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At first the denial at the state level was somewhat entertaining - that is, not being allowed to even utter certain words (words based on science, biology and reality). But when you start to look closer you see the plot unfold.
As we all know, Red Tide, Cancer, Bubonic Plaque, Ebola and STD's are all "natural". However, certain things we do can spread or aggravate them. Even the paid-off orgs admit this...."made worse by" and "could be feeding off of" and "nitrates the highest every measured". Add in the obvious - that yearly blooms only started in 1998.
Then I look at the recent state Press Releases. Nada about fixing it, but strong denial that anything can possibly be aggravated by man, warming of the Gulf, etc.
Check out these quotes - read them and weep because it effectively means nothing is going to be done.
"At Gov. Rick Scott’s direction, the FWC has mobilized all available resources to mitigate naturally occurring red tide"
Now - why would they have to put that in the wording? Thou doest protect too much. But it's no accident.
"Having lived in south Florida for many years, I know how impactful these naturally occurring red tide events can be to local communities,” said Eric Sutton, executive director of the FWC."
You just KNOW that he and everyone else involved in this mess is instructed to put the heavy emphasis on "naturally occurring" so as to seed every doubt possible.
In other words, not only are they in denial but the same denial is setting all their courses of action. They can't, on one hand, say that everything that is happening would happen without human beings here...and then on the other fix things with human actions.
Sad. At this point we are depending on "luck" and maybe GW will take a break for a couple years (cold snap for a few)...because there is certainly nothing else being done or planned which is large enough to roll back to pre-1998 levels.
Well...actually....something is being done by Republicans to help. Donald Trump just signed an enviromental bill that has $1,300,000,000 earmarked for Florida's water.
Most of it will go to update/improve/rebuild the dam that holds all the water in Lake Okechobee. The current dam is so old and delapidated (thanks for nothing Bill 40-years-in-office Nelson), they are afraid to retain too much water in the lake after heavy rains. The rising water levels place tremendous pressure on the old dam, so they release millions of gallons into to large canals that carry the toxic green slime out to the seas (Gulf and Atlantic). This water supposedly contains high concentrations of nitogen (I've never seen, or read, about any water tests though) which feeds Red Tide. I think this began in 2016, but I could be wrong. The article below explains all this in detail if you are interested...some great illustrations and aerial photo's, even if you dont read it, take a look at the imagery:
incidently, these overflow canals were installed at the request of environmental lobbyists who were trying to "save the everglades".
I'm not sure what the rest of the money is earmarked for, but you can likely find the bill online and read it in detail, and let us know afterwards.
If you want to do your part, stop eating meat and sugar...like me! The Nitrogen in Lake O is coming from Big Ag (Sugar & Livestock) Stevia is a great natural sweetener I use instead. Trader Joe's has the best tasting (no aftertaste) for the lowest price. Its in the supplements section, not near the sugar which I find odd.
Last edited by beach43ofus; 11-10-2018 at 02:58 PM..
Well...actually....something is being done by Republicans to help. Donald Trump just signed an environmental bill that has $1,300,000,000 earmarked for Florida's water.
You've repeatedly been told that this allocation is unfunded. Why do you omit this crucial fact, repeatedly?
Also, this project, even if it is funded among escalating federal deficits and minimal environmental project funding elsewhere in the U.S., will do NOTHING to clean up septic tank pollution or other nutrient sources outside of the Lake O watershed. And, indeed, it will do nothing to reduce the level of nutrients entering Lake O.
What will the Republicans, still in control of Florida's government, do to reduce the nutrient load? How will they pay for any environmental project given the super-majority initiative that just passed requiring a 2/3s majority for the state legislature to raise any taxes or fees? The latter would preclude fees on septic tank owners to supervise and pay for a clean up.
Do you think that Trump and the Republicans will fund this project in the lame duck Congress?
If not, Trump just blamed California for that state's drought-magnified wildfires, even though most of the wildfires begin on federal land. He threatened to cut off federal fire-fighting funds unless California cleans up this federal mess.
Why won't Trump, or OTHERS, blame Florida for its nutrient pollution, which actually IS a Florida-made problem, if he blames California for a federal problem, exacerbated by man-made climate change hastened by continued fossil fuel consumption, which the Republican deniers not only promote but want to increase?
Here's the ironic rub.
In January, the power of the purse strings in Congress passes to the Democrats. They aren't going to fund Florida-caused environmental woes to the exclusion of massive environmental problems in CA and elsewhere, often in states that have aggressively cleaned up nutrient pollution and attempted to transition away from fossil fuel consumption. Such transition attempts have been blocked by Trump and the Republicans. In other words, the House will be dominated much more by environmentalists than by Republican deniers. The House environmentalists will have nothing but contempt for deniers Scott and Rubio. Florida likely will miss Bill Nelson when they need him the most.
