Toxic Algae takes over Florida Coastlines

This first became an issue about a year ago in Lake Okeechobee, now the algae bloom has spread to both the Atlantic and Gulf waters. The biggest contributor to the algae blooms is the sugar industry. The governor of Florida so far has refused to tackle the problem, he also receives a lot of money from the sugar industry. The people of Florida voted to preserve our natural resources and use state funds to buy sensitive lands. Governor Rick Scott has ignored the voter initiative, and has passed laws that allow the big agriculture industry to police themselves in terms of pollution and fertilizer run off.

Meanwhile Big Sugar is trying to shift the blame on others despite the damning evidence that they are the major contributor to the phosphorous and other fertilizer run offs that enable the algae to thrive.

The people of Florida are becoming more vocal and this has made national news, it is the elected officials who refuse to help.

Toxic Algae takes over Florida coastlines

Governor ignores Big Sugar’s role in toxic algae infestation

Miles of Algae and a Multitude of Hazards

As a floridian, and a person who lives by a beautiful large river that used to be amazing for great fishing, boating, etc, and now considered contaminated due to the algae, I can pretty much say nothing will happen.

The locals are ignorant and you can ultimately do whatever the hell you want here. bad beaches caused by industrial waste? no worries. its probably hillary clintons fault and also sounds a lot like that global warming hooey.

You have a lot..a lot of low information voters, elderly people who are scared of the ethnics, etc..so will believe any non-science the right pushes on their doorstep.

Once tourism dries up from destroyed resources, they might pay attention, but for now..naa.

(I may be overly cynical here...but I loved fishing on the river..can get tons of shrimp, giant blues, endless mullet, bass, drums, etc.)

This is where I become an enemy of the right..the pro-corporate pollution, anti-science stances. That directly effects my surroundings, liberties, and the long term health of the country locally and as a whole.

The end if the world is nigh.. heed the warnings of the end the world..

Just joking.. but someone was going to say it. (And not be joking)

a reply to: jrod
Most people scream petroleum, but it is mass agriculture that is the number 1 polluter/destroyer of our Earth....by far..

The masses need their junkfood..so nothing will change..

a reply to: Tucket

Soon enough the ingredients label on junk food will say "Tastes Good, Just Eat It", and the majority will eat it.

Our entire planet is for sale to the biggest corporations at pennies on the dollar.

And they're not accountable for the damage they do.

How is it that those who try to defend the world they rely on to survive were declared "Domestic Terrorists?".

Declared as such by whom?.

a reply to: Tucket

Another side effect is residents who primarily lived off the fish, crab, and shrimp that have been caught in these waters now are forced to buy the very products that are causing the problems in the first place. Our agriculture practices are not sustainable. The fertilizer and pesticide run off causes great problems, and very few with power actually want to address these issues.

a reply to: jrod

Jrod- I was going to type "Good Luck" in the other thread re: DEA and Cannabis re-scheduling delayed when You typed about Your generation getting rid of the DEA but this is far more important. We NEED water.. The aquifer is full of pollutants and fertilizers probably some Monsanto™GMO snip for good measure...

There is/was also an article about some Northern Governors/Senators (I believe West Virginia, Maryland maybe??) anyways they had some environmental issues up North and the Gov. agent didn't want to vote against His constituency (His $$$) so a Flori-Duh Legislator did the deed and this would be the "pay back". They pretty much ruined the St. Johns River.. So the Fl. turd does the dirty work there and then the Northern Turd sullies this area.

You also need to remember that Rick Scott spent $75M of "his own money" (Money pilfered in a healthcare scheme in Alabama) for a job that pays $237k/yr. He has already been caught in the middle of the Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients, when his personal company undercut Fl. hospitals at an avg. of $116 per test.

Proud Member of LEAP-Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

my beautiful Florida, wish I could do something but simply cleaning won't help. I have not even seen the full effect I don't think it has gotten to Miami yet

a reply to: JimNasium

When Scott's term for governor is up, he will be running for Senate. Sadly the voting population of Florida is extremely ignorant and will likely put him in DC and will run against Bill Nelson, someone who cares about the environment.

Crazy world in which we live in today. We have someone who is ignorant of science, clearly has no ethics and morals, guilty of scamming medicare, yet no one wants how has the power to impeach him seems to care.

I even think the group anon has made him a target....unfortunately nothing has come from that.

