Asked whether bears are the biggest threat to bears, Wraithmell responds: “I don’t believe that’s supported by science right now…. In addition to habitat loss, major causes of mortality for bears in Florida are roadkill and euthanasia for nuisance bears.”
This is the video from the hearing in Ft Lauderdale.
Here are some comments I jotted down as I listened.
“Letters after Letters and we are being ignored.” (Sound familiar?)
Vivian Handy : 28 biologists redefinition was not due to the population number but when it was delisted as threatened. This will effect the success of dening. The hunt will introduce noise and fears, pregnant mothers could be short and the cubs could be shot.
People talk about Florida’s reputation. (Just kick us in the head.)
Persons with masters wetlands biologists says this ignorance greed trumping science
the humane society of the united states was there.
Chuck O’Neal: Your hunt is based on cherry picked data
We don’t even know how many bears we have!
You are appointed and not elected and you don’t have to listen to the people
we’ll see you court. We’ll see you in the media
Jon Ullman the sierra club: ” Its about development. ”
Your not going to get rid of the nuisance problem by opening up the hunt
If your going to kill something you should eat not stuff it.
I can’t believe these are the people making decisions for our animals.
There’s no explanation. This is rigged.
Ronald Bergeron, one of the commissioners, said he can’t vote for any quota is against the hunt because he doesn’t see the science. He believes that bears are an icon of Florida. He think the train has moved very rapidly.
(at about 2:00) He lays out the scenario about when hunting is appropriate.
2:08 water in the WMAS blamed sfwmd
position paper on water level (Have to go look for that)
Just so people know we have plenty of hunting in Florida but here on the FWC has proudly put a hunter with a dead bear on their website.
We NEED people to go hunting the Everglades for pythons and we need divers to go after Lionfish. We have alligator hunting, hog hunting, deer hunting, dove hunting, duck/waterfoul hunting, Raccoon, opossum, skunk, nutria, beaver, coyote, bobcat, and river otter, Quail, turkey and wild hogs.
Dove hunting really?
apparently so. If you google dove recipes there are plenty. Like this one.
I’ve written a few blogs in the past about our Black Bear situation but it’s really has come to critical mass and we must do something to stop the madness that is going on in Florida right now. We have been taken over by a bunch of loonies with a plan of their own. Not just for us but for our treasures panthers, manatees and black bears.
At one time the Black Bear was endangered. Now we have a fabulous healthy population. What do they do? They kill them.
“(From a post by Fred Bohler) Cubs will stay with their mother for 18-24 months. When i was with FWC, the rule was , cubs of a deceased female that were under 35 pounds were euthanized. Cubs 35 -50 pounds were left on their own and had about a 10-20% chance of survival respectively. Obviously without proper foraging/ hunting skills , most cubs are doomed. Male bears will readily hunt them down and kill them. I was involved with one of the few rehabilitation efforts for a cub to be released back into the wild by FWC. Even that had its problems, once again, man could not be trusted not to imprint the cub. The release was marginally successful.”
This week we all saw this fabulous video on the news. “Der’s bears in da pool. They took my floaties.”
How can we as humans watch this video and then allow hunters to hunt mothers and then euthanize the cubs. Most of Floridians are against hunting the bears and I’m sure no life loving person could be ok with killing a mother and euthanizing their cubs. If they are then they are hypocrites. 61% percent of Floridians are against this.
“A state-wide poll commissioned by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) earlier this year showed that 61% of Floridians were against bear hunting, with overwhelming majorities favoring educational outreach programs and the widespread use of bear-proof garbage cans. When the HSUS delivered a petition to Governor Rick Scott with 90,000 names calling upon him to block the hunt, Scott deferred to the Republican-packed FWC, whose chairman, Richard Corbett, dismissed the concerns of these Florida citizens in the following way:
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expects to announce a decision later this year on a petition from the Pacific Legal Foundation to reclassify the manatee from endangered to threatened. The petition was submitted on behalf of Save Crystal River, a group of property owners concerned about boating restrictions in King’s Bay in Citrus County.
“Those people don’t know what they’re talking about. Most of those people have never been in the woods. They think we’re talking about teddy bears. “Oh Lord, don’t hurt my little teddy bear!’ Well these bears are dangerous…. Do you want blood on your hands? We don’t. We have taken a step.”
A step towards murdering a mother and leaving her babies to die.
Don’t be a hypocrite.
This is what we can do to help.
There are two paid and four volunteer attorneys working on the lawsuit against the FWC to stop the hunt. You can help pay the legal expenses by donating to the legal fund. All donations, large or small, are greatly appreciated.
Here is the link to the gofundme account to pay for this.
If we can all give ten bucks that’s a lot of bucks that will help for this lawsuit.
2) If you are unable to donate monetarily, you can donate some time by helping to spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, email and letters to the editor. You can also help the cause receive a $10,000 award from Cox Conserves by voting for Chuck O’Neal here. One click one vote 10,000 bucks towards the cause.
O’Neal, an environmental activist and a real-estate investor in Longwood, filed a lawsuit against the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to stop the state agency from allowing people to hunt bears. He was joined in his suit by Speak Up Wekiva, a nonprofit group based in Lake Mary.
“Filing this lawsuit is something that fulfills this commitment,” O’Neal said.
3) As a contingency plan, if all other means to stop the hunt fail, there are going to be a series of statewide protests and an immeasurable amount of negative publicity for FWC and the state officials who are responsible. You can find one in your area here:
4) And possibly the most important. PLEASE REGISTER TO VOTE and help insure that all your friends vote in EVERY election. You can join a great organization with a long history of education, voter registration and advocacy here:
On October 10th, 2015, the small Central Florida town of Umatilla, on the southern edge of the Ocala National Forest, is scheduled to hold its annual Black Bear Festival. The event, organized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), has traditionally been aimed at educating young and old alike about the area’s wildlife, featuring presentations and guided eco-tours of the nearby forest. For a town that used to label itself “The Gateway to the Forest,” the event was a wholesome family activity and entirely fitting. This year’s event promises to be extra-special, for it will mark the two-week countdown to the resumption of bear hunting after a twenty-one-year hiatus, affording Florida’s families a wonderful new way to interact with their natural environment. It remains to be seen whether the organizers will set up bear-shaped targets for youngsters to aim at in Cadwell Park, or will hide the reality of the coming bloodbath behind their fraudulent and authoritarian claim of managerial responsibility Ok so to wrap this up grew our black bear population out of endangered to a large population. We now after many years have bear hunting. Hunters can kill the mothers and that means a dismal outcome for the cubs. This whole thing is orchestrated from the darkness who have found Florida a great place to destroy for their own greedy reasons.
Here is an article about Ted Nugent buying his permit to kill bears in Florida.
When it looks like a duck, and walks like duck, quacks like a duck it’s a duck.
Or in this case a big polluting rubber ducky.
I’ve written about the Pacific Legal Foundation and explained who they are. When I first moved here I read about Lakepointe and even wrote to some friends about them. Something was not kosher there. Something was rotten in Denmark. Unfortunately, at the time I didn’t have the knowledge to really understand.
