By The Miami Herald Editorial

HeraldEd@MiamiHerald.com

By CURTIS MORGAN

Cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

“SAVE EVERGLADES” Radio version now available for download on itunes…. People worldwide relate to this EMF. It is good to see. I believe it is because humans, regardless of our differences, love land and nature. Marsh Lands are all over the world; they teach us the ebb and flow of life. The human heart cannot help but feel a deep connection. And then the “purrrr” of the Panther immediately puts the listener in touch with the Natural World both inside and outside themselves. This is the power of sound…. KF 5/11

The Florida Everglades is a land endangered that needs protection and preservation. Its ecosystem is like no other in the world. It’s earth is limestone and it “breathes” water in and out on the surface and underground. BP’s Oil Disaster has challenged all life in this region. We, as humans, are put on High Alert to care for Marsh Lands worldwide. They sift through the toxins while naturally cleaning and clearing the water we drink and the air we breathe.

EMF History: The KEY MARCO CAT ca., 500-800 A.D. (courtesy photograph: The Smithsonian Institution) is a 6″ carved, wooden figure depicting a half-human/half-panther icon noted to be of the Calusa Tribe. It was found in Key Marco, Florida by Frank Hamilton Cushing (archeologist) in 1895.

Symbology: The PANTHER/COUGAR symbolizes Courage of the Heart, and Strength of Leadership. The “purrr” of large cats is within the same frequency band as our human bone.
www.animalvoice.com
TURTLE, (or more specifically the SEA TURTLE) is thought to be symbolic of Mother Earth to the Native American Nations of Turtle Island (North America).

Special Note: Marjory Stoneman Douglas has had many titles… The Grande Dame of the Everglades is one title that noted her as a woman of great dignity, which she was. Ms. Douglas was a powerful and amazing woman. (Please see her organization, Friends of the Everglades, President: Constance Washburn; www.everglades.org for more of her history.) In my EMF, I called her, The Grand Mother of the Everglades, rather than the more popular, Guardian of the Everglades. She is both. To be more clear, Ms. Douglas did not have children, and to call her the Grand Mother (two words – not one) of the Florida Everglades is to honor “the glades” as her child, and her as the grand, and great mother of the land.

EMF History: From its inception in 1989, Environmental Music Films (EMF) has had a mission. That mission is to create high quality music and film to honor endangered land, its species of life, and the indigenous peoples of the land that have cared for it for centuries (if not longer). Our environmental groups and Environmental Law would do well to merge with the wisdom of the Native Elders and their teachings about this Living Conscious Earth and the inter-connectiveness of all life. By both coming together in a unity of love for the land – we would all benefit. “Bring the sacred back to land, sky, and life.” KF

History of the song, “Save Everglades” Copyright 1989.
If I were to write this song today, I would call it, “Protect Everglades” for no one can really “save” another unless “they” want to be saved. We are not meant to know another’s evolutionary path, (and this includes the Earth). If we do intervene, or intercept, let us do so with the knowing that larger forces are at work. Things are not always as they seem. KF

These thoughts and opinions shared from EMF do not necessarily express the thoughts/opinions of individuals, organizations, or associations, etc, involved with any EMF project. There will be an Environmental Music Film (EMF) website soon.

RESPONSIBILITY (the ability to respond)
It is so important for us not to loose our hearts and minds over the many cultural and environmental crisis that are happening at home and around the world. If we do, we can make matters worse… The science of Quantum Mechanics has shown us that where we put our conscious focus forces follow and respond at sub-atomic levels and much larger. The emotional tone with which we imbue the focus (sadness, anger, joy, gratitude, etc.) creates and even perpetuates frequencies, (various degrees of high, or low vibration) that affect outcome. Responsibility (the ability to respond) is born in this knowingness.

SUGGESTION: The Global Coherence Initiative research program (a branch of the HearthMath organization) has definitive methods of showing us, and teaching us the power and responsibility of our thoughts and emotions in times of crisis. Listen and learn from their experts, and give yourself – and the world – some peace. www.glcoherence.org

Thank you for listening, viewing, and participating. KF

 
http://www.nature.com/news/witnessing-a-glacier-s-race-to-the-sea-1.10534  

Who is polluting what?

So what? Is this causing any harm? Yes. The sulfur pollution combines with mercury in the Everglades to form highly toxic methyl mercury. Methyl mercury is a neurotoxin (causes injury to nerves and nerve tissues). Methyl mercury in Everglades’ fish is a serious threat to humans who consume these fish. The Florida Department of Health warns against eating most fish caught in the Everglades. Pregnant women and their fetuses and small children are at the highest risk of harm. Mercury also harms endangered wildlife species in the Everglades.