Florida depends on clean water, yet here we are letting Big agriculture bribe our elected officials so they can dump whatever they want into our waters.

In 1962, John F. Kennedy famously said,

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

....

a reply to: jrod

I don't think it has impacted the right people enough for this to get rectified.

Down here in SWFL you got some very powerful and rich retired CEO and board of director types including the dip$#h1t Rick Scott . They own some expensive waterfront properties right on the gulf, so it will be interesting to see what happens when it starts to really impact the swfl coast down by Naples.

a reply to: MyHappyDogShiner

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Not that God said this at all, but rather so many through the history of western civ have. This dominionist slant on the world is what is killing it. All these believers that think that the world is our oyster and ripe fig tree and can just do whatever they want. Hooey.

a reply to: JimNasium

Also Rick Scott has ignored the will of the people after an initiative to fund environmental protection was voted for and passed with 75% of the vote. Currently the state is being sued to appropriate the funds as Amendment 1 intended.

Environmental groups return to court over Legislature's diverting Amendment 1 money

Four environmental groups on Wednesday asked a court to accelerate its ruling in a lawsuit accusing the Florida Legislature of violating the state Constitution and misdirecting Amendment 1 environmental funds into salaries and inappropriate operating expenses.

The groups, the Florida Wildlife Federation, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, are asking a court to transfer$299 million general revenue money into those programs and restore the money in the Land Acquisition Trust Fund.

The fund was created by voters in 2014, after the Legislature brought the state's 50-year-old land buying program to a halt during the Great Recession.The Land and Water Conservation Amendment required that one third of all proceeds from real estate transaction taxes be set aside for the environment and voters approved it by 75 percent of the vote.

In 2015, the first year the law was in effect, proceeds totaled $750 million. But instead of putting all the money into new environmental programs, lawmakers reasoned that they could divert $216 million into appropriated for salaries and operating expenses for existing environmental programs and $26 million for agriculture pollution control projects on private land.

The motion for summary judgment argues that since there is no dispute about what lawmakers have done, the Leon County Circuit Court should declare the Legislature in violation of the constitution and order the money replaced.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

I have always disagree with that domininion BS in scripture.

It just sounds to "corporate".

Those religious one's make themselves look and sound stupid when they spout such nonsense, considering what a wreck the world is now.

I don't want to go to heaven, because they probably wrecked that too.

a reply to: MyHappyDogShiner

Why are you guys discussing religious B$(imho) in this thread.

This is a man made disaster fueled by greedy agricultural interests. God will not save the waterways by some miracle. It is up to us, the angry citizens to make our voice heard and demand meaningful action to help fix this problem. We know the root cause, the problem is the root cause lines the pockets of our so called elected 'leaders' and they rather give us disinfo excuses than take action.

a reply to: jrod

I didn't bring up anything regarding religion.

Somebody else did.

originally posted by: MyHappyDogShiner
In 1962, John F. Kennedy famously said,

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

....

That was said before the computer age.

Today, technology is making any kind of revolution impossible.

The only places in the world seeing any revolutions, are where the people have more technology than the governments.

But, in the USA, with all the black budgets, and secret government technology programs, the government will always have more advanced technology than the people. Hence, there will never be a revolution in the USA.

Just wait until one of these blooms coincides with & blends with a Red Algae bloom. Red blooms are enough of a bitch on their own to try to breathe during, as I image this type is, too. Anyone's best guess as to how horrible both at the same time would be.

If the sugar and agricultural are trying to pay off people to keep it silent, then they are going to have to pay alot more when people can't swim in Shark...I mean Toxic waters, when tourism drops and 67 billion missing from the governments pockets.

It amazing how childish the supposed ed leaders and decision maker are...They are the ones that are going to lose and end up broken in the end when the blood and tears dry up.

Death is coming, and it will only be repaid with blood.

a reply to: Specimen

Again, I am not sure why there is not more outrage. Rick Scott, the man responsible for easing big agricultural's restrictions on runoff pollution even tried to blame Obama on this one.(I can't make this stuff up)

The question is what we the citizens can do to clean up our waterways. I think a boycott of Florida's Sugar industry is a start.

We also need not elect people who ignore science when it is convenient and highly profitable for them

I also think the governor and all the others in Tallahassee who ignore the ecological disaster and refuse to act because the are receiving money from the big polluters need to be impeached and held accountable. This includes Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Pam Bondi and several others.