Florida environmental and wildlife news for the week ending 9-25-09

FEATURED STORIES

Getting Serious About Global Warming
The Progress Report
Think Progress
Even as pressure builds for the U.S. Senate to take action on global warming, polluters have intensified their campaigns to block clean energy reform.

Group formed to help resolve tri-state water dispute
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
A diverse coalition of groups within Alabama, Florida and Georgia is trying to encourage a discussion of water issues that have divided residents of the three states in the past.

Are you drinking dirty water? Florida among 10 worst states for tap water
By Daniel Vasquez
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
A recent New York Times series called "Toxic Waters" has rightly drawn attention to the issue of drinking safe - or unsafe, as the case may be - tap water.

Do gopher tortoises need federal protection from the building industry? Feds to ponder the issue
By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post
Federal officials are considering whether to add protections for the gopher tortoise that environmentalists say are long overdue but that builders industry experts warn could be catastrophic for Florida's economy.

Activists want bigger 'critical’ area off Florida-Georgia coast for right whales
By Steve Patterson
Florida Times-Union
Related: Training range OK for whales, Navy says
Wildlife activists are asking the federal government to enlarge an area off the Florida-Georgia coast where special efforts are made to protect endangered right whales.


Critically endangered right whales.

THE BIG OIL ROUNDUP

The Big Oil roundup: news and information about Big Oil’s push to rig Florida’s coastline for the week ending 9-25-09

Group pushes for Gulf drilling legislation
By Carl Mario Nudio
Bradenton Herald
Looking to influence the future of oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, an advocacy group has been traveling Florida promoting its ideas.

Offshore drilling supporter tells tourism agency: It's safe
By Valerie Whitney
Daytona Beach News Journal
State Rep. Dean Cannon, a big supporter of offshore drilling, brought his platform Thursday to the people charged with attracting visitors to Florida.


Digitally mapped simulation of what the oil spill happening right now off Australia’s coast would look like if it happened from a drilling platform 80 miles from Florida’s coastline in the Gulf of Mexico. This map was created two weeks ago – it would in fact be much worse now because it's still leaking 400 barrels a day and the rig isn't expected to be plugged UNTIL AT LEAST MID-OCTOBER! Moreover, this ongoing catastrophe emanated from a new oil platform that the fossil fuel lobby has touted as safe. Per the article above, did Rep. Cannon tell tourism officials any of this? He's just another Big Oil shill, baby, shill.

Sarasota County opposes drilling
Staff Report
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Related editorial: Taking a stand against drilling
Pristine beaches should trump oil exploration, Sarasota County leaders said Tuesday in opposing any oil exploration in Florida waters.

Expanded Oil Drilling Within 3 to 10 Miles Of Florida's West Coast? (audio story)
By Robert Lorei
WMNF Community Radio Tampa
There's a renewed effort to try to lift the ban on oil drilling close to Florida's coastline.

Mike Haridopolos: Oil drilling, low taxes on tap for Florida
By Mike Haridopolos
TC Palm
Economic growth. Increased sovereignty. Transparency in government. Citizen participation. Tax relief. Spending restraint.

Chamber survey seeks support for 'energy exploration'
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times
The Florida Chamber of Commerce is ratcheting up the oil-drilling debate with a new "survey" of its members that asks whether they would support or oppose cap and trade, renewable energy standards for electric companies and "energy exploration in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida as long as any permanent structures necessary for oil and natural gas production are not visible from shore?"

Alex Sink is following legislation 'very closely'
By Tom McLaughlin
Northwest Florida Daily News
Alex Sink, Florida’s chief financial officer and the leading Democratic candidate for governor, said she’s following “very closely” state legislation that would allow oil drilling near the coast.


Click the picture above to urge Senate President Jeff Atwater to oppose state legislative efforts that would allow offshore oil drilling off Florida’s coast.

MORE ONLINE ACTIONS
Tell Salazar: No drilling off Florida's Coast, via Environment Florida.
Tell new Senator LeMieux to Repower America, via Environment Florida.
Tell Your Senator No More Offshore Drilling, via Oceana.
Tell Sen. Atwater Not To Allow Oil Drilling In Special Session, via Audubon of Florida.

MORE GREEN NEWS

World Leaders Bring Hope to the Sunshine State? (includes audio)
By Gina Presson
Public News Service Florida
As leaders of the world's largest economies begin the Group of Twenty (G-20) summit today in Pittsburgh, many in Florida are watching for discussion of climate change.

