Climate Change-Tropical Disease Link Ignores History
Viruses and parasites, not warm weather, cause dengue fever, malaria and other tropical diseases. However, you might have reached a different conclusion if you read some articles about recent tropical...
View ArticleEnvironmental Contests For Young People Emphasize Their Future
When I’m invited to speak to students, I try to make a point to impress upon them the importance of the health of the environmental to their lives. That’s because when you run down some of today’s...
View ArticleNew Book Chronicles Passenger Pigeon’s Disappearance
It would have been something to see. It is something no one alive today has ever witnessed. I’m talking about a flock of passenger pigeons that was so large it blackened the sky and took days to pass....
View ArticleSea Level Rise Brings Secession Talk
The prospect that large parts of South Florida may be under water decades from now as a result of sea level rise related to climate change is spawning a different political debate than the common one...
View ArticleAnother Reason For Stormwater Funding
Most of last year’s discussion of the need to quit delaying and to finally approve stormwater fees and taxes were focused on the need to deal with pollution. That’s still a good reason, but another...
View ArticleEnvironment Could Win Or Lose Big Tuesday
Florida’s environmental community has a lot riding on the outcome of Tuesday’s election. The big issue is whether they succeed in persuading 60 percent of the voters to approve Amendment 1, which would...
View ArticleNew Book Outlines Modern Era’s Environmental Costs
In 1969 political cartoonist Ron Cobb depicted our resource appetite in a cartoon that depicted the earth being ground up by a variable-speed machine set on “Industrialization” that spewed a mass of...
View ArticleAudubon Updates Website: More Birds Than Ever
National Audubon Society this week announced a redesigned, more user-friendly website. The site makes it easier to find information on specific North American bird species, essays on the joys of...
View ArticleGulf Islands’ History, Plight Subject Of New Book
If you are unfamiliar with the islands that lie near the mouth of the Apalachicola River in Florida’s Panhandle, Susan Cerulean is happy to introduce you. Cerulean, a Tallahassee biologist and nature...
View ArticleSpring Sets Heat Record Here
The National Weather Service reports that this spring was the hottest since official records began in 1915. The average temperature was 76.3 degrees. The runner up was 1995, when the average spring...
View ArticleLatest population estimate has environmental implications
The news today is that Florida’s estimated population has now topped 20 million certainly has some environmental implications. The first thing that came to mind is that this means is that proper...
View ArticleDepending on where you live in Polk, December may be hottest ever
In case you were wondering how Polk’s temperature record race was coming, here’s the latest. First, we did break a temperature record for Christmas. The high was 86, which broke a record of 84 set in...
View ArticleEnviros should work harder at forming alliances, author argues
The deep ideological divide between the environmental community and Florida’s political leadership today is troubling. Voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment to set aside more money...
View ArticleSolar Amendment on Aug. 30 ballot draws opposition
If all you’ve heard is praise and support for a proposed constitutional amendment on the Aug. 30 ballot that would exempt commercial solar facilities from property taxes, you may not have seen this...
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