Despite campaign promises to go after environmental bad actors and polluters, Rick Scott’s administration has done no such thing. That’s the take away of a new report released Monday by the Florida chapter of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Each year the group monitors the number of new environmental enforcement cases…
The River of Grass Greenway (ROGG) is a planned hard-surfface path that would cut through the Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades and serve as a bike path stretching through 76-miles of natural habitat. The proposed project has garnered the attention of indigenous people, conservationists, and concerned citizens that say…
After a decades-long approval process, a plan to deepen and widen Port Everglades was greenlit by the Army Corps of Engineers Friday afternoon. Because the bigger port will accommodate bigger ships, local government officials are praising the expansion as an economic win, but environmental groups aren’t so enthusiastic. They are…
Kolter Group CEO Bobby Julien lives in a swanky beachfront mansion, but the animals who are being displaced by his company have no such homes. That’s the message environmentalists hoped to convey this past weekend. Julien’s company has begin to develop an area known as the Briger Forest — one…
The Solar Wars continue. This time, the battlefield is the Florida Supreme Court, which is in the process of hashing out an opinion related to the ballot initiative set forth by Floridians for Solar Choice, a bi-partisan group of green energy backers who want to circumvent the usual process of solar…
Roger Hammer is searching for wildflowers. A wilderness photographer since 1972, the tall, sturdy 70-year-old has spent much of his life in the world-famous swamps of South Florida. With a long gray ponytail swaying across his back, he steps over the soft, algae-covered slough floor about 60 miles west of…
On Sunday, a $500,000 artificial reef, designed to look like the famous moai sculptures on Easter Island, was destroyed when the barge transporting it flipped over and sunk to the bottom of the ocean — an event caught on dramatic video footage. Just over 24 hours later, the team behind…
For months, hype has been building about a set of 15 giant sculptures — eight to 22 feet tall and designed as replicas of the mysterious heads at easter Island — that were built and designed to be sunk yesterday off the coast of Deerfield Beach, making an artificial reef…
Last week NOAA said that this year will be a below-normal Hurricane Season, and now well-known forecasters Phil Klotzbach and William Gray of Colorado State University are basically saying the same thing. Much like last year, Klozbach and Gray say we can thank El Niño being extra strong this year,…
Don’t look now, but the 2015 Hurricane Season kicks off on Monday. That’s the bad news. The kind of good news: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a below-normal hurricane season this year. NOAA’s prediction, released on Wednesday, says that there’s a 70 percent chance of 6 to…
Don’t know if you’ve been outside much after dark lately, but if you have, you already know: bug season is fast upon us. As South Florida begins easing into the summer season, the people walking in from an extended period outside at night are going to start looking like they…
Friday is the last day for the public to comment on Florida Power & Light’s proposal to build two new nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point facility, near Homestead, which powers all of South Florida. Turkey Point already has five power-generating units: two nuclear, two powered by oil and gas,…
All that messy, sloppy, crappy, no-good rain that’s currently inundating our neighborhoods might actually become the first named storm of the year. Huzzah! Ironically enough, this system that is wrecking our week and making our daily commute a magical time is the same system that in the southwest part of…
Twenty years ago, authorities noticed that, because of a quirk in the law, the federal agency that’s supposed to be protecting animals lacked the power to refuse license renewals to facilities, so long as the facility declared that it was following the law. Nothing has been done to change that…
Florida’s best known wild animal is not one to f-with in the wild. The famed Florida Panther — a protected endangered species that scientists estimate has been reduced to somewhere between 100 and 160 animals — lands in the headlines any time one is found dead. And when one is…
A fracking bill that would have allowed gas and oil companies to not disclose what chemicals they would use during fracking has died. The Senate had been scheduled to vote on HB 1205 on Wednesday. Even thought the House ended the legislative session three days early, Florida parliamentary rules gives…
The Senate is set to vote Tuesday on two bills — SB1582 and SB1486 — that opponents are calling “The Fracking Secret Chemicals bill[s].” During the process of fracking, oil and gas exploration companies inject chemicals into the ground in pursuit of natural gas reserves. These chemicals could potentially end up…
Barack Obama is an obvious reader of New Times. Because he apparently took our Earth Day advice and openly called out Gov. Rick Scott on the ridiculous ban on the term “climate change” from all Department of Environmental Protection reports, emails and memos. “Climate change can’t be denied, edited out…
President Barack Obama is in our own backyard today to talk up climate change and Everglades restoration. It’s the first time the president visits the Everglades, which he has talked about spending $2 billion to restore. He’s going to use the opportunity to talk about the dangers of rising sea…
Today is Earth Day! You don’t seem excited, though! Well you should be, because regardless of your religion, race, or preference in One Direction band members, the Earth is the biggest part of your life. So show some respect, alright? Today there are lots of things you can do to…
A cushy partnership between one of Florida’s all-power public energy utilities and the U.S. military looks like it’s moving forward. The state’s Public Service Commission — which right now is pretty much an official rubber-stamp for whatever project the utilities want — signed off recently on the deal, which will…
It’s hard out there for a ‘tee. Florida’s population of endangered yet lovable underwater hunks, the manatee, has had a mixed 2015 so far. Yes, the manatee season – which runs from November to the first week April, when the water temperatures lure herds south to Florida – ended with…