Feds Again Petitioned for Florida Panther Critical Habitat
Staff Report
Environmental News Service
As a species, the endangered Florida panther needs about 4,860 square miles in southern Florida to be protected as critical habitat to save the animal from extinction and recover the species, according to a new scientific petition submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by three nonprofit organizations.

Florida rural lands rule withstands farm groups' challenge
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Florida farm groups supported the Rural Land Stewardship Act in 2001 because they said it would preserve agriculture while helping the economies of rural communities.

Enviro group joins in criticism of PSC
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
One of the most active environmental groups before the Florida Public Service Commission says recent controversies show the panel is overly influenced by utilities and lobbyists, including former PSC staff and commissioners.

Polluted Lake Okeechobee getting dirtier
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
Water managers, environmental agencies and conservation groups have been talking about cleaning up Lake Okeechobee for decades.

Atlanta Floods May Bring Temporary Peace to Water Wars
By Mike Vasilinda
Capitol News Service
The is a silver lining in the more than 20 inches of rain that has beset the Atlanta area.

Salty St. Johns River could change wetlands in Duval, Clay, St. Johns
By Steve Patterson
Florida Times-Union
Wetlands in Jacksonville and northern St. Johns and Clay counties could be changed by rising salt levels if utilities withdraw water from the St. Johns River far upstream, a state researcher told scientists Wednesday at a symposium on possible withdrawals.

High Mercury Levels Found In North Fla. River Fish
The Associated Press
WKRG News 5 Pensacola-Mobile
Researchers are warning north Florida residents to be careful about consuming mercury-contaminated fish from some area rivers.

Project to map Everglades water levels aims to protect wildlife
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post
Fat alligators are happy alligators and a sign that water levels in the Everglades are just right.

New, nastier python enters Everglades fray
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
As if one giant python wasn't enough, a cluster of captures in a single square mile of West Miami-Dade has scientists worried about a new species spreading across South Florida.

Florida senator proposes python ban
By David Fleshler
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
You wouldn't be able to buy a Burmese python as a pet anymore in Florida, under a bill drafted by a state senator who said the state should shut off the source of "dangerous reptiles" that have colonized the Everglades.

Volusia County gives 1st approval to Farmton -- city in the wilderness
By Ludmilla Lelis
Orlando Sentinel
A plan that would conserve more than 40,000 acres of remote timberland while establishing a new city of more than 20,000 homes has passed its first round of approvals.

Some get it right, some get it wrong on local growth decisions
By Jane Healy
Orlando Sentinel
Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet got it right last week when they flatly rejected a project in the middle of Ocala horse country.

Time to end canned hunts on Treasure Coast
Editorial
TC Palm
Owners of JR Outfitters deny that they’re running “canned hunts” out in Indiantown. But charging hunters for the privilege of shooting exotic animals inside an enclosed area pretty much fits the bill.

Manatees are symbolic
Editorial
Tallahassee Democrat
The story of a manatee's death, descriptively told by reporter Amanda Nalley in Saturday's Democrat, is a reminder of the resources in peril in Florida waters.

Wildwood Preservation Society is a non-profit 501(c)(4) project of the Advocacy Consortium for the Common Good. Click here to learn more.

"it's all connected"

Florida environmental and wildlife news for the week ending 9-18-09

FEATURED STORIES

Vast protection area urged for Florida panthers
By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post
Environmentalists are pressing the federal government to declare 3 million acres of South Florida - an area twice the size of Delaware - critical habitat for the nearly extinct Florida panther.

Cabinet Halts Development Plan
By Joe Follick
Lakeland Ledger
In another sign that Florida's historic economic reliance on home building is continuing to ebb, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet unanimously upheld a judge's decision to bar a housing development in Marion County.

Ocala development fight signals broader duel over Hometown Democracy
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
With the state's housing market cratered and its population in decline, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet waded into the debate over Florida's development future Tuesday when they rejected an appeal from developers of a 400-acre project outside Ocala.

In the Age of Stupid, Coconut Creek Mayor Marilyn Gerber gets butterflies
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
A group of gritty citizens in Florida have organized a successful petition to put on the 2010 state-wide ballot an amendment to the state constitution called Florida Hometown Democracy. It is greatly feared by state business interests.


Overdevelopment is wiping out the critically endangered Florida panther.

THE BIG OIL ROUNDUP
The Big Oil roundup: news and information about Big Oil’s push to rig Florida’s coastline for the week ending 9-18-09

A few questions for those who would drill for oil off of Florida's shores
By Bob Rackleff
St. Petersburg Times
The mysterious promoters of offshore oil drilling in Florida waters promise "A Breathtaking Economic Opportunity," in their words.