How come I’ve never heard about this problem? The State of Florida and EPA have been studying the mercury problem in the Everglades for many years, but they have repeatedly failed to act to protect the Everglades and human health. Scientists from government and academia agree that action is needed now to save the Everglades and protect human health.

So, where is the sulfur coming from? Like most of the pollution of the Everglades, a great majority of the sulfur comes from industrial sugar cane growing in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), south of Lake Okeechobee and north of the SFWMD’s treatment marshes.

Why should the taxpayers have to pay to clean up Big Sugar’s water pollution? They should not. The Florida Constitution was amended 15 years ago to make Big Sugar liable to pay for 100% its own pollution cleanup, just like every other industry in America.

So, why are the taxpayers still paying for this? Because the State, the Water District, the Governor, and mostly, the Florida Legislature have all illegally refused to implement the Polluter Pays provision of the Florida Constitution.

This is completely outrageous. So, the State of Florida allows Big Sugar to contaminate the Everglades with sulfates, which creates toxic methyl-mercury, endangering pregnant women, their fetuses and small children and Everglades’ wildlife, and the Florida taxpayers have to pay to clean it up? Yes, until the Florida Legislature decides to obey the Florida Constitution.

Where is all this mercury coming from? From worldwide, coal-burning power plants that put metallic mercury pollution into the atmosphere.

So, why not just stop the mercury released from burning coal? Until just recently, the EPA has done nothing to reduce mercury pollution from coal-burning power plants. Also, foreign coal-fired power plants, which are not under US jurisdiction and control, also deposit mercury on the Everglades.

Why does Big Sugar use so much sulfur anyway? Some agronomists from universities in Florida have questioned Big Sugar’s rates of sulfur application and its resulting water pollution of the Everglades. According to experts, Big Sugar can cut its sulfur use, reduce pollution of the Everglades, and still operate profitably.

This just makes my blood boil. How can I help? Call or write your state representative and state senator. Tell them to STOP sulfate and mercury pollution of the Everglades and to PASS legislation to make Big Sugar Polluters pay for their own pollution cleanup, as the Florida Constitution requires.

Help us win this battle to protect human health and the Everglades
from sulfate and mercury pollution!

Sportsfisherman Forrest Beall of Fort Lauderdale throws back any fish he catches while fishing in the Everglades. Joe Cavaretta / Sun Sentinel

Some local fish have high mercury levels, but finding information on the healthiest species to eat can be difficult

BY DAVID FLESHLER AND STEVE WATERS // SUN SENTINEL

Every day, anglers across South Florida reel in swordfish, king mackerel, largemouth bass and other fish that contain high amounts of mercury.

But many of those casting lines from boats, piers and bridges don’t know about the state’s detailed recommendations against eating too much of these species or don’t take them seriously. Although Florida has one of the worst mercury problems in the United States, the Florida Department of Health lacks the money to distribute its consumption advisories, which set limits by species and body of water. The department posts the material online, where critics say it’s too hard to find and too complicated.

Many charter captains and other experienced anglers discount the warnings anyway, saying they never got sick, they don’t know anyone who got sick and no one eats a particular species frequently enough to receive a dangerous dose of mercury.

“I was told you’d pretty much have to eat fish every day for a year to build up enough mercury in your system to hurt you,” said Capt. Jimbo Beran, of the drift fishing boat Helen S at the Hillsboro Inlet Marina. “That’s what I tell my customers when I clean fish for them, you have to eat it every day. I’ve never heard of anyone having a problem.”

Health authorities encourage people to eat more fish, not less, because it’s highly nutritious, can improve cardiac health and provides benefits to the developing fetus. And they say most South Florida species are safe to eat. But some species — generally large predators — need to be consumed with caution.

Mercury, a metallic element discharged by coal-fired power plants, can build up in the human body over years, causing neurological problems, including memory loss and personality disorders. It presents the greatest danger to children, pregnant women and women who plan to become pregnant because it can damage the nervous system of the developing child.

The Florida Department of Health’s fish consumption guidelines run to 28 pages, organized by water body. If you look up Water Conservation Area?2 in the Everglades, for example, you will see that you should not eat largemouth bass of 14 inches or more, bowfin or gar, should limit consumption of redear sunfish, spotted sunfish, butterfly peacock and largemouth bass under 14 inches to one meal per month and limit consumption of warmouth and bluegill to one per week.

“We think it’s so difficult to communicate because it’s so complicated,” said Dr. Todd Sack, chairman of the Florida Medical Association’s Environment and Health Section. “Currently everything’s buried in web sites. It’s there, but you have to dig for it.”

He said the state’s message should be simple: Eat more fish, but get it from the store. For recreational fishing, he said, people should stick to catch and release, especially inshore where mercury levels are highest.

