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Last week, Red Green and Blue assessed the green credentials of John McCain’s potential presidential running mate, Charlie Crist. As the Florida Governor signs a landmark multi-billion dollar deal to preserve the Everglades, we ask again, is it possible to love big oil and be green at the same time?
Earlier this month, Florida Governor Charlie Crist won a lot of friends in the oil industry by suggesting that he could live with oil-wells off the coast of Florida. In the same week he also gained support from environmentalists for brokering an agreement that will reclaim 300 square miles of the Everglades from sugar farming.
So why should we care? Well it just so happens that Crist is the Governor of a crucial swing-state in the upcoming presidential election, as well as being a contender for the Republican Vice-Presidential slot.
Florida’s got its share of environmental challenges — overdevelopment, water shortages, threatened coral reefs — and it’s definitely one of the top states likely to be hurt by climate change. On the other hand, those very challenges have spurred some good news recently on several fronts.
First, if you missed it, comes the news that the state and U.S. Sugar Corporation have struck a deal to eventually cease sugar-cane production on 187,000 acres of land (nearly 300 square miles) in south Florida. Under the plan, expected to be finalized by September, the state will pay the sugar company $1.75 billion for the land, which lies in the heart of Everglades territory. The transfer would take place in six years, during which U.S. Sugar will continue to grow on the land.
By Levi Novey •
June 18, 2008
Florida Governor Charlie Crist endorsed John McCain right before the Florida Republican primary. His endorsement might have been a significant factor in McCain winning the Florida primary, and subsequently the Republican nomination.
Speculation began immediately thereafter that Crist might make a great running mate for McCain, given his popularity in Florida, and his potential ability to swing the crucial electoral state toward McCain during the general election.
One reason why Crist is popular is because there is a public perception that he really cares about environmental issues, much more so than the typical governor or politician (Republican or Democrat). As Crist might become McCain’s running mate, it seems worthy of investigation as to whether or not the Governor’s green credibility is rightly deserved– especially after Crist’s reversal Tuesday on his position as to lifting the U.S. ban on drilling offshore for oil. Now he says we should do it.
Let’s just forget about restoring the Everglades, OK? And all those hundreds of thousands of acres of natural lands that Florida has acquired over the years under the conservation-aimed Florida Forever program? Who needs ‘em? Tourists mostly come to the state for that mouse in Orlando anyway, and if the locals want nature, they can plant some palms in their backyards, right?
If that’s not how you feel — and I certainly don’t — now’s the time to send a message to your elected officials in Florida asking them to reconsider what could certainly be described as the political equivalent of cutting off your nose to spite your face: a plan to address the state’s legitimately serious financial troubles by allotting zero dollars — that’s ZERO — for the Florida Forever conservation program and Everglades restoration.
You know those stories you hear regularly from South Florida about giant escaped pythons wolfing down pet poodles? Well, a changing climate in the U.S. means you might have to keep Fifi safe from roaming invasive snakes even if you live as far north as Norman, Oklahoma.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) this week released new climate maps showing that Burmese pythons, an invasive species of snake now comfortably at home in the Everglades, could extend their range to as much as a third of the continental U.S. by 2100 as the climate warms.
