CAN $8 BILLION RESTORE THE EVERGLADES? President Bill Clinton and Gov. Jeb Bush met in the Oval Office on Dec. 11, 2000, to launch a $7.8 billion effort to revive the Florida Everglades. Vice President Al Gore, the plan's leading White House advocate, stayed home to watch CNN. That morning, the Supreme Court was hearing final arguments in the Florida vote-count case pitting him against Bush's brother George ... click here to read more. MINING THE EVERGLADES
IN ORDER TO SAVE IT The bulldozers come first, tearing up the Everglades and stripping away its soil. Then comes the dynamite, blowing up the limestone that sits beneath the sawgrass. Then a 3 million-pound dragline scoops up the boulders in a bucket strong enough to lift 40 Lincoln Navigators at once. Soon the rock will end up in sidewalks and sewer pipes, highways and driveways ... click here to read more.
TO THE WHITE HOUSE,
BY WAY OF THE EVERGLADES Al Gore's people blame the environmentalists, although some admit they didn't think much of Gore's fence-sitting strategy. The environmentalists blame Gore, although some admit to twinges of regret about kneecapping one of the most earth-friendly presidential candidates in history. But both sides agree that in the closest state in the closest election ever, the bizarre swamp politics of the Everglades sent George W. Bush to the Oval Office ... click here to read more.
WATER QUALITY
IS LONG-STANDING ISSUE FOR TRIBE Richard Harvey sits through the "task force" meetings, the "working group" meetings, the "science subgroup" meetings, all kinds of Everglades restoration meetings. He listens, he seethes and then he blurts out his mantra: "What is it about water quality you don't understand?" ... click here to read more.
GROWING PAINS IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA "You can't stop it," said Al Hoffman, the most influential developer in a state crowded with influential developers. "There's no power on earth that can stop it!" ... click here to read more.
WHEN IN DOUBT, BLAME BIG SUGAR First Carl Hiaasen skewered greedy sugar barons in such novels as "Strip Tease." Then Marge led a campaign against the villainous Mother-Loving Sugar Corp. on "The Simpsons." But now Big Sugar is in really big trouble on the pop culture front. On a recent episode of "The West Wing," President Bartlett's political aides floated a $7.8 billion plan to save the Everglades. And if that sounds vaguely familiar, there's a twist: The money would come from "the same place the pollution does -- the sugar industry!" ... click here to read more. A
RIVER UNLEASHED The Kissimmee River used to run wild, rambling from Orlando down to Lake Okeechobee, zigzagging across its floodplain like a drunken unicyclist. Then the Army Corps of Engineers tamed it, slicing off its hairpin turns, locking it into a straight and reliable channel that never overflowed its banks ... click here to read more. AMONG
ENVIRONMENTALISTS, THE GREAT DIVIDE "It's time to choose sides," Joe Browder was saying. "Are you for or are you against?" Browder wasn't talking about terrorism. He was talking about the $7.8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. And Browder, a former co-chairman of the Everglades Coalition and an ally of the late Marjory Stoneman Douglas, was talking about his fellow environmentalists. Many activists believe it's time to sound an alarm that Everglades restoration is not real restoration, and to withhold political support until it is ... click here to read more. |
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