The poster-sized map on Bruce Mowry’s desk is scrawled with blotchy patches of red, showing elevations across Miami Beach. Everywhere 2.2 feet or lower is shaded in deep crimson. That’s the same height, incidentally, that water reached last September during the King Tide, the highest nonstorm water level ever recorded…
Well, congratulations Miami. We’ve ruined Floatopia. The latest edition of the biannual beach bacchanal boosting all things buoyant drew tens of thousands of revelers to South Pointe Park on Saturday, but the partiers left behind mountains of trash. Now city officials are calling for an end to the event, seemingly…
Two years ago, 38-year-old Ale Ochoa heard that the Redland, the unincorporated mostly agricultural area of Southwest Miami-Dade County north of Homestead, had become a dumping ground for dogs. She did not believe it, so she drove to the area herself. “I came across injured, sick, and malnourished dogs. They…
Every morning, researcher Tom Jackson photographs the sunrise from Virginia Key, where he works at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Some mornings as he walks out to the shoreline he finds the area empty and quiet. Other days, he spots interesting insects, plants and animals. During a morning…
Talk to a certain kind of native Floridian about sea level rise and they’ll scoff at the idea that the floods regularly swamping cars and drowning businesses in South Beach are anything new. “Why, I remember a flood in 1962 that you can’t imagine!” they’ll say. Sorry, old timey climate…
A half-mile off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, 35 feet below the ocean’s surface, two battery-powered golden-yellow submarines the size of Volkswagen Beetles puttered around Barracuda Reef. In one submarine’s cabin — a transparent sphere that looks like a giant fishbowl — sat Rachel Silverstein, a dark-haired PhD who holds…
For the past two years, the City of Miami has fought hard to convince the public and politicians in Key Biscayne to back their plans for hosting the Miami International Boat Show on Virginia Key. Central among the city’s pledges was to create a public park on part of the waterfront…
The seas are rising. And Miami is in grave danger of going under. Anyone who lives in South Florida and isn’t living in a Marco Rubio-sized bubble of denial knows these facts by know, and the national press has been pounding the story into the ground over recent months. But…
Florida panthers are an extremely endangered species. Even the most optimistic estimates of their population don’t reach above 200 individuals. So when humans go around doing their human things it’s quite rare for them to randomly come across a wild panther doing its wild panthers thing. Yet, this week Florida has…
A 1931 home at 22 Star Island was placed on industrial-grade wheels yesterday, rotated 180 degrees, and moved to the other side of the property, where it will be fully restored. Lennar CEO Stuart Miller owns the home, which was designed by Martin Hampton, a renowned local architect who also…
For years, animal rights activists have argued that Miami Seaquarium is breaking federal law by keeping its orca, Lolita, in a tank that’s too small. Now they say a new statement by the agency that regulates those tanks bolsters their argument. According to the Animal Welfare Act, the minimum space…
Yesterday SeaWorld announced it would stop breeding orcas, the latest fallout from the Blackfish documentary. The news comes on the heels of the theme park’s announcement that the company will also construct larger, more “natural” habitats for its killer whales. Miami activists celebrated the news — but were also left…
At last night’s GOP debate at the University of Miami, moderator Jack Tapper posed a question that came from none other than Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, a Republican who has endorsed Marco Rubio, to Rubio himself. The topic was climate change. It was a pretty simple question: “Climate change means…
For three weeks, a self professed “animal rights warrior” named Danielle Daals has been living in a bathtub in front of the Miami Seaquarium to protest the marine park’s captivity of cetaceans, including Lolita the orca. Jeff Geragi, the president of the Miami-based Animal Activists Network, whose members helped plan…
As Florida Power and Light finalized plans to expand its nuclear reactors at Turkey Point three years ago, critics were aghast. The nuclear plant already sits at a environmentally fragile spot and upping the power production would seriously threaten the ecosystem, they argued. Turns out they were right. This morning,…
In the middle of the concrete jungle of the FIU Campus, there’s a unique refuge. It’s a giant green space made up of some 450 plant and animal species, where students and faculty go to get their hands dirty, research, learn and relax. But that urban oasis, the FIU Nature…
Even as scientists keep reminding us that Miami is one of the most susceptible cities to the potential damages of sea level rise, developers keep erecting shiny new luxury tower after shiny new luxury tower in the areas most threatened by rising tides. So EMiami Condos, a website that tracks condo…
It wasn’t just multi-million dollar super yachts clogging the waterway at last weekend’s Yachts Miami Beach event, located on a 10 block stretch west of Collins Ave. in mid-Beach. Volunteers on standup paddleboards and in kayaks picked buckets full of styrofoam out of the water surrounding the event, too. Tracy…
On Saturday, thousands of passengers on the Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas sailed out of New Jersey into calm seas, sipping margaritas and dreaming balmy beaches. Just off the coast of the Carolinas, meanwhile, a monster storm was brewing, with winds howling around a huge low pressure front. Last…
Danielle Daals has been making the most of every minute with her family lately, from relishing strolls in the park with her pup Maxwell, a mixed rescue, to savoring sips of coffee during chats with her mom Stephanie. Because next week, the New Zealander plans to travel across the world…
Twenty counties and forty cities have already banned fracking in Florida. Environmentalists warn that the oil extraction technique could put the final nail in the Everglades’ coffin. And with the price of oil plummeting, the expensive procedure may not make much economic sense. So why are Florida Republicans gung-ho to…
A public health emergency has been declared in Miami-Dade County after a case of Zika was detected. Lee, Hillsborough and Santa Rosa counties are also affected by the warning. “We have to ensure Florida is prepared and stays ahead of the spread of the Zika virus in our state,” said Governor…
