Red Tide that bad??? (Sarasota, Longboat Key: buy, tax, dangerous)

[beach43ofus]

I keep telling people that Scott has very little to do with the environment in Florida as Governmor. It's all controlled by Washington DC. The House, Senate, EPA, Army Corps of Engineers control 90% of our environment. How's that working out for you? Its not working ot for me at all.

Rubio's killing us with his partnership with big Sugar. Big Sugar's his #1 funding source, and they too are of Cuban decent, so there are ties there. Its Rubio and Neslon you should be concerned about, not Scott.

I won't convince you and you won't convince me, so I'll have to agree to disagree with you. That's America!

Originally Posted by WRnative

Scott is a climate change denier and his vote would perpetuate the Republican Congress/Trump efforts to suppress climate change science by cleansing federal websites and by suppressing research, just as Scott IMO nefariously did in Florida. Scott also would support the continued weakening of the EPA's ability to regulate other environmental issues, by enabling the Republican Senate committee members currently engaging in this goal to continue to hold their seats.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/sta...e13576691.html

As far as the environment, Scott would be a continued disaster for Florida. Only a climate change denier, not recognizing the overall disaster, especially to Florida, posed by climate change, would consider Scott a better choice over ANY Democrat. So for environmentalists, Scott clearly is the worst choice.

[MattMN]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I won't convince you and you won't convince me, so I'll have to agree to disagree with you. That's America!

To your last sentence - all too often true. What's frustrating for me and many people is you can claim A, and I can claim B. I can offer extensive evidence supporting B, with very little evidence available supporting A. Yet you continue to believe A even though most all evidence supports B. That's what drives me nuts about politics. I'd love to just ignore it all if it wasn't such a gosh darn important part of our lives and country. What a frustrating topic. But I'm sure glad we live in America where we can all freely voice our opinions, such as they are!

[craigiri]

There are sins of omission and sins of commission. A leader also sets examples...just by their being and their known positions on things.

My usual example is this. Our tax system is an honor system (it shouldn't be, IMHO, too many cheaters).....and so, every once in a while, the IRS will target a number of blue collar workers. They would never make enough from these audits to pay for the costs - BUT, Joe goes down to the bar and tells all his friends that he is being audited. What is the result?

Yes, more tax compliance. Today we have people like Scott (Corporate Fraud) , Trump (abuses the system, hides his tax returns) and Romney (finally releases them and pays much less than what we need). The result? Well, the debt and deficit should show you that!

So, let's look at Rick Scott....

1. A known profiteer - his company received the largest fraud fines in the USA in history (at the time).
2. Known to have partnered with the biggest polluters and promoters of fossil fuels, resource extraction and other such things (Koch Money).
3. Actually outlawed the use of certain words and terms related to the environment - within his administration.
4. Scott zeroed-out funding for Florida Forever, the state’s hallmark conservation program (established under Jeb!).
5. In 2016, Scott signed into law weaker standards for toxic chemicals that flow into Florida’s rivers, lakes, and coastal waters

This list could go on into the 100's of separate items - but "wink wink" corporate polluters and those citizens who don't believe in conservation got the hint....very loudly.

This isn't a political forum - but it is about Florida and the natural environment and such.

Unfortunately, many people START from a world-view of "my daddy can't be bad because I supported and loved him" and everything then comes naturally. When daddy does wrong, it's someone else's fault. When daddy is proven wrong time and time ago, you say "well, he's still better than the other worse daddies".

This is not the way to judge the world. One must remove all the filters and just look at things as they are. When we see that Scott is MUCH worse than even developers like Jeb and other GOP stalwarts...it means something. Jeb is not getting awards from the John Muir societies yet he looks like Ted Roosevelt (famous conservationist) compared to Scott.

Basically, you cannot do worse than Scott. The argument that you can means you have to scrape the very bottom of barrel - you might find many like Pruitt who are equal to him, but none worse.

No, we don't have to agree but decent people have to push for change and put our money, votes and words toward doing the right thing.

[trobesmom]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I keep telling people that Scott has very little to do with the environment in Florida as Governmor. It's all controlled by Washington DC. The House, Senate, EPA, Army Corps of Engineers control 90% of our environment. How's that working out for you? Its not working ot for me at all.

Rubio's killing us with his partnership with big Sugar. Big Sugar's his #1 funding source, and they too are of Cuban decent, so there are ties there. Its Rubio and Neslon you should be concerned about, not Scott.

I won't convince you and you won't convince me, so I'll have to agree to disagree with you. That's America!

Guess you didn't see the link I posted about Nelson's environmental voting record. Oh well. You can lead a horse to water . . .

[craigiri]

Originally Posted by trobesmom

Guess you didn't see the link I posted about Nelson's environmental voting record. Oh well. You can lead a horse to water . . .