Four years after buying back oil lease, state considers allowing drilling
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Excerpt: Mark Ferrulo, an environmental activist who has fought offshore drilling in Florida efforts since 1991, said the dispute points to the influence that money is having in the current drilling debate. He is director of Progress Florida, which opposes drilling.


Click the picture above to urge Senate President Jeff Atwater to oppose state legislative efforts that would allow offshore oil drilling off Florida’s coast.

MORE ONLINE ACTIONS
Tell Salazar: No drilling off Florida's Coast, via Environment Florida.
Tell new Senator LeMieux to Repower America, via Environment Florida.
Tell Your Senator No More Offshore Drilling, via Oceana.
Tell Sen. Atwater Not To Allow Oil Drilling In Special Session, via Audubon of Florida.

Oil Drilling opposed by environmentalists, tourism officials and business owners (includes audio)
By Sean Kinane
WMNF Community Radio Tampa
A gigantic oil spill that has been occurring for more than three weeks off the coast of Australia is being used as a warning to Floridians against opening up the state’s coastline to offshore drilling.

Oil drilling means jobs and money, proponents say
By Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
Related: Who's behind Florida Energy Associates?
They appeared in the spring, a secretive group trying to upend Florida's longtime ban on offshore drilling by promising millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs.

Oil-drilling debate gets stickier (includes video)
By Steve Nichols
Fox News Tampa Bay
Opponents of offshore drilling near Florida now have a strong argument from the Timor Sea. The same technology the oil industry touts as being virtually spill-proof is involved in a major incident between Australia and Indonesia.

Don't look now, but oil rigs in our future
By Douglas C. Lyons
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
It may not be the best public policy for a state that's made its reputation, and a considerable tourism industry, from its beaches. But it'll cement Florida's legacy as the laboratory for just about every right-wing political initiative under the sun.

Opponents of offshore drilling say lifting ban could have dire consequences
By Eileen Schulte
St. Petersburg Times
You'll never be able to eat fish from Tampa Bay or the Gulf of Mexico again if oil drilling is allowed within 10 miles of Florida's west coast.

West Atlas Oil Spill Advertises Danger of Drilling in Florida
News Blog
Audubon of Florida
Oil has been flowing from the West Atlas platform for three weeks.

Offshore oil drilling by the numbers
By Harlan Weikle
Tampa Bay Weekly
Three, six and 12 billion barrels are the various estimates of the oil reserves to be found off Florida’s Gulf coast; a mere drop in the bucket compared to the potential economic loss to Florida, say opponents of offshore drilling.

Offshore drilling poll doesn't quite add up
Editorial
Pensacola News Journal
Now here's a surprise: The state's chief business lobbying group conducts a poll on offshore drilling and finds that Floridians overwhelmingly support it, and therefore the Legislature — in a special session to be called on another issue — should act to expose Florida's coast.

Drilling threatens Florida's economic base
Editorial
Daytona Beach News-Journal
To hear them speak, some Florida lawmakers have drill bits for tongues.

Big Oil mixing money and politics in Tallahassee
Editorial
Miami Herald
The well-financed campaign to open Florida waters in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling should be greeted with great skepticism by state residents and their representatives in the Legislature.

Oil drilling in state waters bad business
Editorial
Lake Wales News
After falling short of slipping through a bill to allow oil and gas drilling near Florida's coast earlier this year, legislative leaders are greasing the skids to get a similar bill considered during a possible special session in October or November.


Environmentalists fear oil is heading towards an area where whales breed. What might a similar spill do off Florida’s coast?

MORE GREEN NEWS

Year-long project aims to preserve coral in Miami-Dade waters
By Susana Montes-Delgado
Miami Herald
Related AP story: Massive coral protection plan approved
In their wet suits and masks, scientific divers carry oxygen tanks, underwater cameras, measuring tape, and about 50 pounds of equipment into Biscayne Bay to restore Miami-Dade's coral reefs.

Feds, Florida anglers battle over red-snapper ban
By Ludmilla Lelis
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Related: Anglers to feds: Bone up on red-snapper facts
On the docks at Ponce Inlet, the chance to hook a red snapper lures tourists to the Sea Spirit, a deep-sea party boat.