They are a Koch Brothers, Scaife Foundation lackeys hiding out in bosom of an unending cash cow and really sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong but where their masters want them to go.
and they want to go to Martin County. They want to destroy us.
Then I wrote about their relationship to Martin County and our Economic Foundation
The PLF obituary notes, “(Hopping’s) notable achievements included coordinating the Florida business community’s efforts to enact laws relating to manatee protection, an expedited environmental permitting process, and the Bert J. Harris Jr. Property Rights Protection Act.” The Bert Harris Act is the best example how the unintelligent design of laws provides energy to a precept of radical conservatism: that self-interest of corporations can protect the public interest better than rules and regulations.”
We have a comp plan in Martin County. Developers don’t like it. They don’t like some of our commissioners. They certainly don’t like that we pay attention and we don’t want to be an extension of the cement jungle of South Florida. and they don’t like Maggy Hurchella who is one of our greatest gifts. Maggy fights for us day and night and all she got for her efforts was a silly SLAPP suit which is costing her thousands of dollars.
“The evidence from Heard’s hearing, according to court records, is important to Lake Point’s case against former County Commissioner Maggy Hurchalla for allegedly making false statements to county commissioners with the intention of interfering with Lake Point’s ability to conduct business. Lake Point filed suit at the same time against Martin County and the South Florida Water Management District for breach of contract.
Lake Point filed a motion in January seeking permission from the court to amend its lawsuit to charge Martin County with tortuous interference. A public records request filed by Lake Point with County Attorney Michael Durham asked for copies of all correspondence, public and private, between three county commissioners and Hurchalla regarding Lake Point. Apparently the request was ignored for a year.”
“The Pacific Legal Foundation—a 40-year-old public interest firm known for winning its cases to protect US landowners against excessive government regulation and the loss of private property rights—questioned this week not only the county commission’s closed-door sessions, but also the apparent disregard of Florida’s Public Records Laws by two commissioners, Ed Fielding and Sarah Heard, for failing to report and protect their private electronic communications used to conduct public business.
If the allegations by Lake Point Water Restoration Project attorneys prove accurate regarding the “manipulation” or deliberate destruction of Fielding’s and Heard’s secret emails with environmentalist Maggy Hurchalla, both commissioners also are likely to face criminal charges, as well as ethics violations.”
Maggy is a citizen. She is not an elected official. This is just a circus pointed to our commissioners to destroy Martin County.
“George Lindemann Jr., a key partner in the Lake Point Restoration project, and companies associated with him have been very generous to Martin County commissioners and commission candidates who support business causes.
Lindemann Jr. and the companies based at 4500 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, Suite 105, contributed a total of $32,000 in the past five years to the political campaigns of three county commissioners and two commission candidates, campaign finance records show.
He is the son of George Lindemann Sr., an investor whose family is reported by Fortune magazine to have a net worth of $2.2 billion.
Lindemann Jr. gained national prominence in the early 1990s as an equestrian with Olympic aspirations. He made headlines when he received a 33-month prison sentence in January 1996 after his conviction in federal court in Chicago for fraudulent insurance claims on a show horse he ordered killed, according to published media reports.
In Martin County, Lindemann Jr. is known for the controversial Lake Point project in southwestern Martin County and his campaign contributions to five pro-business candidates for countywide office since 2008.
Commissioner Doug Smith and former Commissioner Ed Ciampi received a total of $9,000 each from Lindemann and his companies in the past five years, records show. Former Commissioner Patrick Hayes received a total of $7,000.
They said they believe the Lake Point stormwater facility is good for the environment and Martin County because it reduces the amount of polluted water going into the St. Lucie Estuary.
The rock mine also provides building materials and jobs that are helping Martin County’s economy, Smith said.
“It is to clean up the nutrients out of the water,” Smith said. “Every project that we add into the mix that diverts dirty water … is a good thing.”
How’s that going Doug?
“But new Commission Chairwoman Sarah Heard and some of her political allies questioned Lindemann’s campaign contributions to their political adversaries and the Lake Point rock mining agreement that calls for the donation of about 1,800 acres to the South Florida Water Management District in 20 years..
“I don’t think it’s a good deal for Martin County taxpayers,” Heard said about the “It looks to me like all they’re doing is digging holes and selling off the rock or sand, whatever they’re mining out there. How is that a benefit for Martin County?”
Critics of the Lake Point project like Maggy Hurchalla, an environmentalist and former county commissioner, say a proposal to siphon water from the St. Lucie Canal into the Lake Point property and send it south to utilities in Palm Beach County could harm the St. Lucie Estuary instead of helping it.
The St. Lucie Canal receives water from Lake Okeechobee, Hurchalla said. So increasing the number of customers relying on the lake for water could lead to more water storage, higher lake levels, larger discharges of polluted water into the St. Lucie Estuary, and less water for the Everglades.”
How’s that working for our Estuary? Maggy ,as usual, was right. Who’s threatening her? Let me repeat.
This is who she is fighting against.
“Lindemann Jr. gained national prominence in the early 1990s as an equestrian with Olympic aspirations. He made headlines when he received a 33-month prison sentence in January 1996 after his conviction in federal court in Chicago for fraudulent insurance claims on a show horse he ordered killed, according to published media reports.”
Who approved this in the first place? Who does that ? Who allows a horse killing felon to operate in our county?
Translated he was convicted of killing a horse to collect the insurance money. Because why? He didn’t have enough money?
Now Sarah Heard and Ed Fielding who have supported the river and supported the comp plan of Martin County are being attacked by Lakepointe
In the same lawsuit, Lakepointe claims the commissioners smashed their own computers and hid their emails in a secret plot against the rockpit company.”
A secret plot? Funny. It’s always a secret plot.
There will be a hearing on those charges before Judge McManus at 9:30am Thursday Aug 27 at the Martin County Courthouse. Ed and Sarah will be testifying.
Please understand that this is beyound issue even between a local business and our commissioners. We have been targeted here in Martin County by the Pacific Legal Foundation and unless we do something about this it will never end.
We will loose everything. Our environment. Our wetlands. I may as well have stayed Palm Beach County because we’re gonna look just like them. A cement jungle ruled by a bunch of big businesses.
Before they had harvesting machines every year people 10,000 Caribbean men were selectivity chosen by American sugar corporations to harvest sugar cane for six months in Florida under temporary “H2” visas.
They came from Jamaica in the middle of the night and put in barracks in Belle Glade.
“If we didn’t have the Jamaicans it wouldn’t get harvested because the local people wouldn’t do it.” One of the sugar field managers said. They were essential jailed. Brought from the barrack to the bus to the field to bus to the barrack and not being allowed to leave.
They got paid one dollar and few cents pr hour.
This was released in 1990.
Even before the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Who used to hang out in Indiantown) sent workers from their Islands in the Bahamas.
“H-2 Worker is a controversial expose of the travesty of justice that takes place around the shores of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee—a situation which, until the film’s release, has been one of America’s best-kept secrets. There, for six months a year, over 10,000 men from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands perform the brutal task of cutting sugar cane by hand-a job so dangerous and low-paying that Americans refuse to do it.
