Published on June 25th, 2008
Florida’s got its share of environmental challenges — overdevelopment, water shortages, threatened coral reefs — and it’s definitely one of the top states likely to be hurt by climate change. On the other hand, those very challenges have spurred some good news recently on several fronts.
First, if you missed it, comes the news that the state and U.S. Sugar Corporation have struck a deal to eventually cease sugar-cane production on 187,000 acres of land (nearly 300 square miles) in south Florida. Under the plan, expected to be finalized by September, the state will pay the sugar company $1.75 billion for the land, which lies in the heart of Everglades territory. The transfer would take place in six years, during which U.S. Sugar will continue to grow on the land.
Read the rest of this entry »
Published on April 8th, 2008
Let’s just forget about restoring the Everglades, OK? And all those hundreds of thousands of acres of natural lands that Florida has acquired over the years under the conservation-aimed Florida Forever program? Who needs ‘em? Tourists mostly come to the state for that mouse in Orlando anyway, and if the locals want nature, they can plant some palms in their backyards, right?
If that’s not how you feel — and I certainly don’t — now’s the time to send a message to your elected officials in Florida asking them to reconsider what could certainly be described as the political equivalent of cutting off your nose to spite your face: a plan to address the state’s legitimately serious financial troubles by allotting zero dollars — that’s ZERO — for the Florida Forever conservation program and Everglades restoration.
Read the rest of this entry »
Published on February 21st, 2008
You know those stories you hear regularly from South Florida about giant escaped pythons wolfing down pet poodles? Well, a changing climate in the U.S. means you might have to keep Fifi safe from roaming invasive snakes even if you live as far north as Norman, Oklahoma.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) this week released new climate maps showing that Burmese pythons, an invasive species of snake now comfortably at home in the Everglades, could extend their range to as much as a third of the continental U.S. by 2100 as the climate warms. Read the rest of this entry »
Florida’s got its share of environmental challenges — overdevelopment, water shortages, threatened coral reefs — and it’s definitely one of the top states likely to be hurt by climate change. On the other hand, those very challenges have spurred some good news recently on several fronts.