Ted Lange, a biologist who works on mercury issues for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, acknowledged the need for improvement and said the state was working on something more user-friendly.

“It’s very good information but it’s just too much, too arduous to dig through,” he said. “Next step, we’ve been working on a Safe Eating Guideline — most commonly caught and eaten species. I don’t know if there will be the money to print it. It will be on the web.”

Many fish caught in South Florida, of course, are perfectly safe to eat. They include brown bullhead, crappie, striped mullet, sheepshead, gulf flounder and many other species, according to the fish and wildlife commission. Fish with the highest mercury levels are large predators, such as sharks and largemouth bass, which contain in their flesh all the mercury from the fish they’ve eaten.

Fish bought at stores generally present less of a problem than fish from the mercury hot spot of South Florida, so long as you don’t overdo consumption. But even with store-bought fish, there has been extensive debate among the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and environmental groups about the mercury risks versus the health benefits of seafood.

Despite their debate, “a lot of people still fish to feed their families,” said Andre Eggelletion, a Lauderdale Lakes barber who has learned to fish lower on the food chain to avoid mercury. “As the economy continues to contract, I don’t see that slowing down. Poor people tell you, ‘I fish for support, not for sport.’?”

But many anglers are highly conscious of the risks. While scouting locations for an upcoming bass tournament near Everglades Holiday Park recently, Bryan Windle reeled in a small largemouth bass, which he threw back into the water.

“You can’t eat any of the fish you catch out here; they’re loaded with mercury,” he said. “There’s a list of the fish you can’t eat, but it’s pretty much everything out here.”

Florida reported 13 cases of mercury poisoning in 2010, all but one thought to be related to consumption of fish, according to a state report. But experts say many cases may go unreported because they are milder and the symptoms are never recognized as stemming from mercury.

Although home tests for mercury are sold, some experts question whether they can do the complex analysis performed by professional laboratories.

Kendra Goff, toxicologist for the Florida Department of Health, said the state does its best with limited funds and with the difficulty of getting across a mixed message: Eat more fish but be careful which fish you eat.

“We try to educate people. But we can’t dictate what a person eats or what a person does,” she said. “We encourage people to eat 8-12 ounces of fish per week. That’s two meals.”

Capt. Casey Hunt, of Pompano Beach, said the indisputable health benefits of eating fish outweigh any theoretical dangers from mercury. Fish caught fresh from the ocean, for example, clearly is better than beef from an industrialized farm.

“Some of this cattle meat’s so full of hormones,” Hunt said, “and they’re worried about fish.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/24/v-fullstory/2764023/a-risky-catch.html#storylink=cpy

The Everglades are the primary source of fresh water for more than 7 million people in Florida

Far from macadam, McDonald’s, and high-end malls, there’s another, ancient South Florida: sawgrass, wading herons, lurking alligators, and the stillness that comes with nature going about its timeless business. The Everglades, though protected, are only as healthy as the water that flows through them, and that water is at risk, both from pollution and development.

Once 11,000 square miles, the Everglades now cover only about 4,000 square miles from the south shores of Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the watershed has been drained and redirected for flood control, farming, and development, and owes its fractional survival in part to being declared a national park in 1934. (It opened in 1947.) While its natural beauty and uniqueness are strong draws, it has economic value to us all: It is the primary source of fresh water for more than 7 million people in Florida, about a third of the state, and it supports industries on which we all rely.

“You can’t fill hotel rooms, build new schools, or attract residents to new homes that are built by our housing industry if you can’t supply them with water,” says Kirk Fordham, 44, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, based in Palmetto Bay. “Without that basic, elemental ingredient to economic growth, there’s really no reason to invest in the other things. Without water, we really can’t survive down here.”

The Everglades Foundation is a science-based organization that promotes a $13.4 billion federal-state restoration project for the Everglades that is designed to re-create a semblance of the system’s original water flow. That flow is critical to the health of the Everglades, not just because it fills the aquifer beneath them and gives South Florida its water supply, but also because it balances the salinity of Florida Bay. Without this equilibrium, seagrass beds become damaged, negatively affecting myriad fish such as snook, tarpon, mangrove snapper, pink shrimp, and spiny lobsters—which supply food as well as fuel a recreational fishing industry that has a $7.5 billion economic impact statewide. “We actually flush out to sea more than 1.7 billion gallons of fresh water every day, rather than storing it in the Everglades,” Fordham says. “You really have to install an artificial heart for the Everglades, so that you can mimic the water flow and storage capacity in a way that accommodates our current population and the agricultural industry.”