H-2 Worker is the first documentary to tell the story of these men—named for their special temporary guestwork “H-2” visas. They live and work in conditions reminiscent of the days of slavery on sugar plantations: housed in overcrowded barracks, poorly fed, denied adequate treatment for their frequent on-the-job injuries, paid less than minimum wage, and deported if they do not do exactly as they are told.
The sugar plantations who employ the H-2 workers sustain this exploitation—and their own profits—with the help of the U.S. government, which authorizes the importation of Third World workers while it blocks the importation of cheaper Third World sugar through a system of quotas and price supports, citing “national security” as the reason for its costly subsidizing of a domestic sugar industry. The scandal of the H-2 program has existed for over 45 years. It began in 1942, when the U.S. Sugar Cane Corporation was indicted for conspiracy to enslave black American workers. In 1943 the first West Indian cane cutters were brought in. This scandal has largely been kept out of the public eye, and the sugar companies and their government supporters have escaped accountability. On the contrary, a new immigration law has paved the way for a rapid expansion of the H-2 program.
Directed by: Stephanie Black
Produced by: Stephanie Black
Released: 1990
Running Time: 70 min
Grand Jury Prize Best Documentary – Sundance Film Festival (1990)
Best Cinematography, Sundance Film Festival (1990)
Quotes
“‘H-2 Worker’ is that rare hybrid that succeeds as both film and advocacy. The documentary’s look and form is smooth and sophisticated … [and] it solidly frames issues about the economy, employment and the treatment of workers who seem just steps away from slavery.” —The New York Times
With admirable fluency, Black combines straightforward information and analysis with more evocative glimpses of the workers’ lives …. Black and her collaborators have an unsentimental conviction that these workers are fully human, that they experience not just anger and suffering but also love and pleasure – and even hope.”—The Nation”
Today when you go to Belle Glade you drive past the same buildings that were in this film.
The cane harvesters were brought in to perform the autumn harvest of sugar cane under the H-2A Visa program. The Jamaicans replaced earlier generations of Bahamian seasonal workers who in turn replaced migrant labor recruited from the Cotton Belt (region) in the first half of the 20th century. A documentary short that accompanies the DVD version of the film states that human labor was abandoned for mechanical harvesters in 1992.
I think it’s important for “us” ( and you know who I’m referring to) to watch this so we never get soft against the people who created these human rights abuses for corporate profit. Not only do they treat people like slaves they collect corporate welfare.
( Are we calling them corporate entitlements yet?)
It’s also important for those of you that think all these people are coming and taking your jobs away. The reason they have, yes I said have this program is to to the work no one else would do. Interesting enough when I worked in Boca in the hospital we got nurses from England and from the Philippines and there were plenty of nurses around to do the job. It’s been here since the 40’s. So even at your work you may have H2 workers or even the hospital you go to when your ill.
H-2A Temporary Agricultural WorkersThe H-2A program allows U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs. A U.S. employer,a U.S. agent as described in the regulations,or an association of U.S. agricultural producers named as a joint employer must file Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, on a prospective worker’s behalf.
Who May Qualify for H-2A Classification?
To qualify for H-2A nonimmigrant classification, the petitioner must:
Offer a job that is of a temporary or seasonal nature.
Demonstrate that there are not sufficient U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work.
Show that the employment of H-2A workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
Generally, submit with the H-2A petition, a single valid temporary labor certification from the U.S. Department of Labor. (A limited exception to this requirement exists in certain “emergent circumstances.” See e.g., 8 CFR 214.2(h)(5)(x) for specific details.)
H-2A Program Process
Step 1: Petitioner submits temporary labor certification application to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Prior to requesting H-2A classification from USCIS, the petitioner must apply for and receive a temporary labor certification for H-2A workers with DOL. For further information regarding the temporary labor certification requirements and process, see the Foreign Labor Certification, Department of Labor page.
Step 2: Petitioner submits Form I-129 to USCIS. After receiving a temporary labor certification for H-2A employment from DOL, the employer should file Form I-129 with USCIS. With limited exceptions, the original temporary labor certification must be submitted as initial evidence with Form I-129. (See the instructions to Form I-129 for additional filing requirements.)
Step 3: Prospective workers outside the United States apply for visa and/or admission. After USCIS approves Form I-129, prospective H-2A workers who are outside the United States must:
Apply for an H-2A visa with the U.S. Department of State (DOS) at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad, then seek admission to the United States with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at a U.S. port of entry; or
Directly seek admission to the United States in H-2A classification with CBP at a U.S. port of entry, if a worker does not require a visa.
“H-2 Worker is the first documentary to tell the story of these men – named for their special temporary guestwork “H-2” visas. They live and work in conditions reminiscent of the days of slavery on sugar plantations: housed in overcrowded barracks, poorly fed, denied adequate treatment for their frequent on-the-job injuries, paid less than minimum wage, and deported if they do not do exactly as they are told.
The sugar plantations who employ the H-2 workers sustain this exploitation – and their own profits – with the help of the U.S. government, which authorizes the importation of Third World workers while it blocks the importation of cheaper Third World sugar through a system of quotas and price supports, citing “national security” as the reason for its costly subsidizing of a domestic sugar industry.
The scandal of the H-2 program has existed for over 45 years. It began in 1942, when the U.S. Sugar Cane Corporation was indicted for conspiracy to enslave black American workers. In 1943 the first West Indian cane cutters were brought in. This scandal has largely been kept out of the public eye, and the sugar companies and their government supporters have escaped accountability. On the contrary, a new immigration law has paved the way for a rapid expansion of the H-2 program to other agricultural industries.
H-2 Worker was shot clandestinely in the cane fields and workers’ barracks around Belle Glade, Florida. It contains footage shot in places where no media has been successful in filming before, and where the filmmakers were denied permission to enter by the sugar corporations and the local police.
H-2 Worker focuses on the lives of the workers themselves – travelling with them to the fields, where they endure long hours of monotonous labor; to their isolated barracks; to the town where they shop for American goods to bring home to their families. Following them through one six-month season, it tell their stories: Like migrant workers worldwide, these men are driven by soaring unemployment in their home countries and promises of high wages abroad. Dreaming of American opportunities to build better lives for their families, they arrive in the U.S. with high hopes – only to confront the harsh realities of the Florida cane fields.
Providing an in-depth analysis, H-2 Worker includes voices from all sides of the issue: representatives of the sugar companies and the U.S. Department of Labor, as well as U.S.l congressmen and Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley. An historical analysis combine archival footage with the testimony of 80-year-old Samuel Manston, who escaped the cane fields at the time of the peonage indictments in 1942.
But the voices of the workers themselves are foremost: They are heard through extensive interviews, and through their recordings of actual letters to and from their families in Jamaica. These voices tell an eloquent story which rings with painful truth, and will not easily be forgotten. H-2 Worker is both a compelling expose of institutionalized injustice, and a moving record of human endurance.
H-2 Worker, a 70-minute, 16 mm, color documentary made over the course of 3 1/2 years, combines the talents of director/producer Stephanie Black, award-winning editor John Mullen and cinematographer Maryse Alberti. It is a film with powerful impact and resonance, certain to be both compelling and controversial.
