Arnold’s Subtle Digs at McCain and Crist over Offshore Drilling

When you can’t legally run for President, it frees you up to say the darndest things. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared at the Florida Climate Change Summit in Miami last week, where he subtly blasted Florida governor Charlie Crist and Republican President-Wannabe John McCain for supporting offshore drilling.

From TampaBay.com:

But he appeared to issue a firm rebuke to politicians (including Senator John McCain and Crist) who have suggested ending a ban on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. “Anyone who tells you this will lower our gas prices anytime soon is blowing smoke,” he said.

Schwarzenegger’s press spokesman Aaron McLear called me a short while ago to stress that this comment was NOT directed at Crist or McCain, and instead was targeted specifically at the impact of offshore drilling on gas prices. “He was not referring to either one of them. Neither Crist nor McCain has said offshore drilling is going to immediately reduce gas prices,” McLear said.

However, the California Governor remained firmly opposed to offshore drilling, McLear added. “He doesn’t believe in offshore drilling. Her certainly doesn’t agree with McCain and Crist on that.”

I don’t know about Crist, but McCain has certainly hinted that offshore drilling will lower gas prices, an attempt to gain approval from voters desperate for some help. Seems like Arnold’s trying to get his point across without causing a rift.

Arnold, a self-proclaimed ‘green Republican’, has seen a lot of criticism himself for his attitude about how we can stop global warming – as Bill Walker of the Environmental Working Group put it, “He’s not sounding an alarm; he’s reassuring us that everything will be all right. We can have hot rods and clean air! Relax, have a cigar.” Arnold has also taken millions of dollars from oil companies over the years. Murky waters, indeed, but we’re glad to have Republicans who are at least headed in the right direction. It’s going to take both parties to effect real change.

Link [TampaBay.com]
Photo credit: Getty Images

Everglades Conservation Victory a Hopeful Sign of What’s to Come

I remember when South Florida was more than a pastel jumble of overgrown suburban homes, Walgreens drugstores, strip malls and unnatural landscaping. When I was a child growing up along the eastern coast about midway between West Palm Beach and Miami, everything west of our neighborhood was made up of small independent farms, swamp and miles of untouched pine forests. My friends and I had a fort overlooking an alligator-infested canal, and you could still hear the cacophony of subtropical nature every night. This wasn’t 40 years ago – I’m only 26. But in that time, so much has changed.

The Everglades have been increasingly encroached upon in the last couple of decades, between the sugar industry and luxury developments built right on top of filled-in swampland. Along the edges, people have lost the natural fear and respect for animals like the alligator and cottonmouth snake, and have interfered with the natural ecosystem by dumping unwanted pets like lizards, snakes and fish into the water. The area I lived in is virtually unrecognizable, it’s so overly developed. Traffic sounds, loud music and construction drown out the sounds of nature. It’s a mess – and for a while there, it seemed like there were few people that actually cared.

The recent sale of 300 square miles of the Everglades to the state of Florida by U.S. Sugar Corp. has been trumpeted as ‘one of the biggest conservation deals in U.S. history’, and it is, indeed, a massive victory for environmentalists. Here are some details from The Huffington Post:

The deal with U.S. Sugar Corp. results from a convergence of interests: The state is trying to restore the Everglades and clean up pollution caused by Big Sugar and other growers, while the American sugar industry is being squeezed by low-price imports.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist declared the agreement “as monumental as the creation of our nation’s first national park, Yellowstone.”

Under the deal, the state would buy U.S. Sugar’s holdings in the Everglades south of Lake Okeechobee, including its cane fields, mill and railroad line. U.S. Sugar would be allowed to farm the 187,000 acres for six more years, after which it would go out of business.

The state would then protect the land from development, which has been encroaching on the Everglades for decades.

The state of Florida will also work on restoring the area to its natural state, undoing years of damage caused by the re-routing or damming of the natural flow of water to allow for houses and farms. This will be a large step forward in stopping the constant flow of fertilizer from farms that currently leaks into the Everglades.

The victory against U.S. Sugar Corp. is happy news for anyone concerned about the preservation of America’s natural beauty, and especially for supporters of Everglades preservation. It could be a catalyst to change prevailing views regarding ‘progress’ in an area that was once a sleepy, muggy, buggy but incredibly beautiful example of the wonders of nature. The concept of stepping lightly on the earth is one that is slowly starting to sink in across the world, and it brings with it the hope that we do still have a chance to stop the destruction of the planet before it’s totally out of our control.

The South Florida that I love has nothing to do with the horrendous traffic, endless stream of relocating retirees, cookie-cutter houses and pollution-filled waterways. It’s in the hum of the cicadas, the gnarled roots of the mangrove trees that grow in the waters along the coast, the pine boughs swaying in the breeze and the mysterious life force that can be sensed at twilight on the edge of a marsh. Though I know the massive crowds and endless march of civilization will likely always be a part of South Florida, I hope that one day when I go back to visit, the natural beauty of the land will have regained its prominence with the help of the conservationists who work so hard to protect it.

Link [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user Stig Nygaard

Oy Vey! South Florida May be Lost to Global Warming

When news came out about polar bears’ melting habitats, Florida water managers sat up and listened. It’s always been known that melting ice caps could raise the sea level in the state, but officials are finally concerned enough to take real action. Despite a governing board full of Bush supporters (and some global warming deniers), board members decided to review the situation and come up with a plan.

