FL Water Manager's Still Don't Like Everglades Restoration

by JDWolverton

The fight over Florida's Everglades is decades old. Among the multiple ongoing law suits concerning Everglades restoration, the Miccosukee suit got some uneven results. It is a complex issue that too few people really understand. All of Florida plus our tourists have a dog in this race, but maybe 1 in 20 are paying attention.

Most Floridians moved here long after the beginning of the battle over The River of Grass, better known as the Everglades. Newbie Floridians generally have no use for gators other than the Gainesville variety and they have no clue that the Everglades (gators and all) is key to a healthy Florida environment.

Giving into pro-business interests leads to more and more expensive water for all Floridians, but the average Floridian won't care about the Everglades until they get their first $150 a month water bill (sewage will be extra).

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Florida Is For Sale - Amendment 4

by JDWolverton

The Florida voter initiatives make for entertaining reading most election cycles, but every once in a while an important one slips into the stream. Amendment 4 is one of them.

I first noticed a "Vote No on Amendment 4" banner attached to a land developer's building. Then I saw one on a Rinker site - a company that provides fill for new construction sites.

That spurred some research.

In short:

Amendment 4 requires the voters ok any changes to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan* at the community's expense.

* link is to a synopsis of the history of this legislation and here you'll find a lot of wonky land use definitions.

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Congressional Candidates’ Views on Clean Energy, Climate Change: FL-24

by NRDCActionFund

Originally posted on The MarkUp.

This is the tenth article in a continuing series by the NRDC Action Fund on the environmental stances of candidates in key races around the country.

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Science Says: Those 3-D Underwater Oil Plumes Belong to BP

by jamess

Now for a little exercise in News Spin Cycles, vs the Scientific Process ...

When the Facts, finally come in, IS Anyone even still Paying Attention?

"What we have learned completely changes the idea of what an oil spill is," said chemical oceanographer David Hollander, one of three USF researchers credited with the matching samples of oil taken from the water with samples from the BP well. "It has gone from a two-dimensional disaster to a three-dimensional catastrophe."
[...]

Together, the two studies confirm what in the early days of the spill was denied by BP and viewed skeptically by NOAA's chief — that much of the crude that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon well stayed beneath the surface of the water.

[link to follow]

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Worse than the Oilpocalypse

by LaughingPlanet

This will be brief.

As another week slowly passes us by, and another suffocating heat wave breaks, we are still no closer to joining the rest of the developed world when it comes to scientific data.

When science warns of the worst that can happen, that prospect is not to be dismissed and ridiculed. Far from it. In fact, the intelligent plan is this-

Always prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

As a country, and overall, as a species, we are falling woefully short on that crucial 1st part.

So what is worse than having the beaches and wetlands of the south under a few inches of oil and toxic dispersant?

How about being under 20 feet of saltwater?

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Independence Day Along Gulf (w/ photos)

by Duino

I spent Independence Day driving along the Gulf Coast, from San Destin, Fla. to Gulf Shores, Ala. I thought I'd share some images from the trip.

San Destin, Fla.-

There weren't any noticeable tar balls along the stretch of beach I went to. The owner of a umbrella shack who services the resort said that he and his employees spend an hour or so each morning cleaning up tar balls that the high tide has washed in overnight. He also said that his business was down 50 percent since the first tar balls to hit San Destin were reported by the media. He said he walked right into Pompano Joe's, a popular beach-side seafood joint in Destin, for lunch earlier that day, and there was no wait, adding that usually you'd have to sit for an hour before you could get a table.

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Pensacola official WRONG on re-opening the beaches

by icebergslim

Remember Buck Lee, the Santa Rosa official who authorized the beaches back open?

Well, now we have hundreds of folks complaining about illnesses related to getting into that water:

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BP Oil Disaster v3.2: Pics & Vids & Media Lies

by vets74

"Death in the Gulf" is the subtitle.

BP and Halliburton  are committing a massive ecocide. This WineRev Model series provides a home for pics and vids, plus material that focuses on corporate media distortions.

Here's the the MRGO channel. 500 yards and $3 MM for the booms:

-- Greyrath/Getty

And the CNN fable factory came up with a BP-friendly lie that the "Whale" skimmer will extract 21,000,000 gallons of oil a day.

Our whitis went to the sources and pulled out 63,000 gallons a day as a theoretical maximum.

Nice to see Recommended in the tags:::

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BP Oil Disaster v. 2.1: Sunday Heat, Patriots!

by vets74

Following the WineRev Model, this series will provide a daily diary for posting IMAGES and VIDEOS and research findings.

"Death in the Gulf" is the real subtitle. BP and Halliburton have committed a massive ecocide.

Today's big lies from MSM and the propaganda outlets astonish. NOAA repeats its shoreline threat map, but still leaves out tropical storms:

Then CNN online:

If... tests in a 5-by-5-mile area north of the underwater gusher are successful, the massive ship could play a key role in oil cleanup efforts

The boat, which swallows water with oil then separates it, can skim about 21 million gallons of oil a day. That's at least 250 times the amount that modified fishing vessels currently conducting skimming operations have been able to contain...

The ship processes a max of 21,000,000 gallons of water. Not oil. Water.

We learned earlier that 20% of the oil spew surfaces immediately and gets blown north. 80% goes south into the Loop Current.