“‘H-2 Worker’ is that rare hybrid that succeeds as both film and advocacy. The documentary’s look and form is smooth and sophisticated … [and] it solidly frames issues about the economy, employment, and the treatment of workers who seem just steps away from slavery.” -The New York Times
“‘H-2 Worker’ is a revealing look at these men and the treatment they receive on our shores … [Stephanie Black] manages to capture the scope as well as the intensity of the problem. -New York Newsday
“With admirable fluency, Black combines straightforward information and analysis with more evocative glimpses of the workers’ lives …. Black and her collaborators have an unsentimental conviction that these workers are fully human, that they experience not just anger and suffering but also love and pleasure – and even hope.” -The Nation”
According to the update 1992, a class action suit found five sugar cane companies guilty of cheating more than 10,000 cane cutters of their contractually guaranteed minimum wage during the two seasons documented in the film.
51,000.000 in back pay was awarded.
Then the decision was revered by the Florida Appellate court finding that the H-2 contract was “ambiguous.”
Sugar cane is being harvested mechanically however the number of H-2 workers has substantially increased.
North Carolina: 10,000 workers
Colorado 2,000 workers
Maryland 9,622 (crab houses, fire work, hotel work)
Most of the workers come from Mexico.
In March 2008, over 100 guest workers from India, walked off their H-2B jobs at Signal, an oil rig construction company in Louisiana, protesting the company’s unacceptable living and working conditions.
These are not illegals. These are people that come here legally.
In the country where the people are coming from there are labor brokers that sell assess to the people from all these countries. In India that access was sold for 20,000 dollars.
People come here and they are not paid what they are told plus they had to pay the recruiters.
Over 2,100 H-2 shepherds from Peru, Chile, Mexico and Nepal work for American Ranchers. They are expected to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a minim monthly wage of less that 1,000.
“That visa is also not valid for nurses and is grounds to get one deported from the US. We see it being advertised in the Philippines but it makes one subject to immigration fraud. It is for untrained workers for a very specific length of time, and nurses do not meet those requirements from the start. We see this being used for the LPN, and there are no legal visas for them to enter the US and work here.
Please forward a copy of any of the garbage that you see offering this, and that is exactly what it is, to the US Embassy there in Manila. You would be sold as a slave to the highest bidder
They would also have you giving false information to the US Embassy officials and this is grounds for deportation for up to ten years after a stay in immigration detention before you are deported. You would be placed in a nursing home to work and they are undergoing frequent raids exactly for this.
Save yourself from having nightmares about being picked up by ICE.”
Businesses continue to lobby for an expanded guest worker program with reduced wages and less government oversight. The violations are rampart.
No one talks about this. They talk about fences. The very people who push the hatred of the illegal people that come here use the H-2 workers as slave labor.
We’re being duped. Our attention is being diverted.
Pay attention.
We still have slaves in America. We call them H-2 workers.
“No net loss” is the United States government’s overall policy goal regarding wetlands preservation. The goal of the policy is to balance wetland loss due to economic development with wetlands reclamation, mitigation, and restorations efforts, so that the total acreage of wetlands in the country does not decrease, but remains constant or increases. To achieve the objective of no net loss, the federal government utilizes several different environmental policy tools which legally protect wetlands, provide rules and regulations for citizens and corporations interacting with wetlands, and incentives for the preservation and conservation of wetlands. Given the public benefits provided by wetland ecosystem services, such as flood control, nutrient farming, habitat, water filtration, and recreational area, the estimations that over half the acreage of wetlands in the United States has been lost within the last three centuries is of great concern to local, state, and federal agencies as well as the public interest they serve.”
So while all these political people are running around having debates etc. I’m concerned with the BS that goes on. How people say one thing and do another? I’ll bet not one of these people running understand this including the two from Florida because it’s so far off their radar.
I think we need to start making a reading list for anyone running for office. This would be on the top of my list.
You guys know I hate to read books my self. Books are meant to be talked about, discussed, educate people.
Bulldozed and buried wetlands underlie the foundations of thousands of mines, highways, golf courses and shopping malls all over our state, despite clear federal and state policy calling for no net loss of wetlands. It was President George H.W. Bush who first articulated this policy in 1988. “We are going to stand wetlands protection on its ear,” declared the marsh- and duck-loving president.
Pittman and Waite explain why that hasn’t happened, and their probing, well-crafted narrative will keep you turning every page of their book. The prize-winning pair of St. PetersburgTimes reporters spent four years researching the state of wetlands protection in Florida. They interviewed hundreds of people, ferreting out political pressure points, cynical numbers games and all the inventive ways we are lied to. (You don’t really believe in mitigation, do you?)
Florida has lost over 84,000 acres of wetlands since 1990, this despite “no net loss” mandates. For 4 years Journalists Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite investigated how Federal, state and local legislators failed to protect Florida’s wetlands from developers and their developments.
In this book Pittman and Waite explain how “wetland protection” often just gives the illusion of protecting the environment while it allows Florida’s native habitat to be paved over.
Pittman and Waite are both reporters at the St. Petersburg Times and have twice earned the top investigative reporting prize in the nation from the Society of Environmental Journalists as well as the Waldo Proffit Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida.
Florida possesses more wetlands than any other state except Alaska, yet since 1990 more than 84,000 acres have been lost to development despite presidential pledges to protect them. How and why the state’s wetlands are continuing to disappear is the subject of “Paving Paradise”. Journalists Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite spent nearly four years investigating the political expedience, corruption, and negligence on the part of federal and state agencies that led to a failure to enforce regulations on developers. They traveled throughout the state, interviewed hundreds of people, dug through thousands of documents, and analyzed satellite imagery to identify former wetlands that were now houses, stores, and parking lots. Exposing the unseen environmental consequences of rampant sprawl, Pittman and Waite explain how wetland protection creates the illusion of environmental protection while doing little to stem the tide of destruction. What is happening to Florida’s ‘protected’ wetlands?
Here is Craig’s Twitter which is very funny and informative. You can see for yourself.
n an award-winning newspaper series, two investigative reporters from the St. Petersburg Times chronicled how federal rules meant to protect the nation’s wetlands were more illusion than law. Now, that series has been expanded into a book, delving into how we got to this point, starting with land speculators making waterfront property out of sand dredged from the bottom of the ocean. Now, read how the nation’s wetlands protections were formed in clashes between developers, bureaucrats, judges, activists and con artists over Florida swamps.
“This is an exhaustive, timely and devastating account of the destruction of Florida’s wetlands, and the disgraceful collusion of government at all levels. It’s an important book that should be read by every voter, every taxpayer, every parent, every Floridian who cares about saving what’s left of this precious place.” — Carl Hiaasen”
“I am amazed, horrified and delighted that you wrote Paving Paradise! You have uncovered the perfidy that we always knew existed … You have named the key figures that led to the loss of thousands of acres of Florida wetlands.” –Nathaniel Reed”
When will our medical community step and do something about people getting sick and dying in the Indian River Lagoon?
I just want to say THANK YOU to our TC Palm reporters and also to Eye on Miami for actually paying attention to this issue and being a supportive voice and advocate for our Indian River Lagoon.
