➤ We are at a critical juncture when it comes to one of the biggest factors deciding the fate of Everglades restoration: funding. If Democrats can secure President Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” infrastructure plan, the Everglades could receive $5 billion of that. Otherwise, we will we leaning on Florida’s congressional delegation to get those dollars in the regular budget process.
➤ Florida’s Everglades, coastal waterways, natural springs and other beloved heirlooms of our state are all facing a crisis from pollution, overdevelopment and a lack of the political will needed to rein it in. We make it easy to contact your elected officials about this vital issue at the link below.
➤ To save the Everglades, we are forced to battle the sugar industry. That is an unfortunate fact. So, it is important for Floridians to understand this industry – who they are, what they do, and how they maintain their stranglehold on Florida’s water management and political system. One critical piece of their scheme is the sugar subsidy program. US News & World Report explains below.
EVERGLADES CALL TO ACTION
A revolution of thinking must occur in our state, not with pitchforks, but with every lawmaker concerned about our water and our waterways. From the quality of our water to the quantity and the directional flow of water, protecting our most important resource is the pressing issue of our time.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The time is now: $5B of the $3.5T budget bill must go to completing Everglades restoration | Editorial, Sun Sentinel
“Everglades restoration has been one of Florida’s longest-running bipartisan issues. Getting the money to finally complete it, however, may depend solely on Democrats.” So, here again sit the Everglades, subject to the whims and winds of politics. With every passing year, more damage occurs to this ecosystem of global importance as the cost to the taxpayers rises. The stakes are high. South Florida’s drinking water and economy hang in the balance.
Valuing Florida water resources: Ecosystem services that we do not notice but still value | University of Florida – IFAS
How to put a price tag on our most valuable assets, like the Everglades? This report from UF will give you an idea. “Florida’s water resources can be described as a component of ‘capital’ that we all benefit from: natural capital. All forms of capital – equipment (that is, manufactured capital), people’s skills (i.e., human capital), social norms (that is, social capital), and natural capital – help increase our overall wealth.”
Pollution and overuse threaten Florida’s fragile freshwater springs | National Geographic
As the sugar industry has done to the Everglades – polluting them and commandeering the water they need to survive – so too are filthy and thirsty private corporations in Central and North Florida decimating Florida’s precious freshwater springs. Click the link below so you can send to your specific lawmakers a message. Please speak up, please ask others to do the same. Floridians need to take these issues very seriously.
Develop a Lake Okeechobee plan to protect our environment, economy and health | TC Palm
Time to flip this broken water management system on its head. “The toxic blue-green algae crises of 2016 and 2018 widely exposed Florida’s water-management system for what it is: a boon to large corporate sugar companies – and a threat to public health, our ecosystems and our economy.”
Is Time Running Out For The Cape Sable Sparrow? Numbers Drop To Lowest In Five Years | WUSF Public Media
“It’s not about the spotted owl. It’s about the spotted owl and the old growth forest. It’s not about the Cape Sable Sparrow. It’s about the Cape Sable Sparrow and the Everglades ecosystem. If you get the water right, the sparrow will
70% of US adults are concerned about sugar consumption, study finds | Food Dive
Millions of Floridians AND the Everglades, the drinking water supply for 9 million in South Florida, our economy, and the wildlife and waterways on both coasts of the Sunshine State are concerned about sugar. (We are big fans of monkfruit, by the way.)
Sugar Price Supports Are Not So Sweet | US News & World Report
“Like many lobbies, the American Sugar Coalition (Big Sugar) wants to have its cake and eat it too. The sugar lobby wants to make sure its members receive prices for their product that in most years are close to double what’s standard on the open world market. But the lobby also wants to make sure that the sugar program’s costs to the average American household and the U.S. economy are hidden from plain sight.”