In turn, the quality of that water is of vital concern to Friends of the Everglades, founded by writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969. “There are no other Everglades in the world,” she wrote in the very first sentence of her classic 1947 book, The Everglades: River of Grass. A Minneapolis-born journalist and former Miami Herald scribe, her landmark tome was part nature writing, part Florida history, and part environmental advocacy, and it became central to American environmental literature. Friends’ first mission was to stop the construction of a jetport in the “river of grass.” The group joined a national outcry that was successful in halting the airport’s completion. “We’re little but mighty,” says Connie Washburn, the group’s current vice president of education and outreach and cofounder of its Young Friends of the Everglades educational outreach division, which teaches students about the wonders and importance of this unique area.

“Friends of the Everglades is like the mouse that roared,” says Albert Slap, 62, the organization’s general counsel and a veteran environmental attorney. “It’s a very small group that has very limited funding, but through its niche—which basically has been [focused on] water quality in the Everglades and bringing very targeted federal environmental litigation for the past 20 years—it’s been extremely effective.”

Friends maintains in ongoing court battles that the fertilizers used by regional farmers, primarily of sugar cane, release catastrophic amounts of phosphorus into the water, damaging the ecosystem. “What we learn from the Everglades is that water quality is like a temperature gauge on our own health as a society,” says Alan Farago, 57, the group’s president. “And what we are getting back from the Everglades is that we have a fever.”

Two federal cases have been central to Friends’ current battles. The first, which dates back to 1988, came out of a lawsuit the US Department of Justice brought against the state for not doing enough to limit phosphorus pollution. The resulting consent decree in 1991 led to a massive cleanup project in the 700,000-acre Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) just south of Lake Okeechobee, which included the building of treatment marshes.

According to Clewiston-based United States Sugar Corporation, one of the major growers in the EAA, in the growing season last year its cane fields achieved a 79 percent reduction in phosphorus, the greatest reduction since the program was authorized by the 1994 Everglades Forever Act. “Pointing fingers and calling names isn’t going to clean one drop of water going into the Everglades,” says Judy Sanchez, the company’s senior director of corporate communications and public affairs. “On a lot of issues, we work very closely with [Friends], and we think it’s time we recognize that agriculture is playing a positive role in this.” Friends takes some credit for nudging everyone to the table.

The other case was filed in 2004 by Friends and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida against the US Environmental Protection Agency, and is designed to get the phosphorus in the treated-water marshes reduced to 10 parts per billion. State environmental officials say that above that level, harmful changes to plant and animal life begin to occur.

Slap says the two cases “are like a pair of bookends. Both are moving forward together somewhat in synergy, putting pressure on the state to do a lot more than it has been doing.” The group also is investigating the issue of methylmercury in the Everglades. Sulfur pollution from the sugar farms binds with metallic mercury left in the Everglades by coal-fired power plants, creating a poisonous compound, he says. It works its way up the food chain to fish, and thus the dinner table. “It’s highly toxic to humans, especially fetuses and young children,” he contends. “It’s not just the birds and the critters. Sugar’s pollution creates a huge human-health threat in the Everglades.”

Today Friends remains, like Douglas was herself, tiny but scrappy. The organization has one part-time staffer and only a dozen volunteer board members who work out of their homes and meet monthly. But they make their voices heard. Today, Douglas, who died at the remarkable age of 108 in May 1998, no doubt would be cheering on any group that enters the fray to keep the Everglades healthy. When it comes to the big picture, the Friends and other environmental advocates are exploring how, or even whether, urban life and Mother Nature can get along. “The battle for the Everglades is really, at its heart, a battle to see if we can organize ourselves to have both a productive economy and also an environment that will be as fruitful for future generations,” Farago says. “Marjory Stoneman Douglas had a very clear vision of the importance of the Everglades and what was needed to restore [them]. We have not strayed far from her purpose.”

http://oceandrive.com/living/articles/an-everglades-less-south-florida

Marjory Stoneman Douglas

April 7th, 2012 – Happy Birthday Marjory Stoneman Douglas from the Board of Directors of Friends of the Everglades! In honor of Marjory’s birthday, as we do every year, we are having our Annual Meeting on Sunday, April 15th at 1:30 PM at Pinecrest Gardens in Miami. Marjory was a pioneer in recognizing the importance of the Everglades:

“There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth; remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them…”

Marjory Stoneman Douglas: Defender of the Everglades

Joe Cavaretta, Sun Sentinel

But many of those casting lines from boats, piers and bridges don’t know about the state’s detailed recommendations against eating too much of these species or don’t take them seriously. Although Florida has one of the worst mercury problems in the United States, the Florida Department of Health lacks the money to distribute its consumption advisories, which set limits by species and body of water. The department posts the material online, where critics say it’s too hard to find and too complicated.

