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Environment - SFL

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This group focuses on environmental issues in South Florida.

This group focuses on environmental issues in South Florida.

Members

ibague mdmcdonald rootedfire

Email address for group

environment-sfl@m.resiliencesystem.org

Arborists want to clone 2,000-year-old Lady Liberty at Big Tree Park

Arborists want to clone 2,000-year-old Lady Liberty at Big Tree Park

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Most U.S. Companies Say They are Planning to Transition to a Circular Economy

But the definition of circular economy remains unhelpfully broad.

fastcompany.com - by Adele Peters - February 5, 2019

When Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport remodeled a terminal, it didn’t buy light bulbs; instead, the company signed a contract for “light as a service” from Signify, the company formerly known as Philips Lighting. Signify owns the physical lights, giving it the incentive to make products that last as long as possible and that can be easily repaired and recycled if anything breaks.

The service is one example of a shift to a circular economy model. Rather than just mining materials and manufacturing products that ultimately end up in landfills, companies are increasingly trying to figure out how to use resources in closed loops.

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Red Tide Confirmed in Miami-Dade, and Some Beaches Have Been Closed

           

Red Tide has caused scores of dead sea-life to wash up on beaches in Southwest Florida. Footage shows scenes from Boca Grande beach on July 28 - by Jeremy Judkins via Storyful

miamiherald.com - BY DAVID J. NEAL, DOUGLAS HANKS AND JENNY STALETOVICH - October 4, 2018

A red tide that has sloshed up and down the Gulf Coast for nearly a year, leaving a wake of dead sea life, murky water and stinky beaches, has now landed on the state’s most crowded shores with the toxic algae confirmed Thursday in Miami-Dade County.

While far more milder than what’s appeared on the west coast — algae levels that cause blooms have not climbed above moderate so far — the spread raises concerns about a deepening crisis in a state already battling a summerlong blue green algae in Lake Okeechobee.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE - Florida confirms toxic red tide spreading along Atlantic coast

 

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Video - Enterococcus - Water Sampling - Miami-Dade County Beaches

submitted by Albert Gomez - Surfrider Foundation South Florida - Blue Water Task Force - September 20, 2018

September 12th-15th, 2018 - Test Results

This video highlights the results of water sampling throughout Miami-Dade County beaches between September 12th-15th, 2018. At the time, there were an unprecedented 8 beach closures in Miami-Dade county due to enterococcus blooms from fecal matter.

https://youtu.be/PMsaR2jf45o

https://www.surfrider.org/blue-water-task-force

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Is a Super Bloom on the Way? Scientists Worry a ‘Brown Tide’ Will Merge With Red Tide

           

An ongoing red tide is killing wildlife throughout Florida’s southwest coast and has left beaches littered with dead fish, sea turtles, manatees and a whale shark. Additional footage courtesy of Southwest Florida TV via Facebook.

bradenton.com - by Mark Young - August 24, 2018

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is reporting an outbreak of Trichodesmium, sometimes called a brown tide, in waters offshore of Manatee County.

It is a separate species but similar to the well documented Karenia brevis, a photosynthetic organism responsible for the persistent red tide hitting Manatee and other nearby counties along 130 miles of coastline. Concerns are now being raised that if the two blooms merge, it could essentially deepen an ongoing red tide.

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ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE - WHAT IS A BROWN TIDE? SCIENTISTS FEAR FLORIDA RED TIDE COULD MERGE WITH NEW OUTBREAK TO CREATE SUPER BLOOM

 

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Earth's Carbon Dioxide Levels Continue to Soar, at Highest Point in 800,000 Years

                   

(Photo: Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - Scripps Institute of Oceanography - CARBON DIOXIDE IN THE ATMOSPHERE HITS RECORD HIGH MONTHLY AVERAGE

usatoday.com - by Doyle Rice - May 4, 2018

Carbon dioxide — the gas scientists say is most responsible for global warming — reached its highest level in recorded history last month, at 410 parts per million.

This amount is highest in at least the past 800,000 years, according to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Prior to the onset of the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels had fluctuated over the millennia but had never exceeded 300 parts per million.

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Miami-Dade County - GreenPrint: Our Design for a Sustainable Future

CLICK HERE - GreenPrint: Our Design for a Sustainable Future (200 page .PDF report)

CLICK HERE - Miami-Dade Climate Change Action Plan (20 page .PDF report)

miamidade.gov

Miami-Dade County is pleased to share with you GreenPrint: Our Design for a Sustainable Future. The plans development was a fully collaborative process among the many diverse stakeholders of our community: County staff, community groups, experts from the business community and academia, and a wide range of individual Miami-Dade residents. During the course of the year, nearly 100 public meetings were held, and approximately 360 new and existing initiatives were evaluated.

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Seabed Mining Can Decide the Fate of the Deep Ocean

           

An artist’s rendering of a deep-sea vehicle designed by Dutch company IHC to harvest polymetallic nodules from the seabed.  Royal IHC

greenbiz.com - by Todd Woody - September 28, 2017

At the International Seabed Authority’s ocean-side headquarters, delegates from dozens of countries strolled through breezeways adorned with the works of Jamaican artists as the United Nations-chartered organization’s annual meeting began its second week. No one, however, was entering a conference room where the seabed authority’s Legal and Technical Commission (LTC) was in session and men in dark suits stood watch. A sign advised that the meeting was "closed."

Behind heavy wood doors, the 30 members of the commission convened in secret to discuss, among other things, confidential contracts issued to corporations and state-backed companies to explore and potentially mine vast, barely explored deep-sea habitats that scientists believe play a key role in the global ecosystem.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Miami Waterkeeper - FPL Turkey Point

           

miamiwaterkeeper.org

In the first week of March 2016, the Division of Environmental Resource Management (DERM) of Miami-Dade County released a report showing that water from the cooling canals at FPL’s nuclear power plant, located at Turkey Point, is contaminating Biscayne Bay. The canals are also contaminating the Biscayne Aquifer, which is an underground water storage area that is the sole source of drinking water for millions of South Florida residents. Hypersaline (super salty) water laden with tritium (a radioactive isotope), phosphorous, and ammonia is passing through our porous limestone geology and into our water both above and below ground.

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ALSO SEE RELATED INFORMATION WITHIN THE LINK BELOW . . .

http://southflorida.resiliencesystem.org/fpl-nuclear-plant-canals-leaking-biscayne-bay-study-confirms

 

 

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FPL Nuclear Plant Canals Leaking Into Biscayne Bay, Study Confirms

           

Recent sampling of water in Biscayne Bay found higher than normal levels of tritium, a rare hydrogen isotope produced by nuclear reactors and used to track water leaking from Turkey Point’s cooling canals. Tim Chapman Miami Herald Staff

CLICK HERE OR SEE ATTACHMENT BELOW - Report on Recent Biscayne Bay Water Quality Observations associated with Florida Power and Light Turkey Point Cooling Canal System Operations - Directive 152884 - (24 page .PDF document)

CLICK HERE OR SEE ATTACHMENT BELOW - Turkey Point’s Cooling Canal System Overview - (69 page .PDF document)

miamiherald.com - by JENNY STALETOVICH - March 7, 2016 - updated May 17, 2016

A radioactive isotope linked to water from power plant cooling canals has been found in high levels in Biscayne Bay, confirming suspicions that Turkey Point’s aging canals are leaking into the nearby national park.

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