Navy facing whale battle
By Curtis Morgan
Bradenton Herald
Florida isn’t known for whale watching, but every winter the coastline offers a haven for endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Huge N. Brevard land deal pushes on
By Rick Neale
Florida Today
If approved, the Farmton Plan will designate more than 8,000 acres of northern Brevard County's serene forests, swamps and marshes as conservation land -- with no taxpayer purchase required.

Lawsuit coming if panthers aren’t protected, environmental groups say
By Eric Staats
Naples News
A courtroom could be the next stop for a push to designate millions of acres in South Florida as critical habitat for the endangered Florida panther.

Florida manatee deaths up this year; St. Marks River manatee latest local death
By Amanda Nalley
Tallahassee Democrat
No one knows how long she floated there, ribs broken, bobbing on her side, air escaping her lung and filling her body cavity.

Nokuse Plantation: Children will 'fall in love with nature'
By Kimberly White
Northwest Florida Daily News
Nature enthusiasts shrugged off the wet weather Saturday and hit the trail adjacent to the E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center.

Red cockaded woodpecker no longer found around Estero Bay
By Charlie Whitehead
Naples News
The red cockaded woodpecker is no longer endangered in the Estero Bay watershed.

Firm stand on 'need' for growth
Editorial
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Florida's governor and Cabinet withstood heavy statewide pressure by influential development and business interests to strike a blow Tuesday for responsible growth management.

Florida Cabinet should deny subdivision
Editorial
Miami Herald
In a recent case of David going up against Goliath, two Marion County residents fought successfully to stop a large subdivision from being built on 400 acres in the middle of horse country outside Ocala.

The power of one
Editorial
Gainesville Sun
A lone citizen’s challenge to a 2007 land use change approved in neighboring Marion County will be taken up today by Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet. It is a growth-management case of statewide significance.


Today the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted to protect what may be Earth's largest deepwater coral ecosystem off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Wildwood Preservation Society is a non-profit 501(c)(4) project of the Advocacy Consortium for the Common Good. Click here to learn more.

"it's all connected"

Florida environmental and wildlife news for the week ending 9-11-09

FEATURED STORIES

Huge oil spill off Australia cited by opponents of drilling off Florida
By Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
Related editorial: Don't let this come to Florida's shores
On Aug. 21, oil began bubbling out from an offshore rig about 90 miles from Australia's coast.

More anti-drilling editorials from Florida’s major daily newspapers:
Palm Beach Post: Advice for special session: Don't take up drilling...
Florida Today: Stop the stampede
Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Stop the oil rush
Gainesville Sun: The rush job


Montara (West Atlas) Blowout and Oil Spill, Western Australia, August 2009 (note: Florida Energy Associates has touted Australia's drilling technology in their efforts to open Florida's coast).

Senate President doubts special session for oil drilling
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Related: Associated Industries wants oil drilling on special session agenda
Senate President Jeff Atwater today said a special session of the Legislature in October is highly unlikely and he raised doubts about whether it should include consideration of lifting Florida's ban on offshore oil drilling.

Slow the rush to drill near Florida's beaches
By Eric Draper
Tallahassee Democrat
Gov. Charlie Crist recently set off speculation about adding oil drilling to the agenda for the upcoming special session of the Legislature. It was an unfortunate change of position, but not surprising for this governor who is campaigning for the U.S. Senate and appears to be leaving his own high-minded climate and energy agenda undone.

The mystery push for offshore oil
By David Guest
Tampa Tribune
News that "a secretive group of powerful legislators, business groups and Texas oil companies has been laying the groundwork" to open Florida's shores to oil and gas drilling should make all of us sit up and pay attention.

Not here and not now: the case against drilling
By Eric Ernst
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
A local environmental organization, ManaSota-88, has just released a position paper called "10 Reasons Not to Drill for Oil Offshore of Florida."

Former Florida Gov. Bob Graham tries to chill state GOP's ardor for oil
By Adam C. Smith
St. Petersburg Times
Former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has watched the politics of offshore drilling flip 180 degrees in recent years.


Digitally mapped simulation of what the oil spill happening right now off Australia’s coast would look like if it happened from a drilling platform 80 miles from Florida’s coastline in the Gulf of Mexico.

MORE GREEN NEWS

Endangered Florida panthers feel the squeeze
By Alex Halperin
Christian Science Monitor
Related AP story: Another Fla. panther found dead on interstate
As southwest Florida struggles through the recession, the highly endangered Florida panther, which has lost much of its habitat to strip malls and gated communities, might have been expected to benefit from tough times.