Click here to sign-up for our free health report

Many charter captains and other experienced anglers discount the warnings anyway, saying they never got sick, they don’t know anyone who got sick and no one eats a particular species frequently enough to receive a dangerous dose of mercury.

“I was told you’d pretty much have to eat fish every day for a year to build up enough mercury in your system to hurt you,” said Capt. Jimbo Beran, of the drift fishing boat Helen S at the Hillsboro Inlet Marina. “That’s what I tell my customers when I clean fish for them, you have to eat it every day. I’ve never heard of anyone having a problem.”

Health authorities encourage people to eat more fish, not less, because it’s highly nutritious, can improve cardiac health and provides benefits to the developing fetus. And they say most South Florida species are safe to eat. But some species – generally large predators – need to be consumed with caution.

At Lake Delevoe, a broad expanse of water just south of Sistrunk Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, the state recommends limiting consumption of five species. But Chester Jackson, 53, who was fishing from a pier Friday morning, said he’s never heard of the advisories.

“When times were hard, you’d go out here and catch a meal,” he said. “I never got sick from anything I caught in this lake. We used to fish here in the 90s. No one got sick.”

Mercury, a metallic element discharged by coal-fired power plants, can build up in the human body over years, causing neurological problems, including memory loss and personality disorders. It presents the greatest danger to children, pregnant women and women who plan to become pregnant because it can damage the nervous system of the developing child.

The Florida Department of Health’s fish consumption guidelines run to 28 pages, organized by water body. If you look up Water Conservation Area 2 in the Everglades, for example, you will see that you should not eat largemouth bass of 14 inches or more, bowfin or gar, should limit consumption of redear sunfish, spotted sunfish, butterfly peacock and largemouth bass under 14 inches to one meal per month and limit consumption of warmouth and bluegill to one per week.

“We think it’s so difficult to communicate because it’s so complicated,” said Dr. Todd Sack, chairman of the Florida Medical Association’s Environment and Health Section. “Currently everything’s buried in web sites. It’s there, but you have to dig for it.”

He said the state’s message should be simple: Eat more fish, but get it from the store. For recreational fishing, he said, people should stick to catch and release, especially inshore where mercury levels are highest.

Ted Lange, a biologist who works on mercury issues for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, acknowledged the need for improvement and said the state was working on something more user-friendly.

“It’s very good information but it’s just too much, too arduous to dig through,” he said. “Next step, we’ve been working on a Safe Eating Guideline – most commonly caught and eaten species. I don’t know if there will be the money to print it. It will be on the web.”

Many fish caught in South Florida, of course, are perfectly safe to eat. They include brown bullhead, crappie, striped mullet, sheepshead, gulf flounder and many other species, according to the fish and wildlife commission. Fish with the highest mercury levels are large predators, such as sharks and largemouth bass, which contain in their flesh all the mercury from the fish they’ve eaten.

Fish bought at stores generally present less of a problem than fish from the mercury hot spot of South Florida, so long as you don’t overdo consumption. But even with store-bought fish, there has been extensive debate among the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and environmental groups about the mercury risks versus the health benefits of seafood.

Despite their debate, “a lot of people still fish to feed their families,” said Andre Eggelletion, a Lauderdale Lakesbarber who has learned to fish lower on the food chain to avoid mercury. “As the economy continues to contract, I don’t see that slowing down. Poor people tell you, ‘I fish for support, not for sport.’”

But many anglers are highly conscious of the risks. While scouting locations for an upcoming bass tournament near Everglades Holiday Park early Thursday, Bryan Windle reeled in a small largemouth bass, which he threw back into the water.

“You can’t eat any of the fish you catch out here; they’re loaded with mercury,” he said. “There’s a list of the fish you can’t eat, but it’s pretty much everything out here.”

Florida reported 13 cases of mercury poisoning in 2010, all but one thought to be related to consumption of fish, according to a state report. But experts say many cases may go unreported because they are milder and the symptoms are never recognized as stemming from mercury.

Although home tests for mercury are sold, some experts question whether they can do the complex analysis performed by professional laboratories.

Kendra Goff, toxicologist for the Florida Department of Health, said the state does its best with limited funds and with the difficulty of getting across a mixed message: Eat more fish but be careful which fish you eat.

“We try to educate people. But we can’t dictate what a person eats or what a person does,” she said. “We encourage people to eat 8-12 ounces of fish per week. That’s two meals.”

Capt. Casey Hunt, of Pompano Beach, said the indisputable health benefits of eating fish outweigh any theoretical dangers from mercury. Fish caught fresh from the ocean, for example, clearly is better than beef from an industrialized farm.

