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Dead fish near a boat ramp in Bradenton Beach, Florida.
Photograph: Chris O'Meara/AP |
Agricultural polution, climate change driven water temperature increases on land and sea lead to events like this. And, like the increase in wildfire intensity due to climate change, we are seeing an increase in the number and pervasiveness of algae blooms like this.
UPDATE: Florida's governor, Rick Scott, is attempting to pretend that his actions had nothing to do with this rotten state of affairs.
...Scott forced $700 million in cuts to the state’s water management districts — including the South Florida Water Management District, the lead state agency on Everglades restoration.
And during his first six years as governor, he gutted staffing at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The agency lost more than 600 employees, dropping from about 3,500 to 2,900, according to reporting by Craig Pittman of the Tampa Bay Times.
About the Everglades: Scott has touted an Everglades restoration bill he signed in 2013 — but doesn't talk about how it phased out a tax farmers pay to grow crops in the Everglades Agricultural Area, leaving taxpayers on the hook for any lingering pollution costs.
Also in 2013, Scott and the Legislature approved 30-year, no-bid leases for farmers in the EAA, including sugar giant Florida Crystals.
The same year, Scott was among the politicians who took secret trips to U.S. Sugar’s private hunting lodge at King Ranch in Texas. After the trip, Scott appointed a King Ranch executive, Mitch Hutchcraft, to the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District.
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