Florida wildlife leaders consider using federal standards for imperiled species
By Kevin Spear
Orlando Sentinel
Related: Lightning-rod list of Florida's vanishing wildlife
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will outline the details today of a third major overhaul in less two decades of the agency's troubled efforts to list species on the brink of extinction.

Rare whales' safety pits U.S. Navy against environmentalists
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
Florida isn't known for whale watching, but every winter the coastline offers a haven for endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Saving the shark that bit me
By Debbie Salamone
Bradenton Herald
Sharks rarely attack people. The odds of a shark bite are roughly one in every 11.5 million times a person visits a beach, according to the International Shark Attack File.

Miami Beach’s Sea Turtles Threatened by Its People
By Carmen Gentile
New York Times
Under the cloak of nightfall, dozens of freshly hatched sea turtles beat tiny flippers against the wet sands of Miami Beach, inching their way toward the ocean and a life aquatic.

Gopher tortoise could get protection under Endangered Species Act
By Eric Staats
Naples News
Gopher tortoises that crawl around dry scrubby habitat in Southwest Florida could be making a move under the Endangered Species Act.

Builders wary of more gopher tortoise protection
By Steve Patterson
Florida Times-Union
A federal agency is taking a fresh look at whether gopher tortoises need new protections that could have big impacts on development in Florida and Georgia.

State leaders clash over growth plans
By Charlie Whitehead
Naples News
With all the controversial changes in Florida growth management regulations in the past few years, the sharpest disagreement during a recent seminar in Fort Myers was over a change that hasn’t been made.

Trees or homes? Miami Corp. land use hinges on Volusia, Brevard OK
By Ludmilla Lelis
Orlando Sentinel
During the next 50 years, a new city of residential villages and business districts could be carved out of remote timberland in central Volusia and northern Brevard counties where Florida black bears and panthers still roam.

Catching On To Florida's Economic 'Ponzi Scheme'
By Diane Roberts
NPR
For the first time since World War II, Florida is losing population.

Mine expansion plan worries Everglades restorers
By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post
South Florida water managers are raising concerns about a proposal to expand a rock mine that borders future Everglades restoration land.

Costs grow for Everglades reservoir left unfinished by sugar deal
By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Tack on another $12 million to the taxpayers' tab for the cost of a massive, unfinished reservoir rendered obsolete by a proposed half-billion-dollar Everglades-restoration land deal with U.S. Sugar Corp.

Florida's waterways must be a priority
By Joe Murphy, Gulf Restoration Network
St. Petersburg Times
Few things unite Floridians like water. We swim in it, fish in it, paddle over it, and rely on it for our very survival.

Filmmaker not content to watch Orange Lake wetlands die
By Jared Leone
St. Petersburg Times
Some make movies for the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. Terry Neal made his movie to save Orange Lake.

A contract with nature
By Tom Bayles
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
It has been nearly 60 years since the start of the great Florida building boom where those involved were more focused on the millions they were making rather than any damage they were doing to ecosystems.

Progress, FP&L argue for nuke cost recovery
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Witnesses for an environmental group and utilities wanting to build nuclear power plants sparred Tuesday before the Public Service Commission over the predicted costs of construction and how to pay for them.

Progress Energy, FPL nuclear costs face double challenge
By Kevin Spear
Orlando Sentinel
Environmental activists and the state advocate for utility customers plan to challenge Florida's two biggest power companies this week when the companies urge state regulators to let them continue charging for the early costs of nuclear plants not yet under construction.

2 Fla. PSC staffers resign as nuke plant weighed
By Bill Kaczor
The Associated Press
Two top Public Service Commission staffers resigned Tuesday and two others went on administrative leave as alleged ethics lapses again overshadowed a hearing on proposed rate increases - this time to pay for new nuclear power plants.

A toxic, exotic mess in the Everglades
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
With the environmental focus on global warming and greenhouse gases, it's easy to forget that other pollutants continue to need regulatory attention.


Critically endangered Florida panther.

Wildwood Preservation Society is a non-profit 501(c)(4) project of the Advocacy Consortium for the Common Good. Click here to learn more.

"it's all connected"

Florida environmental and wildlife news for the week ending 9-4-09

FEATURED STORIES

Is Florida better off with a shrinking population?
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
Related: Florida Hometown Democracy
A front page article in the Sunday New York Times addressed Florida's shrinking population.

Push for drilling off Florida's coast is well-oiled
By Mary Ellen Klas
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
A secretive group of powerful legislators, business groups and Texas oil companies has been laying the groundwork since December to win legislative approval to open Florida waters to oil exploration and end the 20-year drilling moratorium.

