ICN Florida - Inside Climate News

In the South, Sea Level Rise Accelerates at Some of the Most Extreme Rates on Earth

By Amy Green — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 09:05:00 +0000

The surge is startling scientists, amplifying impacts such as hurricane storm surges and nuisance flooding and testing mitigation measures like the Resilient Florida program.

By Amy Green

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—For most of his life, Steve Salem has led an existence closely linked with the rise and fall of the tides.

US Prisons and Jails Exposed to an Increasing Number of Hazardous Heat Days, Study Says

By Sarah Hopkins — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Incarcerated people in southern states had the greatest exposure to extreme temperatures, yet do not have access to universal air conditioning, researchers found.

By Sarah Hopkins

Marci Simmons thinks back to her days in a Texas state prison as a cruel game of psychological planning for the summer. “In April, you start preparing yourself for the heat,” she said. “Towards the end of May, when it starts to get hot, you start telling yourself, ‘OK, it’s only four months of this really bad heat.’ And then you kind of count down in your mind. It’s a mental game of survival.”

Billions of Gallons of Freshwater Are Dumped at Florida’s Coasts. Environmentalists Want That Water in the Everglades

By Amy Green — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Environmental groups want to use engineered wetlands to help replenish the river of grass and address toxic algae. The state’s politically powerful sugar growers say those wetlands are for their own polluted water.

By Amy Green

Scattered between the vast sugar cane and vegetable fields of Florida’s heartland and the fragile marshes of the Everglades are a series of wetlands, resembling nature but hardly natural, that together represent the largest experiment of its kind in the world.

New Law to Provide Florida Homebuyers With More Transparency on Flood History

By Amy Green — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 09:05:00 +0000

The measure is aimed at educating buyers about the intensifying risks, although there are loopholes.

By Amy Green

ORLANDO, Fla.—For the first time, Florida home sellers will have to disclose certain aspects of a property’s flood history, under legislation Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law this week.

NOAA 2024 Hurricane Forecast Is for More Storms Than Ever Before

By Amy Green — Fri, 24 May 2024 20:44:10 +0000

The unprecedented prediction is based most notably on near-record sea surface temperatures, which are as warm now as they normally are in August.

By Amy Green

ORLANDO, Fla.—Get ready for an active hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting the greatest number of named storms this hurricane season since the forecasts began in 1998.

Bill Discounting Climate Change in Florida’s Energy Policy Wins DeSantis’ Approval

By Amy Green — Tue, 14 May 2024 09:00:00 +0000

The governor had vowed, as a former presidential candidate, to replace the words “climate change” with “energy dominance” in national security and foreign policy guidance,

By Amy Green

ORLANDO, Fla.—Addressing the human-caused emissions warming the global climate and contributing to impacts here like hotter temperatures, rising seas and more damaging hurricanes could no longer be part of Florida’s energy policy, under legislation Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Wednesday.

Florida in 50 Years: Study Says Land Conservation Can Buffer Destructive Force of Climate Change

By Bill Kearney, South Florida Sun Sentinel — Thu, 02 May 2024 09:00:00 +0000

A new report by scientists at four major Florida universities projects that a new wildlife corridor, if completed, will allow wildlife to survive in the coming decades and make climate change less destructive to humans.

By Bill Kearney, South Florida Sun Sentinel

This story was originally published by South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Florida Says No to Federal Funding Aimed at Greenhouse Gas Emissions

By Amy Green — Wed, 01 May 2024 09:05:00 +0000

Florida may be “ground zero” for climate change, but some environmentalists see the DeSantis administration’s rejection of the money as a partisan move.

By Amy Green

ORLANDO, Fla.—Florida gave up $3 million in federal grant funding and as much as $500 million more by declining to participate in a Biden administration program aimed at helping states address the human-caused emissions warming the global climate.

EPA Faulted for Wasting Millions, Failing to Prevent Spread of Superfund Site Contamination

By Katie Surma — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 09:00:00 +0000

The EPA has spent over $30 million to clean up a Pensacola site contaminated with dioxin, yet has failed to install adequate controls to prevent the spread of tainted groundwater and soil.

By Katie Surma

The Environmental Protection Agency may have wasted or risked millions of dollars by failing to prevent the spread of contamination hazardous to human health at a Superfund site in Pensacola, Florida, an agency watchdog report found.

Oil Drilling Has Endured in the Everglades for Decades. Now, the Miccosukee Tribe Has a Plan to Stop It

By Amy Green — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 09:05:00 +0000

Their proposal comes amid continued interest in expanding oil production within the Big Cypress National Preserve, an Everglades wilderness they consider sacred.

By Amy Green

Within a thicket of the Big Cypress National Preserve, established a half-century ago to protect the marshes and sloughs here that make up a vital part of the Florida Everglades, a series of wells extracts oil from more than two miles underground.