Daily Archives: August 1, 2007

Helicopter bombs ‘Glades

Posted on by
Reply

Helicopter bombs ‘Glades with plants to stem pollution — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Bombardments of soggy green plants rained from the sky Tuesday as part of water managers’ fight to keep pollutants from washing into the Everglades.

A helicopter hauled a cargo net teeming with freshly harvested aquatic plants, dropping load after load in massive man-made wetlands beside U.S. 27 in southwestern Palm Beach County….

…”We were planting it by hand and it was taking forever,” Thayer said. “We figured there had to be a better way and came up with this crazy idea.”…

An Immoral Philosophy

Posted on by
Reply

When a child is enrolled in the State Children’s Health Insurance
Program (Schip), the positive results can be dramatic. For example,
after asthmatic children are enrolled in Schip, the frequency of their
attacks declines on average by 60 percent, and their likelihood of
being hospitalized for the condition declines more than 70 percent.

Regular
care, in other words, makes a big difference. That’s why Congressional
Democrats, with support from many Republicans, are trying to expand
Schip, which already provides essential medical care to millions of
children, to cover millions of additional children who would otherwise
lack health insurance.

But President Bush says that access to
care is no problem — “After all, you just go to an emergency room” –
and, with the support of the Republican Congressional leadership, he’s
declared that he’ll veto any Schip expansion on “philosophical” grounds.

AlterNet: Health & Wellness: An Immoral Philosophy

Is It Worth Trying To Save The Everglades? A serious question from a serious environmentalist

Posted on by
Reply

Congress is expected to approve a water resources
bill – the first in seven years – that would authorize $2 billion in
Everglades restoration projects, including the long-awaited Indian
River Lagoon Plan. Negotiators reached agreement Friday on the $20
billion spending legislation. Other priorities would be restoring the
Louisiana coast – thus increasing protection from hurricanes -
upgrading navigation on the Mississippi River and improving flood
control nationwide.

Regain Everglades fervor

Considering that there’s a good chance most of the Everglades will be under salt water in another hundred years or so, I’m beginning to wonder if the $2 billion might not be better spent on developing sustainable energy. This may sound odd, coming from a Florida boy, but — there it is. It’s time to be thinking about triage. Ditto the “restoration” of the Gulf Coast. What will a 2-foot rise in sea level do to all those new wetlands and other restored areas — like NOLA?

What do you think? Is it worth trying to save the ‘Glades, or should we be spending the money differently (although still on the environment)?