Looking at Napoleon Bonaparte Broward

Posted on May 9, 2012 by

Broward surveying assembly of New River dredge (UF Digital Collections)

This blog is taking a different turn because the University Press of Florida accepted my proposal to write a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte Broward. Governor of Florida from 1905-1909, he is best known today for his effort to create an “Empire of the Everglades.” That meant canals and drainage projects. South Florida today is still shaped by the consequences.

Before becoming governor, Broward was a sailor, lumberyard owner, phosphate miner, steamboat captain, sheriff, city councilman, tugboat owner, state representative, and gunrunner. Trying to understand his career will allow a look into the turbulent era of late 19th and early 20th-century Florida.

There will be fewer posts and some of them will be related to research for the book. I will still try to make things interesting.

Posted in SFWMD, Water policy | 2 Comments

Gus Speth, “America the Possible”

Posted on May 8, 2012 by

This website has been about water in Florida but water management priorities are under the sway of much larger forces. That is why a new book from Gus Speth is so interesting.

Cofounder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, former Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, founder of the World Resources Institute, former dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and now professor of law at the Vermont Law School, Speth understands some fundamental American problems and how they might be solved. His book, “America the Possible” will not be out for a few more months, but he has just published related essays in Orion magazine (Part I and Part II). A couple of excerpts:

It is simply unimaginable that American politics as we know it today will deliver the transformative changes needed. Political reform and building a new and powerful progressive movement in America must be priority number one. Above all else, we must build a new democratic reality—a government truly of, by, and for the people.

The most important prodemocracy reform is to undermine the power of money in our elections and in lobbying. The emphasis of campaign finance reform should be on encouraging small donor contributions and public funding of elections—the democratization of campaign finance itself.

True for Florida

Posted in Florida water resources, Water policy | Leave a comment

“Landscapes and Hydrology of the Predrainage Everglades”

Posted on May 7, 2012 by

What were the Everglades like before they were drained? If one is trying to “restore” them, that may be the most fundamental question of all. In this treasure of a book on the “Lanscapes and Hydrology of the Predrainage Everglades,” the authors perform what they call “diagnostic ecohistory” or “forensic ecology.” We are given an enormous amount of well-organized information to help answer that mixed historical and ecological question. Christopher W. McVoy, Winifred Park Said, Jayantha Obeysekera, Joel Van Arman, and Thomas Dreschel allow us to benefit from the immense knowledge they accumulated as scientists at the South Florida Water Management District. They appear to have sifted through everything from journals of 19th century Everglades explorers, to newspaper accounts, to early scientific studies, to the findings of contemporary researchers.

An accompanying DVD is also a trove of information hardly available elsewhere and nowhere collected together. (Here is where I learned that “Limpkins taste like young turkeys”! (Dimock expedition, 1907, Appendix N, p. 268)). There are searchable reports from early explorers, as well as many tables and figures of scientific information. The DVD also has image files for many of the excellent color and black-and-white illustrations in the text.

A milestone of research that will be valuable for many years and a model for necessary future works about other altered ecosystems.

Posted in Florida water resources, SFWMD | Leave a comment

You are certainly not the pine-scented air

Posted on May 4, 2012 by

Most of us who talk or write about Florida water resources try to explain the need for protection and enhancement. Could there ever be a drawback to using expressive language for this purpose? Look at some of the common  Florida water metaphors and comparisons. We say that our springs are “liquid bowls of light,” that water is the “lifeblood” of the state, that water “defines” Florida, that Okeechobee is the “liquid heart” of south Florida, that water “nourishes our souls,” etc., etc. What possibly could be the downside to making comparisons like these?

Maybe, if water is so super-duper special, Floridians will want to use it and have it with them all the time. If water gives life and beauty, they may want to buy bottles of magical spring water, watch the indispensable stuff make wonderful rainbows in the lawn sprinkler, allow farmers to use all they want to make delicious food, and then build a dream house as close to the lake as possible

Here’s a warning from a Billy Collins poem about not getting too carried away with figurative language:

Posted in Expressive writing, Florida water resources | Leave a comment

XKCD Lakes and Oceans

Posted on May 2, 2012 by

Speaking of the ocean, as yesterday’s post did (a bit), Randall Munroe created a marvelous way of comparing water depths for his XKCD webcomic. The graphic below takes you to the full size image. Maybe the most striking thing is over on the right: how amazingly deep was the Deepwater Horizon well. A very, very hard and risky way to secure energy supplies. As we have learned, a failure in a single deep well threatens much of the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Posted in Water and energy, Water policy, Water quality | 1 Comment