...2013 – The Everglades Flood Control and Restoration: A Century of Disaster OUTLINE ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Before drainage of the Everglades began over a century ago, the wetlands of southern Florida were an interconnected hydrological assortment of lavish freshwater lakes and streams, cypress swamps, secluded estuarine lagoons, freshwater sloughs, tree islands, wet prairies, and mangrove swamps spanning 3.6 million hectares. After a century of intrusion, the daunting task of understanding, fixing, maintaining, and regaining a sustainable, natural Everglades-type ecosystem in South Florida is monumental. The area south of Lake Okeechobee now has a human population of over four million people, with greedy agricultural and urban demands for more water and more space. Therefore, several uphill battles have ensued. The conceptual plans for restoring this ecosystem, currently on record, are all extremely expensive to implement. A more thorough definition of the environmental and societal objectives and measures of success are required. How the ecosystem will respond to the return of a more natural hydrological pattern is uncertain, but needs to be addressed as the expected and desired outcome through measures of performance. The critical level of deterioration of the Everglades has created a crisis-management atmosphere instead of a full spectrum response and future prevention methodology. The political and social aspects of the Everglades restoration...
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...Feeling the Squeeze: The effects of the Python molorus bivittatus (Burmese python) in South Florida Inez Broom PCB 4043 October 7, 2015 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effects of Burmese python in their non-native environment of South Florida. The discovery of how and why they have made South Florida their home and the impact they have had on the local ecosystem will be discussed. In addition, the management and control methods being used. Introduction The Python molorus bivittatus referred to as the Burmese python originated from Southeast Asia and have made South Florida their permanent home. Burmese python have been considered a subspecies to the native Indian python and have been able to squeeze out...
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...pick up nutrients while in the gut. Thus, in some cases, blue-green algae blooms have been exacerbated by grass carp. Also, Microcystis has been shown to produce more toxins in the presence of grass carp. Grass carp, which have natural defenses to their toxins, sometimes can contain enough algal toxins in their systems that they become hazardous to eat. Ecosystem’s evasive species The Burmese python has its origins in Southeast Asia and was introduced in Everglades in 1979. Perhaps no other invasive species has attracted as much media attention at Burmese pythons in Florida, particularly after spectacular photographs and eyewitness accounts of struggles between native alligators and these snakes were released. Burmese pythons have voracious appetites and have been found to eat animals ranging in size from wrens to white-tailed deer. A study by Michael Dorcas of Davidson College found some mammals populations have dropped 90 percent in areas populated by the pythons. They share the top of the food chain in the Everglades with alligators and prey on 39 endangered species and 41 additional rare species. They continue to be sold as pets; around 6,000 pythons were imported into Miami from 2003 to 2005. They are removed immediately from Everglades National Park; as of 2007, national park staff report extracting a total of 600 pythons. Another 300 were captured in 2008 alone. As of 2012, it's estimated 30,000 are living in South Florida in 2012. The Common Myna has its origins in Southeast...
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...The Consequences of Eliminating Rock Mining in South Florida Carlos Socarras Professor – Karen Nead English-135 December 1, 2008 The reason I chose this topic for my research paper is because I feel that it is critical to help educate you a little on the importance of rock mining in South Florida and the consequences that we will endure without this local resource. Throughout this paper you will see me make reference to Titan Americas Pennsuco facility. This is mostly because I am currently employed by them and have been working in the Pennsuco cement plant for over nineteen years now, so I have managed to learn a lot of its history through time and experience. Another reason is the fact that as a fellow employee the ruling to eliminate rock mining in Florida directly affects me mainly because this decision would put me out of a job. I would first like to begin by giving you a brief history of the Pennsuco land and how Titan America acquired the facility, so that you can have a better understanding of the issues that we are currently experiencing. In the early 1900s, Pennsylvania Sugar Co., which is where the term “Pennsuco” came from was one of several companies that obtained large acreages and planted sugar cane on the drained “muck land” of the Florida Everglades. Operations were good until the Great Depression of the 1930s hit the sugar market. Today the Pennsuco cement plant is located on the former Pennsuco sugar Farms property. (Cement Americas, 2005) ...
