Articles by MelanieDawn

Florida Ocean Alliance Stakeholder Meeting – November 14

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According to a FOA press release dated June 24, 2019: “The state of Florida has awarded the Florida Ocean Alliance a grant to develop a much-needed Strategic Plan for Florida’s Oceans and Coasts. Senate President Bill Galvano championed the project as part of the Legislature’s focus on Florida’s ever-growing water issues. The Alliance will work closely with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in carrying out the project.

To help create a Strategic Plan to protect the state’s water resources, the Alliance will host public hearings across the state with citizens and other stakeholders, including industry, environmental groups, and research institutes. The project will provide a roadmap for the state to address the conservation and management of the state’s estuaries, bays, and oceans in order to preserve them for future generations.”

The Florida Ocean Alliance is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to bringing together the private sector, academia, and nonprofit research organizations in Florida to protect and enhance Florida’s coastal and ocean resources for continued social and economic benefits.

Florida Ocean Alliance Mission Statement

The mission of the Earth Ethics Institute is to foster Earth Literacy in the course objectives of each discipline and all campus operations at Miami Dade College, as well as in the South Florida Community and the extended Earth community beyond.

Earth Literacy includes an understanding of cosmology and ecological principles as the basis for sustainable living. The cosmological context is the story of the Universe, as contemporary science describes the developmental process out of which Earth and all life emerge.

Earth Ethics Institute Mission Statement

Environmental Crisis ⇔ Democracy Crisis

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In order to address the environmental crisis, we’re going to have to spend some time fixing the democracy crisis.

Vice President Al Gore in “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power”

King Tide + Hurricane Dorian = Miami Flood Alerts

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Miami-Dade County has issued a “be ready” advisory in advance of Hurricane Dorian’s approach. According to the latest forecast models, Dorian will be passing somewhere over Florida at the same time as coastal Miami-Dade is experiencing King Tides. If Dorian comes ashore over Miami this weekend, the flooding could be severe.

An already saturated ground, King Tides, plus possible heavy rain and storm surge from Hurricane Dorian sounds like a trifecta for flooding. Be careful out there Miamians.

Greta Thunberg Arrives in New York

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Greta Thunberg sailing into New York, heading up the Hudson River to North Cove Marina. (photo from @GretaThunberg Twitter)

Greta Thunberg, a sixteen-year-old Swedish girl, has captured the world’s attention with her year-long climate change activism. She is the genesis of “Fridays For Future” as more than 2 million teenagers have followed her lead and taken part in “climate strikes”.

The movement began in August 2018 when Thunberg began skipping class to sit outside Sweden’s Parliament, holding placards saying climate change had reached a crisis point. She came up with the idea while speaking with like-minded peers who were inspired by students in Parkland, Florida, who walked out of their classrooms in protest of the lack of action on gun control after a shooting there left 17 people dead in February 2018.

NBC News, How teen Greta Thunberg shifted world’s gaze to climate change, August 17, 2019

As of August 29th, there have been 5,202 #ClimateStrikes in more than 170 countries.

“We know that our future is at risk. We would love to go back to school and continue with our everyday lives, but as crucial as this situation is, as serious as this situation is, we feel like we must do something about this now.”

Greta Thunberg, Summer Meeting in Lausanne Europe (SMILE) at the University of Lausanne, August 2019

Today, Greta completed her two week trans-Atlantic sail from Plymouth, England, to New York.

Fridays for Future… as well as a number of other youth activist groups, are organizing a climate strike on September 20. Adult organizations are also getting into the mix, helping plan a global strike on September 27. Sandwiched between that, world leaders will meet at the United Nations for a one-day climate summit in the run-up to a major climate conference in Chile known as COP 25 later this year. Thunberg’s message to those leaders in clear: “COP 25 must be a breaking point” she said at a press conference.

Brian Kahn, Gizmodo Eather, Greta is Here, August 28, 2019

Sept 14: Miami Climate Alliance General Meeting

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Miami Climate Alliance is coming together to share campaign updates, learn about climate justice initiatives in our community, and celebrate our 2019 wins!

WHEN: Saturday, September 14, 2019 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.

WHERE: Miami Dade College – Wolfson Campus; 300 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, Florida 33132; Chapman Conference Center Room 3210

  • Translation available in Español & Kreyol
  • FREE parking available at MDC Garage 1 – 500 NE 2nd Avenue – For free parking you must use the 5th Street entrance and let the attendant know you are attending the meeting.
  • Metromover stop: College/Bayside

Coral Gables Styrofoam Ban Blocked by Florida Appeals Court

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Biltmore Hotel Miami, Coral Gables (photo credit: Pixabay)

In February 2016, the City of Coral Gables, in Miami-Dade, approved an ordinance to prohibit the sale and use of expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam). The city was then promptly sued by the Florida Retail Federation, a powerful lobbying group that represents Publix, Target, Walmart, and other large retailers.

At the same time, Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature passed HB 7007 into law (F.S. 500.90) forbidding any Florida municipality from enacting local ordinances banning expanded polystyrene. Signed by Rick Scott (R) on March 16, 2016, the law was made retroactive to January 1, 2016.

A year later, on February 27, 2017, Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Jorge Cueto ruled in favor of Coral Gables. Last week, a three-judge panel of Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeal over-turned Cueto’s ruling.

