[LKJ1988]

Originally Posted by floridarebel

Some global warming predictions are a bit out there. I’ve seen reports estimating a 5 foot rise in sea levels by 2100.

Up to 12ft in some parts of the world within 70 years.

[chopchop0]

Dead in the Water - Florida Sportsman

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by chopchop0

Dead in the Water - Florida Sportsman

Thanks for the linked article.

The article and these particular paragraphs debunk the arguments in this thread that the federal EPA is responsible for cleaning up Florida's polluted waters and that the state, especially under Rick Scott's and Republican administration, has no responsibility for the current mess:

<<Then came Gov. Rick Scott, Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam and Matt Caldwell (elected to the Florida House in 2010 and now running for Comm. of Agriculture). Scott began to dismantle the programs, standards and agencies whose purpose was to monitor and improve Florida’s water quality in its watersheds, rivers and Lake O, all of which flow into our oceans. Since 2011, when Scott got into office, the critical measures of phosphorus load and nitrogen load into Lake O started to increase, and they are all still on upward trends.

In a letter dated April 22, 2011, the Scott administration’s first Sect. of FDEP filed a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “withdraw its [EPA’s] January 2009, determination that numeric nutrient criteria are necessary in Florida. It [the petition] also requests that EPA restore to the state its responsibility for the control of excess nutrients, including the pursuit of nutrient criteria.>>

Dead in the Water - Florida Sportsman

Even more disconcerting is the revelation of how the Republican/Scott administration replaced empirical data with fake data produced by faulty computer models to hide declining water quality.

<<The way the Scott administration has addressed nutrient loading in Lake O and its resultant pollution is to disregard scientific studies of it. As an example, consider the numbers coming out of the Florida DEP regarding nutrient loading. In 2016, FDEP’s numbers for the 5-year average phosphorus load entering Lake Okeechobee suggest a drop by 67 metric tons from 448 metric tons in the 12-year starting period. Good news, right? However, data from the South Florida Water Management District actually show an increase in 2016 loading average to 489 metric tons, which is almost 5 times the target level. How could this be?...

“The FDEP doesn’t even use the South Florida Water Management District’s loading data in their annual assessment. They completely ignore it,” Goforth says. They create their results with a computer model that assumes optimistic load reductions for various land uses, for example, agricultural best management practices. It’s unbelievable. I’ve met with FDEP for hours over many days, and they don’t want to hear about why their results are flawed.”>>

This scarily seems like a road map for the Trump administration and his politicized EPA and other environmental agencies.

Personally, if Floridians were made aware of the above information, I can't fathom that they would elect Rick Scott to the U.S. Senate, where he would help support policies resulting in continued degradation of the Florida, U.S., and global environments.

Has any major Florida newspaper produced a similar report intensely analyzing environmental policies under the Scott administration and their impact on the current toxic algal blooms catastrophe?

[trobesmom]

WRNative, my husband has a friend who quit the EPA a couple of years ago. According to him, they were called in and told they were not to cite any violations to any corporations. Period. Scott wants FL "open for business," the environment be damned. So horrific.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by trobesmom

WRNative, my husband has a friend who quit the EPA a couple of years ago. According to him, they were called in and told they were not to cite any violations to any corporations. Period. Scott wants FL "open for business," the environment be damned. So horrific.

Did your husband's friend work for the federal EPA under the Trump administration or the Florida EPA under the Scott administration?

[trobesmom]

Florida under Scott.

[WRnative]

Good article on coastal flooding. See especially the chart titled "U.S. High-Tide Flooding and Sea Level (1920-2017)," based on NOAA data.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/0...high-tide-risk

Here's the federal report that was the source of the article:

<<The projected increase in high tide flooding in 2018 may be as much as 60 percent higher across U.S. coastlines as compared to typical flooding about 20 years ago, according to NOAA scientists. >>

Coastal communities saw record number of high tide flooding days last year | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

See Figure 4 here for flood outlook for Miami Beach:

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring...e_Flooding.pdf

This report should be monitored annually, if it isn't discontinued by the Trump administration.

[floridarebel]

Rick Scott and Trump have nothing to do with the environment. The climatological events have been happening long before FL was settled.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by floridarebel

Rick Scott and Trump have nothing to do with the environment. The climatological events have been happening long before FL was settled.

Negative impacts on the environment include more than just man-made climate change. Releasing detrimental chemicals into the environment and toxic algal blooms are among other environmental concerns. Anyone reading this thread would know that Rick Scott and his administration have gutted regulations protecting the environment and engaged in obfuscation about their actions. Didn't you read just post 203?

Trump's administration similarly is gutting the environment.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/...e-environment/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...-reversed.html

As for man-made climate change, apparently like you, both Scott and Trump are deniers, dismissive of empirical evidence and dire warnings by reputable climate change scientists. Your claim that the environment always changes is classical climate change denying obfuscation, dismissing mankind's impact on the environment even though it's obvious to anyone with a minimal amount of intelligence. E.g., the by-products of massive fossil fuel burning don't just magically disappear.

Anyway who doubts the reality of man-made climate change certainly would find a plethora of objective information just in this thread. And the thread well documents how Florida will pay a high price in the future for its support and tolerance of climate change deniers and their ignorance, obfuscation, and/or disingenousness (take your pick).

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by DW&LWR

Climate change is real, but it has nothing to do with man. Look at the history of this planet. It's been much hotter and much colder off and on for billions of years.

Climate change denier obfuscation, and prevarication, as it's been repeatedly explained to you that the accelerating changes are unprecedented and are occurring over a few decades as a result of the burning of fossil fuels, nor over many centuries let alone millennia due to natural causes.

Even a Koch-funded scientific analysis by a prominent man-made climate change skeptic refutes your claim.

<<The verdict is in: Global warming is real and greenhouse-gas emissions from human activity are the main cause.>>

https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/20...s-he-was-wrong

Anyone that wants to understand your man-made climate change denying posting game just needs to read post 169 and forward in the following thread, especially post 175.

//www.city-data.com/forum/saras...de-bad-18.html

This immediate thread also repeatedly rebuts man-made climate change deniers.