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...ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND THE TYRANNY OF SMALL DECISIONS William E. Odum[1] BioScience Vol 32 No.9; Oct 1982; pp:728-729. Economist Alfred E Kahn's premise of "the tyranny of small decisions" is applicable to environmental issues. Examples of so-called "small decision effects" range from loss of prime farmland and acid precipitation to mismanagement of the Florida Everglades. A holistic rather than reductionist perspective is needed to avoid the undesirable, cumulative effects of small decisions (Accepted for publication 2 March 1982). Ideally, society's problems are resolved through a system of nested levels of public decision are made by the individual or by small groups of individuals. Higher decision-making levels range from local and state governments to the higher decision-making levels range from local and state governments to the highest levels of the federal government. Theoretically, the highest levels are composed of experts whose joint decisions provide constraints in the form of "rules" for decisions made at the lower levels. Unfortunately, important decisions are often reached in an entirely different manner. A series of small, apparently independent decisions are made. Often by individuals or small groups of individuals. The end result is that a big decision occurs (post hoc) as an accretion of these small decisions: the central question is never addressed directly at the higher decision-making levels. Usually, this process does not produce...
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...Native American Studies Survival and Sovereignty: The Seminole Tribes The Nation - The Seminole tribe is the product of an ethno-cultural blending of the Creek peoples from the lower-central Southeast with indigenous Floridian tribes such as the Choctaw, Timuquan and Apalachicolas, some of whom were part of the Muschogean culture. The meaning of the word “Seminole” has been interpreted, loosely, as “runaway” or “broken off” (McReynolds 1957, 12). This refers to the separation of the Lower Creek peoples from the larger tribe, as described by an 18th-century observer. “Runaway,” reported historian Wiley Thompson, was “applicable to all the Indians in the Territory of Florida as all of them ran away…from the Creek…” (McReynolds 1957, 12). Runaway African-American slaves added to this conglomeration of native peoples, making the Seminoles a truly renegade people in every sense. The Seminoles saw themselves as having waged a long struggle for freedom. “The Indians who constituted the nucleus of (the) Florida group thought of themselves as yat;siminoli or ‘free people…’” (Seminole Tribe of Florida, 2013). The Seminoles spread throughout Florida during the second half of the 18th century. A diverse group, they brought with them a broad range of skills and means of subsistence, including farming, hunting, fishing and a form of animal husbandry. From their North Florida homeland, the tribe expanded south, establishing settlements as far as the Everglades by 1800 (Grunwald...
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...Human Factors involved in the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 A Human Factors Case Study Submitted to the Worldwide Campus In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of Course SFTY 320 Human Factors in Aviation Safety Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University October 2013 Abstract On May 11, 1996, Flight 592 departed from Miami. It had pushed back from gate after a delay of 1 hour and 4 minutes due to mechanical problems. There were 105 passengers on board, mainly from Florida and Georgia, as well as a crew of two pilots and three flight attendants, bringing the total number of people on board to 110. At 2:04 pm, the DC-9 took off from runway 9L and began a normal climb. 10 minutes later the aircraft crashed into the Florida everglades with all hands on board lost. This Case Study will analyze and evaluate all contributing factors, with focus on the human factors, and propose solutions that would have kept the Liveware element from causing the accident. Intro The crash of ValuJet 592 was an accident that gripped the nation. In a decade of low priced airfare, ValuJet was a house hold name for providing economical flights. The loss of flight 592 raised nationwide concerns over the airline industry; from maintenance practices, to management pitfalls among all of the low cost air carriers. 592’s crash also rocked the entire airline industry, and ultimately caused a loss of confidence by the majority of the public in economical airlines. It was a completely avoidable...
