Florida: Best Get Prepared For Lots Of Toxic Algae Blooms From Here On Out

[hatrack]

When you think about the risks that climate change poses to Florida, you probably picture a rising sea swallowing Miami Beach and hurricanes battering the coast. You might not imagine “guacamole-thick” toxic algae strangling the state’s waterways and polluting its beaches. But that’s exactly what several Florida counties have been experiencing since late June, after the Army Corps of Engineers spent months siphoning off nutrient-rich water from Lake Okeechobee to preserve a leaky, problem-prone dike.

Meanwhile, experts warn that we’ll only see more of these dangerous blue-green algae blooms as global temperatures rise—in Florida and nationwide. “These types of blooms are going to be more prevalent as the climate warms,” said Rob Moore, senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) water program. “That’s yet another motivating factor for the U.S. and for governments around the world to take rapid action to decrease emissions that are causing climate change.”

The thick muck that is currently strangling Florida’s Treasure Coast, closing beaches and clearing out hotel reservations during the busy summer season, is the result of a perfect storm of exacerbating factors.

Cyanobacteria blooms tend to form in warm water that has been polluted with nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, found in fertilizers. That pollution is facilitated by rainfall and the resulting runoff. It’s no surprise, then, that a blue-green algae bloom would occur in South Florida after heavy rains caused Lake Okeechobee to rise nine inches right before the hottest June on record in the contiguous U.S., according to statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

EDIT

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/13/will-this-toxic-algae-bloom-eat-florida.html

[procon]

1. Its not just imperative for climate change laws, but also for tougher environmental regs, too.

Governments at all levels refuse to pass laws that protect the environment from pollution. They allow the polluters, like Koch industries and the lobbying groups that fund ALEC, to write laws with special carve outs that allow exemptions for commercial polluters.

Its sheer stupidity (and greed!) that allowed animal manure, human sewage, fertilizers, lethal chemicals, toxic waste, factory runoff, petroleum byproducts, and mining sludge to contaminate the same air, land, and water that people depend on. Sure, we've always used the environment we live in as an open waste dump, but now the toll is due for our own failures.

No one want to pay the price. Industry cries poor and threatens to pull up stakes, politicians get bribes to maintain the status quo, voters go into an emotional panic, and nothing ever changes. Its profits over people as usual, and if you can't drink the water, don't worry some eager entrepreneur is waiting on the side lines to sell you "clean" water in designer bottle.