Three years ago we were talking about this. Before I even got involved in the water but doing research for a potential documentary I read reports about people going into the water and getting sick and dying. Then when we got organized and starting talking to each even more information came forward. One of our local citizens has been collecting data but there is really nothing that is out there and a part of our hospital system and health department.
Here is Robert Lord from Martin Memorial talking about our unhealthy water at our rally last year.
Our friend, Cliff Barnes suggested we called it Lagoon water born flesh rot disease after Gov. Scott. I said “Rick Rot.” Some people said “Rick Scott Rot.”
Bill Benton went swimming in the Indian River Lagoon on a Saturday afternoon. He was dead by Tuesday, a rare fatality from Vibrio vulnificus bacteria.
The bacteria occurs naturally throughout the lagoon year-round, but infections increase in summer, according to researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce.
Benton was among seven people who died from Vibrio vulnificus in Florida in 2014. It’s unknown whether Vibrio vulnificus is to blame in the July 20 death ofPort St. Lucie resident David Trudell, two days after a fin fish punctured him while fishing in the lagoon. Doctors attributed his death to the incident, but did not determine what type of bacteria it was.
“A 65-year-old Port St. Lucie man died Monday, two days after being stuck by a fish fin while fishing in the Indian River Lagoon.
David John Trudell died from a blood infection as a result of a bacteria that entered his body because of the fin prick, said Treasure Coast medical examiner Dr. Roger Mittleman.
The type of bacteria could not be determined, Mittleman said.”
Why were there no blood cultures drawn at the time?
Then it happened to one of our own River Warriors. Because our friend Gayle posted the above article our friend Barb took her husband Bruce to the ER.
Took Bruce to the ER yesterday for an infected left leg. He had a sore on his knee on Monday, went in the IRL on Wednesday. We took several church families out on our new catamaran and anchored off Sailfish point (near the Walgreen house). Of course they all jumped into the IRL from the deck of the boat.
Yesterday Bruce’s knee and leg was black and swollen, hot to the touch and oozing. He had a fever. He NEVER complains of pain but I forced him to the ER. GOOD thing. The doctor thinks it is a blood infection from the bacteria from the IRL water on Wednesday. We will get the culture back on Monday to see what the bacteria actually is.
Gayle Ryan’s link to the TC Palm article regarding the local man who died within two days of a fish fin puncture bringing in bacteria from the IRL into his system, probably saved Bruce’s life. I wouldn’t have taken a closer second look at Bruce’s knee had I not read her article link. The doctor lanced and drained the “volcano” the size of a grapefruit on his knee. His whole leg was swollen and hot to the touch.
Today Bruce’s leg ‘s swelling is down and it is not throbbing anymore. He is on Bactrim and Keflex. Doctor said he was so correct to come into the ER when he did, could have become so dangerous to Bruce. Thank you Gayle Ryan.”
It looked like this.
Here’s is a great piece from our friend at Eye on Miami.
“This post on Face Book should remind Miami that the current water crisis is not just one in a series of crises: it is a cumulative event where impacts are compounded. The mismanagement of fresh water resources in South Florida is mainly to benefit the big campaign contributors to state legislators and to Gov. Rick Scott. Big Sugar.
In a just world, state legislators would be made to swim in the Indian River Lagoon, then see how much they like gambling with people’s water to benefit their patrons.”
You got that right Mista Gimleteye!
A friend of mine asked me if I would go on the news. I said no. This is not about me. What I will say is our local Health Department and People running the hospital need to read the newspaper. Then they need to come up with a plan to alert the physicians in the area and come up with some sort of tracking system and people need to be warned before they go in the water. I know that everyone has a lot on their plates but this is something we have to do. What if I didn’t know any of this and my grandson had a cut and I took him in the lagoon and he died?
“Water quality sensors in the lagoon and its tributaries can’t detect the deadly bacteria’s presence, but the salinity level is a good indicator of whether there’s Vibrio. The bacteria can’t live in saltwater, but thrives in stagnant, nearshore, freshwater — particularly near rainfall runoff discharges.”
Really so the millions of gallons of freshwater discharges have nothing to do with that? Really?
SFWMD and ACOE you need to be aware. After all we have begged you to fix the issue with the discharges. It comes down to one thing: Salinity of the water. So besides all the other damage that you do we can add killing people to the list.
“Healthy people who boat, fish and swim in the Indian River Lagoon are not likely to get a potentially deadly bacterial infection, especially if they take certain precautions, according to a researcher conducting a premier study of Vibrio vulnificus.
It’s people with cuts and weak immune systems like the elderly, infants, alcoholics, diabetics and those with other long-term illnesses who are at most risk and need to take the threat most seriously.”
HEALTHY PEOPLE ARE NOT LIKELY TO GET AN INFECTION! NOT LIKELY.
But
“The people most likely to get it — in this order — are: lagoon fishermen, seafood processors and waders or swimmers.”
And the longer this vacuum persists, the greater the threat to Treasure Coast residents who swim, boat, wade, paddleboard and fish in the waterway.
“The bacteria, which is also found in estuaries like the St. Lucie and St. Sebastian rivers, occurs naturally and is not linked to pollution, Barbarite said. Quantities vary depending on climatic conditions.”
But it is connected to the Salinity of the water which also is what kills everything else like our oysters. So by forcing millions of gallons of fresh water down the river into the lagoon the salinity is changed.
“Most likely in spots near freshwater discharges.”
“29.5 percent of cases resulted in deaths (2004-13)”
People affected: Those with Alcohol Abuse, Liver Disease, Diabetes, Heart Disease
I can’t wait to see the spin. Because just two years ago we were assured there was nothing wrong with the water.
“and the longer this vacuum persists, the greater the threat to Treasure Coast residents who swim, boat, wade, paddleboard and fish in the waterway.
Two recent incidents — one fatal — have ratcheted up the importance of identifying the microbial culprits, case by case, and establishing cause-and-effect relationships between exposure to tainted lagoon water and bacterial infections.”
“Health officials and health care providers need to get ahead of the issue. Given the fact doctors don’t have a protocol for testing or reporting waterborne illnesses, it’s easy to see why so many questions remain unanswered.”
It should be standard procedure for doctors to report all suspected cases of waterborne illnesses to the Florida Department of Health.
Moreover, this information needs to be collected in a database. Over time, this knowledge may reveal trends that prove beneficial in protecting lagoon aficionados and treating those who contract waterborne infections.”
To protect, promote & improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, & community efforts.
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To be the Healthiest State in the Nation
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” Salt is the key to safe water.” by Tyler Treadway
I’ll post the link when I can find the article. According to Gabrille Barbarite death are rare but how do we even know this if no one is reporting or logging water born illnesses? So I would refraise that to ” We have no earthly idea how many people have gotten sick from the Indian River Lagoon.”
But keep in mind salinity can change with rain or out going tide.
What do we need now?
Our local lawmakers need to all talk to our health departments and our hospitals and doctors and urgent cares and come up with some kind of reporting system.
Warnings need to be posted for people with immune system disorders, alcoholics, people with liver diseases, diabetes, heart disease , the elderly and infants etc. We have this information now. We have a duty to warn people.