The Republican Congress has only funded $300 million for a Great Lakes restoration project, impacting 7 large states, and the Trump administration tried to eliminate this funding.
Other states will ask Floridian leaders why they don't raise taxes or fees to solve their own environmental problems, just as is being done in other states. What will be the response? Our Constitution won't allow us. The likely reply to Floridians: Tough. You're going to be inundated in 50-100 years anyway, and don't seem to care.
Quote:
Originally Posted by beach43ofus
Most of it will go to update/improve/rebuild the dam that holds all the water in Lake Okechobee. The current dam is so old and delapidated (thanks for nothing Bill 40-years-in-office Nelson), they are afraid to retain too much water in the lake after heavy rains. The rising water levels place tremendous pressure on the old dam, so they release millions of gallons into to large canals that carry the toxic green slime out to the seas (Gulf and Atlantic). This water supposedly contains high concentrations of nitogen (I've never seen, or read, about any water tests though) which feeds Red Tide. I think this began in 2016, but I could be wrong. The article below explains all this in detail if you are interested...some great illustrations and aerial photo's, even if you dont read it, take a look at the imagery:
incidently, these overflow canals were installed at the request of environmental lobbyists who were trying to "save the everglades".
I'm not sure what the rest of the money is earmarked for, but you can likely find the bill online and read it in detail, and let us know afterwards.
If you want to do your part, stop eating meat and sugar...like me! The Nitrogen in Lake O is coming from Big Ag (Sugar & Livestock) Stevia is a great natural sweetener I use instead. Trader Joe's has the best tasting (no aftertaste) for the lowest price. Its in the supplements section, not near the sugar which I find odd.
Mostly man-made climate change denier lies and rhetoric also repeatedly refuted in this and other Florida C-D forum threads. E.g., Bill Scott was labeled "Red Tide Rick" due to his environmental sensibilities.
Septic tanks are a big part of the nutrient pollution problem throughout Florida. This has been repeatedly documented in Florida forum threads. Scott killed septic tank regulation. You ignore this important reality repeatedly, even mock the need to eliminate this source of nutrient pollution. See post 330.
You also ignore that ocean warming, and warming of other FL waterways, due to fossil fuel burning is a major factor in increasing the persistence and severity of toxic algal blooms, including red tide. See post 547 here:
Trump will spend the next two months obsessed with saving him and his family from the Mueller investigation; he already has threatened to stop needed legislation if the House investigates him and his administration. Now that the election is over, Florida won't be on his mind until his re-election campaign heats up, and for all we know, Trump damn well knows that he has no chance at re-election once the Mueller report is released, let alone Trump's tax returns, all of which now appears a certainty once House Democrats obtain subpoena powers.
Floridians had a chance to change their state's environmental stripes in this month's elections, but Floridians instead voted to keep deniers in charge. Now Florida must live with the consequences, most importantly Florida will have lost the chance to lead the nation and the world away from fossil fuel consumption, and the necessary efforts to transition away from fossil fuel consumption will be delayed for a critical 2-6 years.
Be certain to watch "Miami Sinking" to be broadcast on PBS on Nov. 21 as part of its sinking cities series. Although Miami is sinking, it's more accurately, along with the rest of southern Florida, being inundated by ocean sea levels increases which are accelerating. And you and other deniers continue to label this empirical reality a "hoax."
I would repeat that deniers are disgusting, but why repeat the obvious?
You've repeatedly been told that this allocation is unfunded. Why do you omit this crucial fact, repeatedly?
Also, this project, even if it is funded among escalating federal deficits and minimal environmental project funding elsewhere in the U.S., will do NOTHING to clean up septic tank pollution or other nutrient sources outside of the Lake O watershed. And, indeed, it will do nothing to reduce the level of nutrients entering Lake O.
What will the Republicans, still in control of Florida's government, do to reduce the nutrient load? How will they pay for any environmental project given the super-majority initiative that just passed requiring a 2/3s majority for the state legislature to raise any taxes or fees? The latter would preclude fees on septic tank owners to supervise and pay for a clean up.
Do you think that Trump and the Republicans will fund this project in the lame duck Congress?
If not, Trump just blamed California for that state's drought-magnified wildfires, even though most of the wildfires begin on federal land. He threatened to cut off federal fire-fighting funds unless California cleans up this federal mess.
