photo of a hurricane swirling toward Florida. It is cosponsored by Scientists and Engineers for Change and Environment2004. The billboards have appeared in recent days in the Tampa and Orlando areas, as well as along Interstate 4 between the cities.

Beyond worse storm damage, severe damage to Florida's celebrated coral reefs from warmer, higher oceans was described by William F. Precht, Ph.D., who has studied coral reefs in Florida and elsewhere since 1978, specializing in the impacts of global warming and the restoration of damaged reefs.

A letter to President Bush from 53 leading scientists who study coral reefs was released by Steven Miller, Ph.D., of Key Largo, Fla., former director of the National Undersea Research Center and expert on coral reefs and long-term ocean conditions, who has lived underwater on three missions on NOAA's Aquarius, the "inner space station."

"There is scientific consensus that global warming is real and that it will cause the accelerated collapse of coral reef ecosystems in the near future (decades) due to more frequent and severe coral bleaching, changes in ocean chemistry, as well as the potential for the increased incidence and virulence of disease," the scientists' letter says. It calls on the president to support fully protected marine reserves to protect those that remain.

A statement was read on behalf of Lawrence Krauss, chairman of physics at Case Western Reserve University, bestselling author of "The Physics of Star Trek," and regular NPR commentator, who was held up in transit. According to Krauss, the government's failure to head off the human impacts of global warming can be traced to the Bush administration's disregard for science and the politicization of research in this country.

The way in which global warming will feed worse hurricanes in Florida was described by Oppenheimer, a lead author of the latest report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which establishes the worldwide consensus on global warming impacts.

"Today's midrange Category 4 storm is more likely to grow into Category 5 in future decades," Oppenheimer said. "The downpours accompanying the winds are likely to increase. Even if the storms weren't stronger, the higher sea level would cause flooding further inland than now; the projected combination of stronger, wetter hurricanes and a higher sea level spells big trouble for Florida and the rest of the east coast."