Our wonderful Dr Edie Widder from Orca said in this piece that she suspects these cases have gone unreported for years. She also said she does not think that clinics and doctors are not taking the time to culture the bacteria. How hard is that? One Agar plate zoom zoom zoom done! Or a blood culture. 2 second blood draw.
The world has gone a little wild and we have seen it up close and personal this past year with our legislators. Lets not let this happen with the people are suppose to be taking care of us. I’m sure there is a grant out there that someone can get to do what needs to be done and there are plenty of volunteers in the medical field that would be willing to help.
If we don’t speak up nothing will be done.
Where do we start? Please add your suggestions to this blog post!
“Atrazine is a herbicide of the triazine class. Atrazine is used to prevent pre- and postemergence broadleaf weeds in crops such as maize (corn) and sugarcane and on turf, such as golf courses and residential lawns. It is one of the most widely used herbicides in US] and Australian agriculture.]It was banned in the European Union in 2004, when the EU found groundwater levels exceeding the limits set by regulators, and Syngenta could neither show that this could be prevented nor that these levels were safe.
As of 2001, Atrazine was the most commonly detected pesticide contaminating drinking water in the United States.Studies suggest it is an endocrine disruptor, an agent that can alter the natural hormonal system. In 2006 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had stated that under the Food Quality Protection Act “the risks associated with the pesticide residues pose a reasonable certainty of no harm”, and in 2007, the EPA said that Atrazine does not adversely affect amphibian sexual development and that no additional testing was warranted. EPA´s 2009 review concluded that “the agency’s scientific bases for its regulation of atrazine are robust and ensure prevention of exposure levels that could lead to reproductive effects in humans.” EPA started a registration review in 2013.
The EPA’s review has been criticized, and the safety of atrazine remains controversial.”
“Atrazine is a common agricultural herbicide with endocrine disruptor activity. There is evidence that it interferes with reproduction and development, and may cause cancer. Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved its continued use in October 2003, that same month the European Union (EU) announced a ban of atrazine because of ubiquitous and unpreventable water contamination. The authors reviewed regulatory procedures and government documents, and report efforts by the manufacturer of atrazine, Syngenta, to influence the U.S. atrazine assessment, by submitting flawed scientific data as evidence of no harm, and by meeting repeatedly and privately with EPA to negotiate the government’s regulatory approach. Many of the details of these negotiations continue to be withheld from the public, despite EPA regulations and federal open-government laws that require such decisions to be made in the open.”
Atrazine Continues to Contaminate Surface Water and Drinking Water in the United States
Banned in the European Union and clearly linked to harm to wildlife and potentially to humans, the pesticide atrazine provides little benefit to offset its risks. In 2009, NRDC analyzed results of surface water and drinking water monitoring data for atrazine and found pervasive contamination of watersheds and drinking water systems across the Midwest and Southern United States. This May 2010 report summarizes scientific information that has emerged since the publication of our initial report and includes more recent monitoring data.
Approximately 75 percent of stream water and about 40 percent of all groundwater samples from agricultural areas tested in an extensive U.S. Geological Survey study contained atrazine. NRDC found that the U.S. EPA’s inadequate monitoring systems and weak regulations have compounded the problem, allowing levels of atrazine in watersheds and drinking water to peak at extremely high concentrations.
The most recent data confirms that atrazine continues to contaminate watersheds and drinking water. Atrazine was found in 80 percent of drinking water samples taken in 153 public water systems. All twenty watersheds sampled in 2007 and 2008 had detectable levels of atrazine, and sixteen had average concentrations above the level that has been shown to harm plants and wildlife.
Given the pesticide’s limited usefulness and the ease with which safer agricultural methods can be substituted to achieve similar results, NRDC recommends phasing out the use of atrazine, more effective atrazine monitoring, the adoption of farming techniques that can help minimize the use of atrazine and prevent it from running into waterways.”
“Atrazine is one of the most widely used herbicides in the U.S., and is found in 94% of U.S drinking water tested by the USDA — more often than any other pesticide. An estimated 7 million people were exposed to atrazine in their drinking water between 1998 and 2003.
The highest levels of contamination are in the Midwest where it is widely used on corn fields. USGS monitoring shows drinking water concentrations typically spike during the spring and early summer as rains flush the freshly applied herbicide into streams — and into local water supplies.
Data from the EPA’s Atrazine Monitoring Program show that atrazine levels in drinking water can spike above the legal limit of 3 parts per billion in some U.S. water supplies. Although the EPA bases its limit on an annual average (not seasonal peaks), the monitoring results reveal alarming levels of human exposure.”
To determine the distribution and concentration of atrazine at south Florida sites, multiple water samples were collected from several canals/ditches at each of two agricultural sites every two weeks from February through June, 2002 . Adult toads were collected from two sugarcane agricultural areas Canal Point (CP), and Belle Glade (BG) as well as from a University of Miami pond/canal (reference site with little to no atrazine use or agricultural input) during April-June 2002. Adult Bufo marinus were collected from these three sites: Canal Point (N=55), Belle Glade (N=50), and University of Miami (N=24). Body weight, length, and coloration were recorded, blood was collected, and gonads were removed and weighed. This species is sexually dimorphic, with females having a mottled appearance and males having a solid coloration. Sex was identified as follows: the presence of ovarian tissue and absence of testicular tissue = female; presence of testes and absence of developing eggs, oviduct, and ovarian tissue = normal male; and presence of testes with developing eggs or oviduct or ovarian tissue = intersex . Macroscopic identification of additional testicular anomalies included: segmented testes, abnormal shaped testis, twisted or curled testes, and multiple testes. Gonads from each individual that had testicular tissue were both macroscopically and histologically examined. Blood plasma was analyzed for phospho-lipoprotein (an indirect measure of vitellogenin) and estradiol and testosterone concentrations were analyzed using RIA procedures.
Children at a water park in Belle Glade directly across from a huge sugar cane field.
Playground at Pioneer Park in Belle Glade directly across from a huge sugar cane field.
Atrazine levels were highest at Canal Point during March, but were highest at Belle Glade in February.B. marinus tadpoles were potentially exposed to atrazine concentrations as high as 20ppb during development at Canal Point and 26ppb at Belle Glade during 2002. Toads collected from the nonagricultural /reference, University of Miami, site exhibited the characteristic gender-specific pattern which correlated to subsequent gonadal morphology and histology. However, all toads collected from both agricultural sites, Belle Glade and Canal Point, exhibited the distinctive female pattern, although subsequent gonadal morphology and histology demonstrated male, intersexed, and female toads. The frequency of males exhibiting “testis abnormalities” was not significantly different among sites. The frequency of intersexed animals was significantly different among sites: 39 percent and 29 percent of the individuals at the agricultural sites, Canal Point and Belle Glade. No individuals from the non-agricultural/reference site were intersexed. The types of abnormal female tissue found in association with testicular tissue varied between CP and BG. Plasma sex steroids did not differ between intersexed and normal males. However, plamsa phospholipoprotein (an indirect indicator of vitellogenin was increased in intersexed males to levels which were similar to those for vitellogenic females.
