Never happen with GOP control and probably even with Democrats. That industry is incredibly embedded in the corrupt politics of Florida's environmental degradation. Goes wayyyy back.
Red Tide is a naturally occurring phenomenon (at least the organism is). The run off of nutrients benefits the organism that creates it and exacerbates the effects beyond what would naturally occur. There were quite a bit fewer people and sources of nitrogen runoff in the ‘50s than now and Red Tide was not well understood at all. As more people have pored into FL they not only increase the nutrient load there are more people that will suffer the effects. Now that RT is better understood, and FL has a population of 22 million and counting and heavily dependent on tourism, it should be an issue the state addresses - in my view.
here is the history of concentrations going back to early 80's. look at the last 20 years or so. it is naturally occurring and usually short in duration and dies off. It isn't dying off nearly as much anymore so there is much more seed stock to begin the next big bloom when nutrient load, salinity, and water temp hit the right conditions. not sure if it is warmer temps or additional nutrients that is keeping the seed stock larger in volumes Historical Data Used to Analyze Red Tide Bloom Dynamics in Southwest Florida - NCCOS Coastal Science Website (noaa.gov)
Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Funding to Continue Supporting Red Tide Research and Innovative Mitigation Technologies. CLEARWATER, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced his commitment to nearly $14 million in the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 budget to continue Florida's investment in combatting red tide
I guess they will have to be 'innovative' since we know they aren't going to go after polluters. We know what makes it worse, dont need to spend millions of dollars researching it in the appearance of doing something.
See, you and I both know what makes it worse, didnt need to spend $14 million on research, but hey at least the governor can say they are doing something.
Well the research could go into how to stop it how does the pollution interact with it how does it effect the wildlife how does it effect humans how can it be useful etc etc
We know how to stop it too, but we arent going to be regulating agriculture interests, so they are hoping to find a magic bullet with their research and "innovative" solutions. Thats why they have to be innovative, because the ones we got are not friendly to certain business interests.
I don't think (and I may be wrong) we can stop Red Tide I think it is a natural occurrence now the pollution driven version yes we can
Right, but they want to find a magic bullet that lets agricultural interests do their thing while not making red tide worse, hence the "research" to finding "innovative" mitigation technology. They dont need to spend millions of dollars to know we could regulate sugar and cattle interests right now.
Not really. DeSantis vetoes bill that prioritized water for sugar industry over the Everglades Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday vetoed a controversial bill that would have changed the state’s policy for Everglades restoration and that critics had derided as catering to the sugar industry around Lake Okeechobee The governor, however, left another $352 million in the budget to be used for Everglades restoration. Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg said in a statement that with the allocation, DeSantis “has exceeded his historic four-year commitment of $2.5 billion for America’s Everglades and Florida’s environment, and the Everglades Foundation applauds him for his dedication and continued advocacy for this pivotal piece of our great state of Florida.” Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article262297457.html#storylink=cpy
It is a natural phenomenon, but it is much worse than historical because of all of the increased nutrient. Nutrient load is mostly from big cattle and big ag followed by a distant third of municipal land application of sewage sludge. Septic tanks are a faint fourth in total tonnage of nitrogen and phosphorous. If we force the treatment of the problem at the source, the voters will demand that the polluters pay their own bill. If we treat the problem after it has been comingled, the politicians can justify using taxpayer money instead. Continuing to refuse to identify the point source of the large nutrient loads allows for the cost to be socialized while the profit is privatized.
100% While industries makes it worse, single family septic tanks that leech nutrients into the water ways are a huge issue also. Look up the issue with the Banana river and the fight people put up to avoid hooking up to city sewer. IMHO if a home has access to city sewer they should be forced to hook up when their septic systems reaches the end of its life.
better yet, force them to have their septic inspected annually and properly sized for the structure on the property. Many muni's are expanding sanitary sewer and forcing property owners to hook up and pay for the install. Cape Coral has been doing it for years. from a pure tonnage standpoint, the septic system is a distant fourth in the problem and building more holding ponds isn't going to fix it any more than filling up lake O did. We will just end up with another massive polluted water body.
I will say again. Subsidizing the sugar industry, which quite literally costs the national economy hundreds of billions of dollars in medical costs is one of the dumbest most counter productive things out society does at any level. It kills people, it raises everyone’s insurance rates with the medical bills that comes from diabetes, obesity, fatty liver disease etc, it also raises your dental premiums, and oh yeah, is a major contributor to red tide. But sure, let’s subsidize them.
while I agree with most of what you say, sugar here is higher priced than it would be without the sugar tariffs that prevent foreign sugar from being imported at lower prices.