No doubt he prob attended a Trump rally in the Robarts Arena. The rest all stems from there.

It's really hard for us males to admit mistakes...even when they glare at us in the face. So we, like our far ancestors, throw feces at the wall and hope some sticks....

It's called sowing FUD. Fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Plant the seeds and they grow. Maybe Scott will change. Maybe Rubio is really the bad guy. Maybe it was Hillary. Maybe Maybe....

But Occams Razor states that the obvious is usually the truth. There is no plot. It's right out in the open.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I keep telling people that Scott has very little to do with the environment in Florida as Governmor. It's all controlled by Washington DC. The House, Senate, EPA, Army Corps of Engineers control 90% of our environment. How's that working out for you? Its not working ot for me at all.

This is simply a false statement, as I explained in post 115. Has Scott's administration declared any of Florida's water bodies, rivers, oceans, as "impaired?" If not, the federal EPA is not authorized to clean up.

Also, every state has an EPA. They can be immensely powerful when empowered, as in California. Anybody that actually knows anything about environmental issues would know this.

The Trump administration actually is attempting to block CA efforts to stifle fossil fuel consumption, especially regarding CA vehicle efficiency standards that also are adopted by many other states, and California's mandate for electric vehicle adoption. In the process, the Trump administration is obliterating another Republican policy cornerstone -- states' rights.

<<The most-populous U.S. state and 16 others plus the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit on May 2 seeking to block the Trump administration’s effort to unravel the Obama-era emissions targets. Sperling said that number will grow as more people come to realize how fundamentally Trump is attacking the idea of states’ rights.>>

Trump moving forward to end California's authority to set clean-air standards, mandate electric-car sales

Pulling statistics like "90 percent" out of thin air with no basis of support is completely disingenuous, or ignorant IMO.

Until the Trump administration came to power, nothing would have prevented Florida from being on the cutting edge of environmental regulation, as in California, except for its bevy of anti-environment politicians.

With its mounting wildfire problem and droughts, California may be one state, among many western states, more impacted by climate change than is the case immediately in Florida. Of course, as seal level rise increasingly inundates Florida coastal and other low-lying areas, Florida likely will be impacted more than California, as the west coast actually is rising as the east coast is submerging due to the action of plate tectonics.

A big part of the problem is that the state's regulation of the environment in Florida likely is so lame, that persons, especially Republicans, actually and falsely believe that Florida has little authority to regulate its own environment.

[craigiri]

On the scale of -10 to +10 in terms of what can and should be done, Florida is about at -8.

First we need to get to zero. Then we can move forward with basic common sense. The "sunshine state" which has vast amounts of grazing and swampland and landfills and abandoned phosphate mines - should have tens of millions of sq. feet of PV panels feeding power into the grid. Using coal...in a state like Fl...is just ludicrous.

Florida is going to have issues no matter what....due to over-development and over-population. However, technology has advanced to a point where we can clean things up in an almost miraculous manner. Many current cars emit 1/50th to 1/100th the pollutants of earlier models. Think about that - yet, you can be 100% certain that many were "against" those rules and regulations....yet they are reaping the benefits each day.

People DO care and they are willing to pay for cleaner air, water and land....but they need to be led in that direction. When askd, the voters of Florida said YES. But the entrenched GOP leadership (despite an actual edge in terms of registered democrats) have decided to turn a deaf ear to the People and instead reward polluters.

This has to change.

[Ladywithafan]

Siesta Key Public Beach parking lot is basically empty compared to the norm.

The 16 tons of dead fish that they removed faster than you can say "lickity split" didn't sweep it under the beach towel.

From my location on the Key right now ~ it smells like the **** inside of a septic tank.

It probably isn't the algae bloom that caused the death of sea life, I'm convinced it's toxic waste dumping, don't let the media kid you ~ not one person I've had conversations with has experienced a red tide like this - ever.

[craigiri]

Originally Posted by Ladywithafan

Siesta Key Public Beach parking lot is basically empty compared to the norm.

The 16 tons of dead fish that they removed faster than you can say "lickity split" didn't sweep it under the beach towel.

From my location on the Key right now ~ it smells like the **** inside of a septic tank.

It probably isn't the algae bloom that caused the death of sea life, I'm convinced it's toxic waste dumping, don't let the media kid you ~ not one person I've had conversations with has experienced a red tide like this - ever.

6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other.

Excess Phosphorus IS toxic waste. The stuff you smell and the red tide output is poison - so, yes, that's toxic waste also. Human excrement is toxic waste and reportedly much of it ends up in our waters. Same with all the output of the cows and other cattle. Deepwater Horizon (millions of gallons of crude) is also toxic waste....

[Peter the Brit]

How is the beach now