Sugar cane in Belle Glade across from Pioneer Park
The purpose of this preliminary study was to determine if animals found in sugarcane exhibit reproductive abnormalities similar to those seen in African Clawed Frogs exposed to atrazine in the laboratory. The incidence of testicular anomalies, other than intersex were similar across sites. However, the incidence of intersex was increased for both agricultural sites as compared to the non-agricultural/reference site. Nonetheless, Bufo marinus adults were active and breeding at all sites. Data suggests that agricultural exposure, including exposure to atrazine, may explain the differences in the percent of intersexed individuals and length of oocytes between Canal Point and Belle Glade sites. However, we can not conclude that atrazine is responsible for these abnormalities, since other agricultural chemcials are likely present at both sites. In addition, water quality analyses were not conducted for the non-agricultural/reference site (University of Miami) and exposure to atrazine at this site is unknown. The University of Miami site is expected to have low levels of atrazine, but is probably not atrazine free. Further research should be conducted to determine whether atrazine is capable of causing the effects we have documented in B. marinus under controlled laboratory conditions as well as expanded field studies of these and other sites. Nonetheless, these results indicate an increased incidence of intersex in toads exposed to agricultural contaminants. The implications of these data to future and ongoing restoration is unknown, however, a redistribution of water resources in the greater everglades ecosystem could result in additional exposures for amphibian populations in this sensitive ecosystem.
In 1997, the consulting firm EcoRisk, Inc. paid Hayes to join a panel of experts conducting studies for Novartis (later Syngenta) on the herbicideatrazine.[1][3] When Hayes’ research found unexpected toxicities for atrazine, he reported them to the panel, however the panel and company were resistant to his findings. He wanted to repeat his work to validate it but Novartis refused funding for further research; he resigned from the panel and obtained other funding to repeat the experiments.[1][3]
In 2007, Hayes was a co-author on a paper that detailed atrazine inducing mammary and prostate cancer in laboratory rodents and highlighted atrazine as a potential cause of reproductive cancers in humans.[7] At a presentation to the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in 2007, Hayes presented results of his studies that showed chemical castration in frogs; individuals of both sexes had developed bisexual reproductive organs.
In one of the 2005 e-mails obtained by class-action lawsuit plaintiffs, the company’s communications consultants had written about plans to track Hayes’ speaking engagements and prepare audiences with Syngenta’s counterpoints to Hayes’s message on atrazine. Syngenta subsequently stated that many of the documents unsealed in the lawsuits refer to “ideas that were never implemented.”,
Sea Level Rise in Miami and Politics. Let’s just say no to the “deniers.”
The last election was the first election I participated in a long time. I felt very disenfranchised and I realized how important it was to get people out to vote. I put together a list of clean water candidates because I thought it would bring us together and it did. It did in a way. In a way it didn’t. We really really need to do this all together.
Now we need this more than ever. Miami is floating away.
When Michael Grunwald was here he talked about the tides comes up to his house.
What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen is what has happened. People are going to stick their necks in the sand and its going to get worse and our fellow citizens are in danger. Please go talk to your party and tell them they need to start paying attention to the infrastructure. Even Libertarians believe in infrastructure. What is up with the denying this? What is the end game of that. Are we selling Miami at a good price? Will Miami be on sale if it gets destroyed? Why is no one helping? There has got to be money involved. Why else would all these people deny that the water is rising in Miami?
Texas Republicans have a new policy on climate change: There is no climate change.
While traditionally the state’s GOP has focused on abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency while ignoring climate change, this year’s temporary policy platform is taking it one step further, calling for party members to explicitly dismiss it, too.
“While we all strive to be good stewards of the earth, ‘climate change’ is a political agenda which attempts to control every aspect of our lives. We urge government at all levels to ignore any plea for money to fund global climate change or ‘climate justice’ initiatives,” the platform writes.
So funny I just wrote the above and then I found this. This article is from 2010. Like most things American until we actually feel the pain we’re not interested.
“However! It does seem to me that the right’s climate denialism hasn’t been properly linked to the larger phenomenon of epistemic closure on the right. When Jim Manzi, everyone’s favorite sensible conservative, criticized fellow conservative Mark Levin for peddling intellectually shoddy skeptic arguments in his bestselling book Liberty and Tyranny, Levin went nuts, joined by a half-dozen other NRO writers. How could they not? The very same skeptic talking points in Levin’s book appear in thousands of blogs and comment sections across the interwebs. If they are intellectually bankrupt, a whole lot of people are going to look stupid.”
We are sick of talking points. You put them out. The news picks them up and repeats them over and over until you believe it.
This has got to stop.
“The right’s project over the last 30 years has been to dismantle the post-war liberal consensus by undermining trust in society’s leading institutions. Experts are made elites; their presumption of expertise becomes self-damning. They think they’re better than you. They talk down to you. They don’t respect people like us, real Americans.”
And you thought these people just wanted to keep your taxes lower. I don’t think so
“The decline in trust in institutions has generated fear and uncertainty; where there are fear and uncertainty, there are reactionaries to exploit them. Stress reinforces in-group bias — tribalism, nationalism, and xenophobia. Today’s conservative movement has created a self-contained, hermetically sealed epistemological reality, a closed loop of cable news, talk radio, and email forwards, meant to stoke in-group anxiety and reinforce group identity.
Consider what the Limbaugh/Morano crowd is saying about climate: not only that the world’s scientists and scientific institutions are systematically wrong, but that they are purposefully perpetrating a deception. Virtually all the world’s governments, scientific academies, and media are either in on it or duped by it. The only ones who have pierced the veil and seen the truth are American movement conservatives.”
They don’t care about us. That’s for sure.
I was told recently that one of our State Rep Marylynn Magar said at a forum that with the ten bucks we’re saving on our cell phone tax a small family could treat themselves to a Pizza. Where Marylynn is this ten dollar pizza? What does each child get? Here’s a half a slice honey. Eat it and praise RIck Scott!
Or Gayle Harrell saying that people who are sick can go to free clinics and then those free clinic’s funding was taken away.
Sorry rant.
You get the picture. OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY.
So what do we do when the people running are OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY? Do we vote for these people even though they are in your party? Don’t we help our own friends that are out of touch with reality?
How about this? How about YOU take control and not let people run who are OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY.
So here’s REALITY so you can be IN TOUCH WITH REALITY.
Climate change is here and residing in Miami.
I’m going to post some articles and you can read them. Reading them will put you back in touch with the present and with reality.
Maybe you could send to the people who are running for things like President who live in Miami but have no clue the people will drowning soon and clue them in so they can be IN TOUCH WITH REALITY!
“Climate change is no longer viewed as a future threat round here,” says atmosphere expert Professor Ben Kirtman, of the University of Miami. “It is something that we are having to deal with today.”
Every year, with the coming of high spring and autumn tides, the sea surges up the Florida coast and hits the west side of Miami Beach, which lies on a long, thin island that runs north and south across the water from the city of Miami. The problem is particularly severe in autumn when winds often reach hurricane levels. Tidal surges are turned into walls of seawater that batter Miami Beach’s west coast and sweep into the resort’s storm drains, reversing the flow of water that normally comes down from the streets above. Instead seawater floods up into the gutters of Alton Road, the first main thoroughfare on the western side of Miami Beach, and pours into the street. Then the water surges across the rest of the island.