IMAGES and VIDEOS and research are welcome.

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The Gulf Coast, its beaches, life is just a hot mess (Videos)

by icebergslim

I wrote a diary last week about Pensacola, Florida beaches smelling like a gas station, well on Hardball today Chris Matthews asked MSNBC's Science and Environment Expert, Jeff Corwin does it smell like that?  Corwin replied, "...it smells like a gas station...."

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Kill to Drill

by Vetwife

Some of you may say this is all in my imagination but I can
not come up with a logical one other than this.

No matter what the hearings are producing.  No matter that
no one is seriously in jail yet.  No matter that bulldozers are covering up so much oil under the sand.
No matter that in spite of the horrific horrors of the Gulf
gusher, people are still allowed to swim.
We did not think it possible for torture to be allowed in this country.  We did not think it possible that

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A Sickening in the Gulf Stream

by Bob Higgins

[Editor's note: This began as a comment this morning to "Oil spill: The nightmare becomes reality" a Carl Hiaasen piece on the arrival of BP's poisonous gusher of crud on the shores of Pensacola.]

Originally posted at my site Bob Higgins

Carl,

You're right; it is difficult for people living far from our coasts to feel the horrible weight of this disaster.

I live in Ohio but have lived on the coasts of California and North Carolina. I have also lived through and helped clean up an oil spill near San Francisco in 1970 or thereabouts. I have friends and family though who have never seen or at least never lived near the sea and had it become, as seems inevitable to me, a part of them.

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It doesn't smell like a beach.  It smells like a gas station.

by icebergslim

Pensacola Beach, the way it used to be.....

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OK..Now there is Oily kids...SHUT DOWN THE BEACH

by Vetwife

I have been very distraught about the Gulf and
the wildlife and the sand but there is clearly
child endangerment going on in Destin.

I am posting this so people will see just how
ignorant people are and how desperate they are
to buy the propoganda of "Come on in, the water's fine".

We have dolphins dying and wildlife dying and stupid
parents allowing children to swim inhttp://www.youtube.com/...

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FL: Huge shift in opinion against offshore drilling

by Jed Lewison

This is an amazing statistic from Quinnipiac's most recent poll of Florida: In the wake of the Gulf oil spill, Florida voters oppose 51 - 42 percent increasing the amount of offshore oil drilling, a 48-point swing from the 66 - 27 percent support for drilling in an April 19 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University. That means one out of four voters in Florida has changed their mind about offshore drilling in less than two months. Numbers like that are staggering. They provide evidence for the idea that voters are now as receptive as they have ever been to the kinds of policies that we need to break our dependence on fossil fuels. It underscores the urgency with which Democrats and the Obama Administration must proceed enacting energy reform. There has never been a better time to pass legislation that will free us from our oil addiction. President Obama began making this case last week at Carnegie Mellon. He should continue to do so. The best way for him to demonstrate that he's on the side of the public and not big oil is to finally convince Congress to pass legislation that will give the public independence from big oil. We know it won't be perfect legislation, and we won't eliminate fossil fuels overnight, but the single most important factor in securing America's future prosperity and quality of life is developing new, clean, affordable sources of energy. And the time to establish the national framework for achieving that goal is now.

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Oilpocalypse and the Importance of the Apalachee Bay

by gulfgal98

The oil from the Deepwater Horizon oilpocalypse has already reached the most westerly part of Florida's panhandle in the Pensacola area, and is now threatening the entire northern Gulf Coast of Florida.   Most people are familiar with the beautiful beaches of much of the Gulf coast of Florida, in particular, the stunning Emerald Coast  along the north Florida Gulf Coast from Panama City Beach west.  The Emerald Coast is a popular vacation haven. Kristina40's beautiful diary captures the incredible visual wonder of the Emerald Coast. This diary is about how this oil threatens another very important area of the north Florida Gulf coast, Florida's Forgotten Coast, and in particular, the Apalachee Bay.  (Excellent picture in the Forgotten Coast link)

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Gulf Citizens take matters into their own hands -- Updated

by jamess

Here's a Town, that said "Hell No, to the Crude" -- NOT on their Watch! Magnolia Springs, Alabama,  Weeks Bay. Updated: Tuesday, June 8, 2010

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The Florida Coral Reefs may be Next ...

by jamess

If BP, along with the 'Best and the Brightest' can't manage to turn off the spigot ... The Florida Coral Reefs may be Next Group Records Florida Coastal Environment Before Oil Arrives Creighton Team Helps Oil Spill Study MSNBC June 3, 2010 A research team from Creighton University is gathering data along Florida's Gulf Coast and trying to stay ahead of the oil spill. The team's leader, John Schalles, said recovery crews aren't the only ones scrambling against the resulting environmental disaster. Creighton Professor John Schalles on the Oil Spill http://www.youtube.com/...

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Florida is about to GO OFF....

by icebergslim

THE OIL IS COMING, THE OIL IS COMING, THE OIL IS COMING....

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Big as Both Wars combined !

by Vetwife

This man made disaster is as big IMO as both wars combined and should absolutely be nationalized. We cannot let a corporation run a war on nature. Iraq and Afghanistan is devistating lives to be sure. People are dying.  People will be dying from this as well.  Oxygen comes from the seas. This thing is bigger that people believe.  

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