“Some of this cattle meat’s so full of hormones,” Hunt said. “And they’re worried about fish.”

dfleshler@tribune.com, 954-356-4535

Joe Cavaretta contributed to this report.

Mercury facts

What it is: A metallic element discharged by coal-fired power plants and other combustion sources.

How does it get in fish: Settles in water, transforms into organic methylmercury in bacteria and works its way up the food chain.

Some fish to strictly limit: Top predators such as shark, swordfish, tuna and large specimens of largemouth bass

Fish considered safer: sunfish, brown bullhead, crappie, striped mullet, Florida pompano, sheepshead, common dolphin

Effect on the unborn: Brain damage, mental retardation, lack of coordination, blindness, seizures, and inability to speak.

Effect on children: Problems in the kidneys, nervous system and digestive systems

Effect on adults: Much less severe. Irritability, shyness, tremors, changes in vision or hearing, and memory problems. It is considered a potential carcinogen. The phrase “mad as a hatter” comes from the shakes, irritability, slurred speech and other symptoms displayed by 19th century hat makers who used mercuric nitrate to make felt.

Warnings not working: A 2008 study of women of childbearing age in the Florida Panhandle found mercury levels were higher among those who had consumed fish the previous month and among those unaware of the fish advisories. Less than a third knew about the warnings.

Sources: Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control, Environmental Research, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

By David Fleshler and Steve Waters, Sun Sentinel
4:58 p.m. EDT, March 30, 2012

According to an AP press report, the 6800 weather records were set in the U.S. in the month of March. The report, “Mumbai, Miami on list of big weather disasters” begs a number of questions in Miami. Instead of setting policies to prevent more development in wetlands outside the UDB; why aren’t Miami-Dade county commissioners establishing policies to protect taxpayers from spending money down an open drain? That is essentially what it means to build flood protection infrastructure where sea level rise can’t be stopped.

The AP story centers on a new study by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). That’s the panel dismissed by GOP leaders like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott. The report urges all nations to “act now”.

“There is a very high likelihood that there will be at least a further 3 – 5 feet of sea level rise during this century,” begins the 2008 report by the Miami-Dade County Climate Change Advisory Task Force. (I served as an appointee of Mayor Carlos Alvarez at the time.) Four years ago, volunteers spent thousands of man-hours assembling the report whose key recommendations related to land use planning were rejected by the county commission.

There are other questions raised by the Mumbai to Miami threats. Perhaps you have noticed the extensive roadway repairs to Venetian Isles and Miami Beach. How many roads will we have to repair before we stop repairing roads worn down by salt water intrusion and flooding? And what about beach erosion. When will taxpayers pull the plug on beach renourishment?

Putting sand on beaches to be washed away soaks up millions of taxpayer dollars a year in Florida. North Miami Beach is putting $15 million in new sand. Broward County is assessing plans to “widen beaches“. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed a $20 million bond issue in January for a Panhandle beach renourishment project. In the AP report:

We are a rich nation, but at some point spending money to hold back the sea will make us not so rich. “Already U.S. insured losses from weather disasters have soared from an average of about $3 billion a year in the 1980s to about $20 billion a year in the last decade, even after adjusting for inflation, said Mark Way, director of sustainability at insurance giant Swiss Re.”

There are other questions. If you have a 30 year mortgage and sea level rise is expected to severely impact Miami during that time, what next? What were the recommendations regarding land use policies in the Miami-Dade Climate Change Advisory Task Force that never saw the light of day, because of influence from the builders, speculators, and Great Destroyers?

“The County must plan for, mitigate, and adapt to climate change even though uncertainty remains in determining which impacts may occur first and the type and severity of the changes,”  the county advisory task force said in 2008. The task force recommended advanced LIDAR imagery to “allow identification of which areas will become flooded in association with different sea levels.” So where is that imagery and how has it been used in county land use planning?

The brain-dead, one-sided meeting provided further ammo to take down the county department charged with environmental regulation. “Farmers are the best environmentalists!”

photo taken at Whole Foods, South Miami, FL

Here are a few points that extend well beyond Miami-Dade County borders.

Farming in Florida is not like the good old days when sticking a seed in the ground, keeping the soil not too wet and not too dry, was a formula for profit. Today industrial scale agriculture– like growing sugar cane in 700,000 acres around Lake Okeechobee — requires thousands of tons of fertilizer and soil amendments each year to grow (highly profitable) crops in exhausted soil.

So when Miami-Dade and other county commissioners get on soap boxes with how farmers are the best environmentalists, living close to the land and all that, know it may be true for a few but it is largely a bunch of crap to the big farmers who run the Farm Bureau. Its business is to balance the risks of farming against the friction of environmental regulations, the uncertainty of loan repayments based on developable potential, and the future value of land as crappy subdivisions.

