Poisoned Gulf Killing Our Whales

Authorities said eight pilot whales have died in shallow waters off Florida's southwest coast. Six others remain unaccounted for. In December, more than 50 pilot whales stranded in Everglades National Park. Several died.......more
Update: 25 Dead Whales Found Near Kice Island, Florida...more>

Pilot whales live in deep water and swim inland if they suffer from toxicity or disease.

Florida's Water And Land Legacy Amendment

It will be on the November 2014 ballot!

If you haven't already, be sure to
 "like" the campaign on Facebook and

 "follow" them on Twitter.

The campaign collected more than 685,000 valid signatures from
around the state.

 This amendment to Florida's Constitution, if passed by voters in November, would ensure the allocation of a portion of our state budget to fund conservation that forever protects Florida’s remaining natural treasures. We're one big step closer to making that happen.

Thanks for all you do to move Florida forward, and ensure that the state we love is preserved for future generations of Floridians. For Florida's environment.

Progress Florida

Fouling Florida's Environment

Here on the southeast coast, the Indian River Lagoon, the St. Lucie River and its estuary are being polluted like never before — perhaps irreversibly — by an algae slime that proliferates from excess manure, sewage and fertilizer released by municipalities and, of course, from Lake Okeechobee. Research clearly shows that most of the nutrients flowing into Lake Okeechobee come from tributaries in the northern Everglades. This is Big Sugar country, the Everglades Agricultural Area, where most of the nation's sugarcane is grown........more

Elected officials and others have known for more than 30 years about our nutrient-rich water problems, but they consistently have put business interests ahead of eliminating the sources of the pollution.

Rick Scott Is Selling Our Public Lands

Have you ever enjoyed a nature trail or stream that was then turned into a strip mall or parking lot? I know I have. Now Gov. Rick Scott wants to sell off up to 4,000 acres of environmentally sensitive lands our tax dollars have already purchased and protected so he can kick back more money to his big business buddies. here, Here’s a complete list of all the lands the state is considering putting on the auction block. Take a look and see if any of them are in your backyard.

Florida's Culture Of Corruption: HB 999

Gov. Rick Scott has signed HB 999, a bill so detested by a host of environmental groups that they brought in former Sen. Bob Graham to try in vain to stop it.  The bill drew more than 350 letters or emails urging him to veto it, They don't care what we think. They care about people like Frank Matthews, who lobbies on behalf of developers, phosphate miners, boat manufacturers, sugar growers, power companies and a garbage company who said
 ""He couldn't be more accommodating, my clients appreciate the Legislature and the governor continuing to protect Florida's resources while promoting economic development and recovery. It's unfortunate regulatory reform is often sensationalized and characterized as anti-environment."
The bill won approval in the House 98-20, with some Democrats joining the Republicans.
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"I care a lot about the environment," the governor said. Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, sponsored the bill. (Patronis is ALEC’s leader in the Florida Legislature.)

Rubio Votes Against Everglades Funding

The Senate voted 84-13 to approve a wide-ranging water bill today that includes millions in funding for the Everglades and other Florida-related projects. The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) could have had a positive effect on Florida’s natural resources, industries and residents.   Every Floridian is impacted by the work conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers in our state.  Unfortunately, politics were chosen over sound public policy, and the state’s best interests were left out of the final bill. Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson voted yes,  Marco Rubio voted no.

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Rubio doesn't care about the Everglades or south Florida, he has his $800,000 book advance and is moving to DC.

Republican Jimmy Patronis: Florida's Worst Nightmare

Every year during the legislative session in Tallahassee, state Rep. Jimmy Patronis does two things: He organizes a day for everyone to wear seersucker suits. And he pushes a bill to change Florida's environmental regulations, like the one Thursday that passed the House,
blocking local governments from protecting thousands of acres of wetlands.

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Fucking amazing, can they really do this?

The Everglades Bill

The Everglades bill speeding through the Legislature is not the sweeping victory that the unusual alliance behind it — the governor, his fellow Republicans, farmers and environmentalists — would have Floridians believe. The legislation awaiting Senate approval is better than a terrible version that sailed through the House, but it still unfairly shifts the costs for cleaning up the Everglades from the agriculture industry to the taxpayers. This is a handout to those who are causing the problem, and it violates the voters' intent behind the "Polluter Pays" protection in the Florida Constitution.
more

HB 7065: Florida's Culture Of Corruption

An Outright Sellout
One of the broadest assaults on the Everglades cleanup effort is speeding toward passage in the Florida House. The measure would put the state's taxpayers on the hook for pollution caused by the agriculture industry — and open an avenue for even more environmental damage down the road. Shifting cleanup costs from Big Sugar to those who are downstream from its dirty fields is Robin Hood in reverse and undermines the intent of a voters' mandate to have polluters pay.

 Gov. Rick Scott and the Senate need to stop it.

here

The Everglades Seafood Festival

The Everglades Tomato

A rare, wild current-sized tomato that grows like a weed in South Florida.

Cubans, Spaniards and the Chinese

Are preparing to put a very controversial hole deep in the Gulf of Mexico.
Deeper than the blown-out well that spewed 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf last summer.
It will puncture the sea floor in Cuban-controlled waters just
60 miles off the Florida Keys,
a protected coastline where offshore drilling is banned under U.S. law.
here

John Pennekamp State Park
Fidel and Raul you guys own a tropical island, Go Green!

Rick Scott On Oil Drilling In The Everglades

“The Everglades is a special place where millions of Floridians, tourists, scouting and school groups hike, fish, hunt, kayak and explore. At this point, no energy company has even floated a proposal to drill in the Everglades,” Fordham said. “If there is any thought being given to expanding oil drilling into the Everglades, my suggestion to the Governor is quite simple: Don’t go there. Unless Governor Scott wants to unleash a firestorm of opposition from hunters, fishermen, conservationists and millions of Floridians who depend on the Everglades for their water supply, he should abandon any notion of encouraging drilling in this sacred place.”
Everglades Foundation CEO Kirk Fordham

Where Are We Heading?

Here in Florida,

in the past few months alone, the Department of Community Affairs was eliminated; the Florida Forever land acquisition program was unfunded; all the appointments to the Environmental Regulation Commission and to the Florida Energy and Climate Commission had been withdrawn; the state's planned cap-and-trade program was scrapped, and the regulations protecting the Everglades, a body of laws that had been decades in the making, were rolled back. Seed money from Washington for high speed rail was rejected by the Florida governor—as if the Florida construction industry were not in need of jobs. Meanwhile the ocean around the Keys heated up to an astounding 30 C (90 F); the water is teeming with jellyfish, and the reefs look blotched and blighted. How can we possibly afford this—even from a business standpoint? Is the Florida tourism industry not in need of tourists?

Martin Schönfeld teaches Philosophy at the University of South Florida

Drill for Oil and Gas in the Everglades

"The United States needs to be less dependent on foreign sources of energy and more dependent upon American resourcefulness. Whether that is in
the Everglades, or whether that is in the eastern Gulf region,
or whether that's in North Dakota, we need to go where the energy is.".....Michele Bachmann

Resourcefulness? Solar, Wind, Better MPG's, Mass Transit and some of those 60mpg VW's they got in Germany.