The case focused heavily on a wide-ranging Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services bill that state lawmakers passed in March 2016. The bill barred local governments from regulating food-related polystyrene, commonly known as Styrofoam, containers and made that prohibition retroactive to any local ordinances passed after Jan. 1, 2016.

CBS Miami, “Florida Appeals Court Blocks Coral Gables Styrofoam Ban“, August 14, 2019

In Florida Retail Federation’s original July 18, 2016 press release, then President/CEO Randy Miller misleadingly said, “The City of Coral Gables is another example of a local government believing that the laws of the State of Florida don’t apply to them in spite of the fact that the Florida Legislature passed a law this session that preempted municipalities from passing a local ordinance banning the use of polystyrene.” To be clear, Florida Legislature passed their law more than a month AFTER Coral Gables passed their ordinance.

Miller further claimed: “…implementing a patchwork of different ordinances like this, which could change from street to street or block to block, is not only confusing to customers but also difficult for retailers.” This, of course, ignores the fact that the very same legislation allows other municipalities to retain their polystyrene bans.

Miami Beach was the first community in Florida to pass a local ordinance and in 2014 banned Styrofoam products on beaches and in parks and sidewalk cafes. It has since expanded that ordinance to apply to all foam containers, except for those used with raw meat.

According to the Surfrider Foundation, Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands, Hollywood Key Biscayne, North Bay Village and Surfside have also adopted some restrictions on polystyrene products in Florida.

Miami Herald, Legislature advances bill to prevent local regulation of Styrofoam trash, March 8, 2016

Meanwhile, Surfside is rescinding its new ban of single-use plastics after receiving threats of lawsuits from Florida Retail Federation, the same group that sued the City of Coral Gables.

The bottom line is that neither the Florida Retail Federation, nor our Republican-controlled Florida State government, seem to care about Florida’s environment. This seems particularly short-sighted for a state so reliant on tourism.

Plans to Protect

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Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man.

Stewart Udall

August 29: Resiliency Through Landscape Design in Public Spaces

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Register at Eventbrite

Join USGBC Miami and leading industry professionals as we explore how resilient landscape architecture can be an effective tool to mitigate impacts of more frequent tidal flooding, coastal erosion, and stronger hurricanes. Learn what local designers, city officials, and organizations are doing to manage our climate adaptation strategies and to improve our local blue-green infrastructure by building with nature.

PANELISTS

  • Susanne Torriente, Chief Resiliency Officer, City of Miami Beach
  • Marta Viciedo, CEO & Co-Founder, Urban Impact Lab
  • Christopher Counts, Principal, Perkins & Will

WHEN

Thursday, August 29, 2019 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)

WHERE

Miami Design District, Palm Court Event Space, 140 NE 39th Street (3rd Floor), Miami, FL 33137

COST

  • USGBC Florida Members: Free
  • Non-Members: $15
  • Partners: Free with promo code

SPONSORS

  • Perkins and Will
  • Witkin Hults Design Group
  • Miami Design District

Ron Magill: Changes to the Endangered Species Act are Driven by Human Greed

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Ron Magill is an internationally known advocate for wildlife, and a locally beloved fixture at ZooMiami. Yesterday, an article he authored appeared in the Miami Community Newspaper, and it is a “must read” for anyone who cares about our environment.

The Gutting of the Endangered Species Act

Ron Magill with a baby elephant
Ron Magill in Kenya at an Elephant Orphanage

Recently, the United Nations, a non-partisan global authority, issued a sad and sobering report stating that under the present conditions, there is a strong possibility that up to 1 million species of wildlife will become extinct within the next several decades. We are presently experiencing what is officially called the “Anthropocene,” also known as “The Sixth Mass Extinction” which is the highest rate of extinction since the loss of the dinosaurs 45 million years ago. Yet, rather than striving to provide additional support towards preserving our world’s precious wildlife, this administration has chosen to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act, the most effective piece of legislation ever written in this country to protect our world’s precious natural treasures.

He goes on to describe how changes to Endangered Species Act regulations issued this past week will devastate protections to our wildlife. In an administration that censors scientists from even using the word “climate change”, it should be no surprise “that climate change cannot be considered as a factor when deciding if a species qualifies to be protected.” But it still feels like a punch to the gut.

The second major issue is the change that now allows governments to consider the “cost” of protecting a species. In other words, how much money is being forfeited by not being able to disturb a protected habitat to dig for oil or gas, and allowing the financial benefits of the exploitation of the land to trump the importance of protecting it for future generations. When an administration starts to put a price tag on something that is priceless, we are going down a very slippery slope.

As Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, notes: “In trying to gut Endangered Species Act, Trump administration puts profits ahead of people.” Because this isn’t just about endangered animals. It’s about an endangered planet that we all have to live on. By weakening the Endangered Species Act, Trump is trying to make it easier to use public lands & protected habitats for oil drilling and coal mining that contribute to pollution and climate change. Or as Jay Inslee put it, “this isn’t just bad for the bald eagle or the grizzly bear – it’s bad for our kids and their health.”

Ron Magill speaks for me here as well:

I am dumbfounded trying to understand how at a time when we are losing species at a rate of up to 1,000 times faster than past historical times, this administration is trying to make it easier to remove species from the protected list while making it harder to place a species on it.

Copyright © 2019 Melanie Dawn Molina Wood. All rights reserved.