The bottom line– Tea Party pay attention here!– is that scale farm operations are major polluters who use millions of dollars– earned through farm bill policies tacitly endorsed by voters through politicians they elect– to shift billions of dollars of pollution costs to taxpayers.

Now, a reality check: in 1996, nearly 70 percent of Florida voters approved an amendment to the Florida constitution requiring sugar farmers to clean up 100 percent of the pollution they cause in the Everglades. Keep that number in your head. How did that work out for nearly 70 percent of Florida voters who voted for billions of dollars of Everglades cleanup to be assessed where it belongs?

A new study funded by the Everglades Foundation, by independent economist firm RTI, shows that in the past decade Big Sugar has only funded 24 percent of the clean up costs associated with Everglades restoration. Not 100 percent as required by state law. The chemical culprit is the same as that used and overused on lawns: the phosphorous component in fertilizer. Phosphorous in quantities greater than 10 parts per billion — a few grains in a bucket of sand — kills the Everglades.

Who funds the rest of the multi-billion dollar cost of land acquisition, treatment marshes, and continuous monitoring and operation? Taxpayers.

Here’s another astonishing statistic, to refute the Miami-Dade county commissioners who want to argue who is paying for what.

According to RTI, the cost of treatment marshes and other provisions required to clean up phosphorous once it passes from big sugar lands to public lands is $350 per pound of phosphorous. The cost for “best management practices” that deliver the same benefits if those measures were incorporated by farmers to their farming practices? Only $47 per pound. Think about that, next time you buy a pound of sugar for a couple of bucks. How about them apples?

When farmers say they are good neighbors and complain about excess environmental regulations like those that protect wetlands as harming “jobs”, remember who is paying the bill for failing to pay attention. Instead of requiring farmers to keep the phosphorous on their farms and clean it up right there– requiring them to add $46 to the cost of a pound of phosphorous (the true cost)– industrial scale farmers figured out a way to get taxpayers to pay 8 times that amount in order to use PUBLIC lands for their sewerage. (You can join Friends of the Everglades, today, fighting these and other inequities and violations of federal law in federal court.)

This leads, then, to another question: why doesn’t the state of Florida mandate best management practices that are not only far cheaper but also required both by law and recommended by recent federal court rulings instigated by environmental organizations that protect taxpayer interests? Oooo, there is that word, “mandate“! The GOP hates mandates!

The reason is that farmers– the best “environmentalists” according to county commissioners in Miami-Dade like Linda Bell and Javier Souto. — have tied up the Republican majority state legislature in baling wire. (Don’t get me wrong: you can count the number of Democrats who have stood up for taxpayer equity and assessing the true costs of pollution on the polluter, on one hand.) Since 1996 the legislature hasn’t lifted a finger to enact the specific provisions of what nearly 70 percent of voters approved. If nearly 20 years delay hasn’t proved the lie that industry can regulate itself better than government can to public benefit, think again. (You can’t defend the Great Destroyers unless the excess mercury caused by Big Ag and running into Florida waters has clouded your thinking processes.)

This would seem an issue ripe for Tea Party involvement. It is not complicated. Failing to protect taxpayers from predatory practices of Big Sugar, the Tea Party badly undermines its own credibility.

So next time you hear county commissioners or anyone else for that matter huff and puff how environmentally friendly Big Sugar is, rub the sleep from your eyes. Thank our small scale, organic farmers: yes. But Big Sugar and its lobbyists turned the climate for environmental regulation into an empty husk, not fit for locusts.

We have every expectation that Governor Scott will sign the bill and I look forward to having another opportunity to elevate Everglades issues and educate our lawmakers together on the importance of Everglades restoration together.

Dawn Shirreffs
Everglades Restoration Program Manager
National Parks Conservation Association
Sun Coast Regional Office

bogdanoff.ellyn.web@flsenate.gov

Phone: (850) 487-5100 – for an alternative way of making contact. You should be able to leave a message off hours or when there’s no answer. Sunday and Monday is the window of opportunity we have on this.

Whether you live in Florida or not, please see below for a summary of how this bill will impact critical federal lands (you own them wherever you happen to live) and wildlife habitat in one of our planet’s most unique ecosystems – the Florida Everglades. Senator Bogdanoff’s legislation is meant to accomplish one goal – encourage more residential and commercial growth in still undeveloped areas of Florida including lands outside the Miami-Dade Urban Development Boundary and adjacent to Biscayne and Everglades National Parks. Hopefully, asking Senator Bogdanoff to pull amendment #832626 – for the sake of the little which remains of natural Florida – will get the job done.