Lawmakers wary about oil drilling talks in special session
The News Service of Florida
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Charlie Crist is fueling the hopes of groups that want to open Florida waters to offshore drilling while getting the state potentially billions of dollars from oil companies.

Crist the climate-change crusader is gone with the wind (power)
By Mike Thomas
Orlando Sentinel
Everything is a political calculation with Charlie Crist.

Group gives Florida D+ on water quality
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
The Gulf Restoration Network today said Florida gets a D+ grade for its efforts to protect water quality, which was about the average grade for Gulf coast states.

Florida DEP, PEER tussle over carbon cap-and-trade
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says Gov. Charlie Crist has abandoned carbon emissions cap-and-trading in his quest for a U.S. Senate seat, but a state Department of Environmental Protection response suggests it's all untrue.

Report: Loggerhead Turtles at Risk of Extinction
The Associated Press
New York Times
It's a scene that scientists say is all too common: A commercial fishing boat pulls in a net full of shrimp or tuna and finds a loggerhead sea turtle mixed in with the catch.


Threatened loggerhead sea turtle.

MORE GREEN NEWS

Crist again distances himself from environmental movement (includes audio)
By Mitch E. Perry
WMNF Community Radio
Five states have asked U.S. Senate leaders to let them impose stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions than would be permitted under the climate legislation working its way through Congress, saying both levels of regulation are necessary to fight global warming.

Now what? US Army Corps of Engineers must take sea-level rise into account
By Gimleteye
Eye on Miami
The US Army Corps of Engineers has played a central role in the unsustainable development of Florida.

Former U.S. Senators and Admiral: Climate Change Threatens National Security (includes audio)
By Gina Presson
Public News Service Florida
Three men who should know something about the matter are calling climate change a national security issue.

Groups urge House speaker to support lands program
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Environmentalists today met with House Speaker Larry Cretul to urge his support for Florida's conservation land-buying program, but the issue of using oil drilling revenue to buy land was not discussed.

Keep swimming with manatees; feds say it's OK
By Tom Palmer
Lakeland Ledger
The practice of swimming with manatees, which I really don't understand, will continue for now without additional restrictions, federal officials have decided, despite criticism of the idea.

Streams or ditches? DEP considers waterways reclassification
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Few people who drive along Franklin Boulevard east of the state Capitol notice a ditch between the lanes of traffic or realize it may have historical significance.

Forest of staghorn coral thrives
By Susan Cocking
Miami Herald
Dropping 12 feet below the ocean's surface less than a mile off Fort Lauderdale's beach-front towers, a diver might wonder if he or she somehow got magically transported to a remote coral reef in the Caribbean.

Wakulla industrial park owners want rule change to allow biomass
By Dave Hodges
Tallahassee Democrat
Two county commissions in the area will address the same topic Sept. 8 in communities where the outcome could be markedly different.

Florida's Public Service Commission probed amid FPL rate bid
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
The state's top law enforcement agency is investigating the Public Service Commission on grounds that commissioners and staff members may have had improper relationships with the utilities they regulate.

Miami-Dade boasts Florida's first eco-friendly school
By Elaine De Valle
Miami Herald
Mariana Botero looks like the typical ninth-grader with blue nail polish and a dozen or so bracelets on each arm.

Hurricanes Add to the Stresses on Wildlife and Coastlines
By Patricia Behnke
FWC via Wakulla.com
More than one-half of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of a coast. In Florida, 72 percent of the 18 million residents live or work in coastal areas, with approximately 12 million people living in Florida’s coastal counties.

Bill to drill hits too close to home
Editorial
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Gov. Charlie Crist and state lawmakers think they've found a solution to Florida's ongoing revenue woes.

Why rush drilling bill?
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
Winter Park's Dean Cannon drew richly deserved criticism in the spring for trying to rush a bill through the Legislature in its final hours that would rid the state of its offshore-drilling ban.

Oil spills still a threat
Editorial
Pensacola News Journal
One of the arguments made by those who favor offshore drilling for oil near Florida's coastline is that modern drilling equipment is so advanced, safe and effective that oil spills from rigs are virtually a thing of the past, so there's no real risk to Florida's beaches.


Montara (West Atlas) Blowout and Oil Spill, Western Australia, August 2009 (note: Florida Energy Associates has touted Australia's drilling technology in their efforts to open Florida's coast).

Wildwood Preservation Society is a non-profit 501(c)(4) project of the Advocacy Consortium for the Common Good. Click here to learn more.

"it's all connected"