From the Sun-Sentinel:

The South Florida Water Management District’s long-term plans once anticipated the sea level rising about 1 foot by 2100, but more recent projections say the rise could be five times as much.

That could move the southern tip of Florida’s mainland to the Tamiami Trail and submerge swaths of some of the most populated areas along the southeast coast.

From flooding to more saltwater seeping in and fouling drinking water supplies, climate change is an issue that needs more attention, said Jayantha Obeysekera, who will lead the district’s global warming review.

“We cannot put up walls and stop the sea level,” Obeysekera said. “Let’s start looking at it [and] see what our vulnerabilities are.”

This situation, though in all seriousness very worrisome, brings to mind some pretty comical images for me since I grew up in the area. Picture the scene in Boca Raton, where tacky nouveau riche retiree-chic reigns supreme: women in gold blazers and ostrich-feather hats swearing in Yiddish, up to their knees in water, standing on the rooftops of their vomit-pink houses holding their Shih Tzus above their heads. Classic. Of course, the change wouldn’t happen that quickly (hopefully) but it’s fun to imagine.

Link [Sun-Sentinel]
Photo credit: DoggieBowties.com

Brilliant! Drought-Stricken Florida Gives Nestle Unlimited Water for $230

Ah, Florida. With a reputation already sullied by dirty election politics and bonehead decision making, this latest news is funny, sad and totally unsurprising all at once.

Boing Boing has it:

The State of Florida has given a Nestle bottling plant the right to pump as much water as it can get out Madison Blue Springs State Park, which is presently in drought conditions. The right lasts until 2018, and cost Nestle $230 in permit fees. Florida is presently in bitter dispute with its neighboring states over a region-wide water-shortage.

$230. Total. No taxes, no fees - plus the state gave Nestle an outrageously large tax refund for this bottling operation. With some predicting that water shortages will place this precious commodity’s value above oil in the not-so-distant future, Florida has proven that politics trump the needs of its citizens any day of the week.

One wonders whether the clowns in office just run around in circles playing human whack-a-mole on each other all day. Maybe that would explain the astounding dearth of brain cells in lawmakers’ skulls.

Link [Boing Boing]

Photo: Flickr user rexboggs5

This Day in Green History: March 27th, 1513- Ponce de Leon Discovers Florida

On March 27th, 1513, explorer Juan Ponce de Leon discovered Florida, helping to set the stage for the next five hundred years or so for the outright conquest and domination of the Americas and it’s inhabitants by my ancestors (and probably yours) those greedy Europeans. His discovery of Florida made the later formation of the Orlando-based boy band ‘N Sync possible, for which we will forever be in his debt.

Ponce was a Spaniard who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World and later was appointed the first Governor of Puerto Rico. In a bit of old world scandal, he resigned from his position when he lost a court case against Columbus’s son Diego and left to explore (and further subjugate) Cuba.

Florida Senator Pushing Bill to Require Restaurants to Have “Enough” Toilet Paper on Roll

There was a bit of an uproar last year when Sheryl Crow proposed a limitation on how much toilet paper people can use in a sitting. She got ripped on by the right wing hate mob (lead by traffic god Matt Drudge) and she had to do a bit of back peddling to point out that she was joking.

I don’t think Florida State Senator Victor Crist (R) got the memo on that one- he’s proposing a bill that would require restaurants to have “enough” toilet paper on hand for their customers. The Florida Senate Regulated Industries Committee actually approved the bill, though it has a few steps to go before it becomes law. It’s good to know that with all the crazy shit happening in the world, politicians are watching our back(side) on the really important things.

Link [CBS4]

War’s a Comin’! Alabama, Georgia and Florida Will Fight it Out Over Water

Good grief. After reading this story on water issues with Alabama, Georgia and Florida, I have this picture in my head of a bunch of Southern Senators pointing at each other and saying, “But siihhr… I say, I say, I say… I asked first!” while swinging their foppish canes around on the floor of the Senate.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne acknowledged Saturday that White House-brokered water negotiations among Alabama, Florida and Georgia have failed.

Without an agreement, the Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies will begin implementing a water-sharing plan of their own, Kempthorne said in a letter to the governors.

Regrettably, it will necessarily be a solution being directed to the states instead of our much hoped for solution coming from the states,” he wrote in the letter, released Saturday.

These three states have been negotiating this issue for over 2 decades. Yes, two decades! They’ve been fighting over water rights in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river basins, which run south through Georgia into Alabama and the Florida panhandle.

Georgia is trying to hold back more water for the growing population in Atlanta, while Florida and Alabama are pointing fingers at Georgia saying that they didn’t do well in planning for this growth. The talks have gotten even worse over the last few days with Sonny Perdue saying that the water problems faced by Georgia are more critical than the other two states. Hmmmm…..Sonny Perdue, don’t get me started.

Being the problem solving person that I am, here’s my solution. A good ‘ol southern cock fight! The last man, er cock, standing gets the water. It’s how everything should be worked out- two chickens fighting to the death. Bock. Bock.

Link [Yahoo News]

Photo Source: USGS