The effect is calamitous. Shops and houses are inundated; city life is paralyzed; cars are ruined by the corrosive seawater that immerses them. During one recent high spring tide, laundromat owner Eliseo Toussaint watched as slimy green saltwater bubbled up from the gutters. It rapidly filled the street and then blocked his front door. “This never used to happen,” Toussaint told the New York Times. “I’ve owned this place eight years and now it’s all the time.
Today, shop owners keep plastic bags and rubber bands handy to wrap around their feet when they have to get to their cars through rising waters, while householders have found that ground-floor spaces in garages are no longer safe to keep their cars. Only those on higher floors can hope to protect their cars from surging sea waters that corrode and rot the innards of their vehicles.”
Hence the construction work at Alton Road, where $400m is now being spent in an attempt to halt these devastating floods – by improving Miami Beach’s stricken system of drains and sewers. In total, around $1.5bn is to be invested in projects aimed at holding back the rising waters. Few scientists believe the works will have a long-term effect.”
This is from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
I mean really what do you know? Maybe you should call Rush Limbaugh on the phone.
Call the Rush Limbaugh Show Program Line
Between 12 noon and 3pm Eastern Time: 1-800-282-2882
This is from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
“The mean sea level has risen noticeably in the Miami and Miami Beach areas just in the past decade. Flooding events are getting more frequent, and some areas flood during particularly high tides now: no rain or storm surge necessary. Perhaps most alarming is that the rate of sea level rise is accelerating.
Diving Into Data
Certified measurements of sea level have been taken at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School on Virginia Key since 1996 (Virginia Key is a small island just south of Miami Beach and east of downtown Miami)[1]. Simple linear trends drawn through annual averages of all high tides, low tides, and the mean sea level are shown below, and all three lines are about 3.7″ higher in 2014 than they were in 1996.”
We have a senator in who lives in Miami who apparently can’t even find the time to go to leading academic oceanographic and atmospheric research institutions in the world?
Just say no.
This is the “World Resources Institute.”
Miami-Dade County, Florida has more people living less than 4 feet above sea level than any U.S. state, except Louisiana.
This fact sheet provides information specific to Miami-Dade County, Florida including the local impacts of—and near future vulnerabilities to—sea-level rise and extreme weather events.
Here is Eye on Miami. You have to go and listen to the audio.
Sea level rise in Miami: Dr. Harold Wanless on podcast, “This Can’t Be Happening” … by gimleteye
Harold Wanless, a leading climatologist and geologist based at the University of Miami, returns to the “This Can’t Be Happening!” program after a year to revisit his claim that global warming and sea level rise are going to be much more dramatic than the consensus predictions of the UN Climate Committee, NASA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and other groups. With recent reports of faster melting on Greenland and in both the Eastern and Western Antarctic, Wanless tells host Dave Lindorff we are now facing a catastrophe that could see sea levels rising by more than 20 feet by the end of the century, and perhaps, if methane begins seriously erupting from the Arctic seafloor, even reduced oxygen levels that could threaten mammals, including humans.
Are you sick of me yet?
Here is some video. Excellent and well done and also talks about the Biscayne Aquifer and salt water intrusion. Richard Grosso also in this.
This is here. We cannot have anyone running for President who ignores this. Either address it or we will just say no.
Sometimes I think I live in this other world where we see things and then there is this other place where things get reported and the only thing I can say is “huh?”
What if instead of draining away about 2 billion gallons of water a day, there were better ways to put that water to use?
“nearly 200 billion gallons of Lake Okeechobee water was drained to the east and west coasts to ease the strain on the erosion-prone dike that protects South Florida from flooding.”
“*SEVEN MONTHS OF DRINKING WATER: The amount of Lake Okeechobee water drained east and west and out to sea was enough to supply about seven months of drinking water for the nearly seven million people in Palm Beach County, Broward County, Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys. Water plants in southeast Florida churn out about 840 million gallons of drinking water a day.
*NEARLY 40 PERCENT OF EVERGLADES’ WATER NEEDS: Everglades advocates have called for moving almost 500 billion gallons of Lake Okeechobee water south each year to help replenish Florida’s struggling River of Grass. The volume of lake water drained east and west for flood control between January and June equated to almost 40 percent of that Everglades restoration goal.”
What can I say. I have posted hundreds of hours of video of people pleading to save our water.
This is recent letter to the Miami Herald from Maggy Hurchella.
When you kill the environment to get more water, you end up with less water and you end up with very dirty water.
This is the same James Moran who lectured a crowded meeting room in May.
The crowd was there to ask the SFWMD Board to buy land and send the water south.
Moran said that was impossible and unnecessary, “And I don’t know why you claim it will save the Dade County water supply. They get their water from wells.”
He finally seems to have figured out that Miami-Dade’s wells are in aquifers that are recharged by water flowing south from Lake Okeechobee.
Too late.
Maggy Reno Hurchalla, Miami”
These are people in charge of our water. We know what’s happening. They don’t.
You can help conserve water by following year-round irrigation rules for your area. Find when you can water at http://t.co/N3Rp6btFl1.
— South Florida Water Management District (@SFWMD) July 15, 2015
On the website on SFWMD they have loads of information about water conservation and have been on the news multiple time even having the nerve to tell us to conserve ( I don’t have an issue conserving but I do have an issue with them not conserving. Not just not conserving. Just totally wasting millions and millions of gallons of water send out to tide and destroying our estuary.
Then this happened and i knew the world was just turned upside down.
“But Rodney Barreto thinks Scott has been a tree-hugging warrior for Mother Gaia. The Miami developer, who also chairs the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, announced via email this week that at the BlueGreen gala this fall, he’ll honor Scott for his conservation work.
“Governor Scott has been instrumental in helping develop a strong connection between fish and wildlife conservation and traditional outdoors activities like hunting and especially fishing,” Barreto says in a release.
Local environmentalists are aghast at the news. “It’s laughable,” Alan Farago, president of Friends of the Everglades, tells New Times. “In terms of the environment, I think he’s the worst governor in modern Florida history.”
Aghast doesn’t even cover it.”
Fishing. Yes I dare you Rick Scott to come swimming in the Indian River Lagoon.
“Today, a report by AP’s Gary Fineout, “Florida Gov. Scott against at odds with Florida Republicans” sheds light on the award, in the context of a deeply strained relationship between court-penalized Republicans, shuddering at the prospect of having to draw fair districts, and an isolated governor.
What to do with a governor hunkered down in his coastal multi-million dollar estate from which he doesn’t emerge, except to his private jet clutching talking points? Give him an environmental award! Cheer up his mysterious spirits, unknowable except to special interests and cronies.”
“On Tuesday morning, I began reaching out to other sponsors of the event. But Tuesday afternoon, the foundation had removed all the sponsors’ names from its website.”
You can’t make this stuff up.
Even the sponsors know its BS. But it will interesting to see who sponsors this event. Let’s stay tuned for that one.
Here is the new guy he picked for the SFWMD board.
Accursio, 52, whose family owns and farms 2,000 acres in South Miami-Dade County, has been among farmers bitterly complaining about Everglades restoration efforts flooding fields and causing crop losses in the region.
cyndi lenz 