Why won't Trump, or OTHERS, blame Florida for its nutrient pollution, which actually IS a Florida-made problem, if he blames California for a federal problem, exacerbated by man-made climate change hastened by continued fossil fuel consumption, which the Republican deniers not only promote but want to increase?
Here's the ironic rub.
In January, the power of the purse strings in Congress passes to the Democrats. They aren't going to fund Florida-caused environmental woes to the exclusion of massive environmental problems in CA and elsewhere, often in states that have aggressively cleaned up nutrient pollution and attempted to transition away from fossil fuel consumption. Such transition attempts have been blocked by Trump and the Republicans. In other words, the House will be dominated much more by environmentalists than by Republican deniers. The House environmentalists will have nothing but contempt for deniers Scott and Rubio. Florida likely will miss Bill Nelson when they need him the most.
The Republican Congress has only funded $300 million for a Great Lakes restoration project, impacting 7 large states, and the Trump administration tried to eliminate this funding.
Other states will ask Floridian leaders why they don't raise taxes or fees to solve their own environmental problems, just as is being done in other states. What will be the response? Our Constitution won't allow us. The likely reply to Floridians: Tough. You're going to be inundated in 50-100 years anyway, and don't seem to care.
Mostly man-made climate change denier lies and rhetoric also repeatedly refuted in this and other Florida C-D forum threads. E.g., Bill Scott was labeled "Red Tide Rick" due to his environmental sensibilities.
Septic tanks are a big part of the nutrient pollution problem throughout Florida. This has been repeatedly documented in Florida forum threads. Scott killed septic tank regulation. You ignore this important reality repeatedly, even mock the need to eliminate this source of nutrient pollution. See post 330.
You also ignore that ocean warming, and warming of other FL waterways, due to fossil fuel burning is a major factor in increasing the persistence and severity of toxic algal blooms, including red tide. See post 547 here:
Trump will spend the next two months obsessed with saving him and his family from the Mueller investigation; he already has threatened to stop needed legislation if the House investigates him and his administration. Now that the election is over, Florida won't be on his mind until his re-election campaign heats up, and for all we know, Trump damn well knows that he has no chance at re-election once the Mueller report is released, let alone Trump's tax returns, all of which now appears a certainty once House Democrats obtain subpoena powers.
Floridians had a chance to change their state's environmental stripes in this month's elections, but Floridians instead voted to keep deniers in charge. Now Florida must live with the consequences, most importantly Florida will have lost the chance to lead the nation and the world away from fossil fuel consumption, and the necessary efforts to transition away from fossil fuel consumption will be delayed for a critical 2-6 years.
Be certain to watch "Miami Sinking" to be broadcast on PBS on Nov. 21 as part of its sinking cities series. Although Miami is sinking, it's more accurately, along with the rest of southern Florida, being inundated by ocean sea levels increases which are accelerating. And you and other deniers continue to label this empirical reality a "hoax."
I would repeat that deniers are disgusting, but why repeat the obvious?
I would add to his factual post that the use of high nitrogen fertilizers washes off into the water supply. Golf courses, home owners dumping tons of fertilizer on their lawns to keep them artificially green. Sprinkler systems going off daily to water this artificial green grass which runs off into our water supply.
I was listening to a radio show today, Florida Gardening, where the host was explaining the typical Florida lawn needs 50lbs of nitrogen a year to keep it healthy and growing. It needs daily watering during the dry season. This does not count the huge amounts of pesticides and herbicides which have to be applied yearly to keep this lovely lawn. You can only imagine how much golf courses use.
When are people going to wake up and realize how we are destroying this State?? Will you wait until it is too late?
I watched the PBS special and it was horrifying. Miami knows it is sinking and is trying to raise roads and adding pumps to roads to carry off the sea/rain water. These pumps do not treat the water. As a result the water is carrying tons of fertilizers, pesticides and poisons from the roads and land. Oil, chemicals, rotting dead animals, garbage, all getting flushed out into the water.
Does anyone really think this can continue? This is not 'Fake News.'
Our State needs to change and change fast. Scott was a disgrace, no matter which party you belong too. We need to protect Florida and our homes, our water supply, our businesses and our beaches. These politicians only care about the money they get from lobbyists. We need to save our State and our Planet by our vote. Its the only power we have.
If it weren't so patently a disqualifying statement for an American president, the President's claim that his "natural instinct for science" trumps (pun intended) the empirical evidence and the research of accomplished sciences would be hilarious.
As is evident in this and other C-D forum threads, objectivity and rationality, two of the foundations of any successful democracy, are not admired, nor practiced characteristics of deniers, let alone truthfulness.
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