Dear Friends,

Urgent action is needed to protect Everglades National Park and other wildlife habitat in Florida.

This Monday, March 5th, the Florida Senate will take up a bill called HB 4003. If passed, the bill will terminate a state program intended to provide grants for the redevelopment of urban centers. Not surprisingly, the grants were never funded. However, the truly harmful part of the bill is in an amendment introduced by Florida State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff. This amendment would strip all local municipalities in the state of their current ability to require a super majority vote in changing comprehensive land use plans. Senator Bogdanoff’s amendment would require only a simple majority of elected officials – often flooded with political contributions from the very developers who benefit from land use changes – to convert more of natural and semi-natural Florida into the urban and suburban sprawl for which the Sunshine State has unfortunately become famous.

The timing of this amendment does not appear to have been random. Only last Tuesday, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez publicly backed a plan which would make it extremely difficult to change the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) surrounding two iconic pieces of public land located in the county – Everglades and Biscayne National Parks. In supporting a recommendation to make any changes dependent on yes votes from 10 of 13 commissioners (a three-fourths majority), Mayor Gimenez said, “Once and for all, this ensures that future commissions and future mayors have the strictest standards for making any changes to the line.”

Apparently, certain circles found this attempt to protect land around two of the most beloved parts of south Florida unacceptable. Senator Bogdanoff’s legislation (Amendment #832626), introduced in the Florida Senate only 2 days after the mayor’s speech, contains the following language:

“A local government may not adopt or impose any supermajority voting requirement, by charter provision, ordinance, or otherwise, for the transmittal or adoption of amendments to the comprehensive plan.”

Books can and have been written on the subject of the decline of the Everglades and the reasons for it. Tim Will, a former mayor of the Town of Surfside – one of the many municipalities in Miami-Dade County – summed it up this way:

“In Miami, you have a system where the rules are stacked in the developers’ favor…They want to spend your tax money building more and more subdivisions in the only place that water can drain to… More development out west would replace natural drainage area with concrete while additional houses would put even more pressure on what is already a strained system.”

Mayor Will was absolutely correct when he asserted that the tax dollars of existing residents fund the new development – but they also contribute to increases in the cost of services (water, fire departments, law enforcement, public transportation, schools, etc.) as new residents move in to a formerly undeveloped or agricultural environment. Municipal borrowing – and increased public debt – in addition to cuts in services – complete the bleak equation. It’s also highly doubtful that the 85.9 million visitors to Florida – number one tourist destination in the world and the largest source of Florida’s tax revenue – are coming to see new roads, subdivisions and strip malls – or to swim in the billions of gallons of semi-treated sewage south Florida unloads off its southeast coast annually through sewage “outfall” pipes.

And despite numerous distinctions – the first “biological park” in our nation’s history, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness Area, an International Biosphere Reserve, a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance, and a World Heritage Site – Everglades National Park was nevertheless rated bottom of the barrel when National Geographic Magazine conducted its survey of national park destinations in North America:

“Clearly a paradise in jeopardy, the Everglades is dying of thirst and other maladies. Upstream demand for water by the sugar industry and growing cities has slowed a much-heralded restoration program to a crawl…Rapid development on all sides has created an unpleasant, unattractive gateway to one of the planet’s unique places.”

The degradation of south Florida’s amazing ecosystem and the diverse wildlife it supports has been one of the ecological tragedies of our era – and perhaps the most well documented. There is no need to compound it with more of the same. A simple note to Senator Bogdanoff – Hands off Miami-Dade County and other municipalities trying to protect what’s left of natural Florida – should do the job. Pull amendment #832626 now!

Once again – Senator Bogdanoff can be reached via email at:

bogdanoff.ellyn.web@flsenate.gov

South Florida Wildlands Association currently carries out our aggressive program of habitat and wildlife protection with little funds and no paid staff. If you’re able, contributions in any amount are always appreciated and allow us to continue this important work. You can donate online or by regular mail by going to the following webpage:

http://m1e.net/c?70087014-fc2XAl0UBvmfM%407285057-tfI.0FkLhI8og

Thank you as always for your support and help.

a clean water supply is

worth every drop.

It’s clear, really. Saving the Everglades equals protecting Florida’s drinking water supply. More than 7 MILLION residents of Florida, or about 1 of every 3 of us, rely on the Everglades for our daily supply of fresh water. Now, this resource that we value every day is in serious jeopardy. The State Senate released a budget that ZEROES OUT funding for critical Everglades restoration projects. It’s time to send a clear message to those who represent us to let them know this is unacceptable. Please join us by contacting Governor Scott and members of the Florida Legislature to tell them a clean water supply is worth every drop!

Tell Tallahassee to restore funding
to protect the Florida Everglades