Florida’s Environmental Conscience Stirring

 

An Ignominious End

 In the late sixties and early seventies songs often hinted of “something in the wind,”  “something happening” and “something coming” referring to growing discontent and rejection of the Vietnam War by the American public.  It was a time when the political “norm” was arrogantly moving more and more out of sync with the hearts and minds of America.  It was a time of growing distrust toward authority and officialdom gone awry. 

Eventually, those in power caved, excuses were found and a terrible national mistake was brought to an ignominious end.



CEO governor Rick Scott

Last year the governor of this state in complicity with the Florida legislature made a number of terrible statewide mistakes that will have implications lasting decades or longer if not halted and reversed.  


In a Jacksonville address this week, former Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, Vicki Tschinkel, called what happened, a “travesty.”

Tschinkel is the current chair of 1000 Friends of Florida and has been a primary figure, along with former Florida Governor Bob Graham, in establishing the new bipartisan group, Florida Conservation Coalition which is focused on re-energizing Florida’s environmental conscience.



Noting that the environmental community was caught napping last session, she said, “We are fully awake and we are starting to have an effect.”

Jacksonville blogger, Ron Littlepage, published his report, reprinted here, of Tschinkel’s presentation. It is worth the read because she enumerates all the things that have happened and the fact that people are not buying the ruse that rules to protect Florida’s fragile natural environment are the cause of Florida’s historic economic woes.



Former Florida Governor
and U. S. Senator 
Bob Graham



Citing a poll conducted for the Everglades Foundation last year, Tschinkel said 81 percent of respondents asked agreed Florida should manage growth to protect its sensitive rivers, lakes and other waters.

Floridians know that regulations haven’t been the blame for the state’s high unemployment and housing decline despites Scott’s repetitive references to “job-killing regulations.”  She pointed out that there are 1.5 million vacant houses in Florida, 1 million houses under construction and 3 billion square feet of vacant commercial space, the equivalent of 300 malls. 

Clearly, there has been no environmental regulation powerful enough to stop this excess and making laws weaker or repealing them isn’t going to make it go away.

See the article below:

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/400601/ron-littlepage/2012-02-03/watchdogs-environment-neutered

Watchdogs for environment neutered

Submitted by Ron Littlepage

February 3, 2012 - 4:07am

Ron Littlepage's Blog

Floridians who care about clean water and healthy natural resources had better start kicking behinds and taking names.

Those behinds are the ones sitting in the governor’s office and the Florida Legislature, busily dismantling four decades of solid water and growth management policies.

What Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature did during last year’s legislative session was a “travesty.”

That was the description used by Victoria Tschinkel, the chair of 1000 Friends of Florida and a former secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation, when she talked to an overflow crowd at the Garden Club this week.

If you’ve forgotten the list of horribles, here’s a reminder of some:

The Department of Community Affairs and the state’s growth management laws were gutted.

Scott called the DCA a “job killer” that stymied development, but as Tschinkel said, there are 1.5 million vacant houses in Florida, 1 million houses under construction and 3 billion square feet of vacant commercial space, the equivalent of 300 malls.

“There was no evidence DCA was a job killer,” Tschinkel said.

The truth, she said, was a couple of powerful special interests who didn’t like the head of the agency got Scott’s ear.

With the DCA done, the state’s water management districts were neutered, their budgets cut by $700 million.

The public relations ploy was that was a tax break for Florida’s citizens.

“For most households the annual cost of the water management districts is two to three pizzas,” Tschinkel said.

And to get those pizzas, the districts lost hundreds of experienced employees, with the ax falling disproportionately on scientists, legal staff and regulators.

And the Legislature made it more difficult for citizens to challenge developments that could harm the environment.

More mischief is on the way as water wars break out over who gets the dwindling resource needed to fuel growth.

“The people in the know behind the scenes are slowly gathering the political forces they need to get the water they are going to need when development starts up again,” Tschinkel said.

Tschinkel and others, including former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, woke up to what was happening in Tallahassee and formed the Florida Conservation Coalition.

The coalition’s goal: “Florida’s natural resources are a treasure to be conserved for the people of Florida and must be managed judiciously, not squandered.”

You would think from all the talk out of Tallahassee that Floridians are fed up with regulations. They aren’t.

A poll conducted for the Everglades Foundation last year found that when asked if the state should manage growth to protect rivers, lakes and other waters, 81 percent of respondents agreed.

The coalition, designed, Tschinkel said, “to help articulate what people need to know and to get active again,” is an army that is growing.

“We are fully awake,” she said. “And we are starting to have an effect.”

Florida’s environment is at stake.

ron.littlepage@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4284