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...Published by the Ecological Society of America Number 10, Winter 2003 Issues in Ecology Sustaining Healthy Freshwater Ecosystems Issues in Ecology Number 10 Winter 2003 Sustaining Healthy Freshwater Ecosystems SUMMARY Fresh water is vital to human life and economic well-being, and societies extract vast quantities of water from rivers, lakes, wetlands, and underground aquifers to supply the requirements of cities, farms, and industries. Our need for fresh water has long caused us to overlook equally vital benefits of water that remains in stream to sustain healthy aquatic ecosystems. There is growing recognition, however, that functionally intact and biologically complex freshwater ecosystems provide many economically valuable commodities and services to society. These services include flood control, transportation, recreation, purification of human and industrial wastes, habitat for plants and animals, and production of fish and other foods and marketable goods. Over the long term, intact ecosystems are more likely to retain the adaptive capacity to sustain production of these goods and services in the face of future environmental disruptions such as climate change. These ecosystem benefits are costly and often impossible to replace when aquatic systems are degraded. For this reason, deliberations about water allocation should always include provisions for maintaining the integrity of freshwater ecosystems. Scientific evidence indicates that aquatic ecosystems can be protected...
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...University of Phoenix Material: Week Five - Assignment Does Not Need to be Based on the Learning Team Selected State (however, specific examples need to be included to support the content) Government Comparisons Matrix: (the Reading Material: Chapters 1, 2, and 12 will help students address the key elements) Based on the readings from State and Local Government textbook, review and summarize how each issue is managed at the state, local, federal levels. Responses should be substantive with specific examples. State | Local | Federal | How these entities cooperate | General Responsibilities | - Conduct Elections- Regulate intrastate commerce - Establish republican forms of state and local government- Protect public health safety, and morals- All other powers not delegated to national government or denied by the states constitution Reference:Ann O’M. Bowman, Richard C. Kearney | - Parks and recreation services- Police and fire departments - HHHHHhhousing services- Emergency medical services- Municipal Courts- Transportation services – Buses, subways, taxi regulations, etc. - Public Works – streets, sewers, snow removal, signage, etc.Reference:http://www.whitehouse.gov/our-government/state-and-local-government | - Coin Money- Regulate interstate and foreign commerce- tax imports and exports- Make treaties- Make all laws “necessary and proper” to fulfill responsibilities - Make War- Regulate postal systemReference: Ann O’M. Bowman, Richard C. Kearney | All of these entities...
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...Clean Air Act Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7401 et seq. -- Enforced by US EPA -- By the end of this lecture you should be able to describe: * The race to laxity * What NAAQS means. * The federal government’s role in cooperative federalism * 7 criteria pollutants * A hazardous pollutant under the CAA * Non-attainment area * Emissions trading programs * Noise pollution under the CAA * The four Class I areas designated by the State of Florida * The four emissions regulated by Title II of the Clean Air Act relating to motorized vehicles * How long a waiver is good for and to how much of an auto manufacturer’s production does it apply to. * What city is the Title II pollution numbers based on. * What is a clean fuel vehicle. LOOK for *** as pointers NOTE Most of the narrative on the lectures in this course has been modified from: - Plater et al. Environmental Law and Policy: Nature, Law and Society, 1992. - Findley and Farber. Environmental Law, 2008. Background Air and water are common resources and are sometimes referred to by lay-people as “pollution sinks,” implying that airsheds and water bodies are large vats into which pollutants can be thrown as a large disposal. As we saw with the Clean Water Act, this isn’t true. While both airsheds and water bodies can handle some amount of pollution without significant degradation, airsheds and water...
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...How do you plan to incorporate 7 levels of Corporate Sustainability in your career and the 5 principles of Environmental Law 1. In my future career as Manager, I would like to work for organizations that cater to the Triple bottom Line and works not only towards profit but also towards the betterment of the Planet and the People. As such I would like to become a “responsible Manager”- who fulfils his duties not only towards the company but towards the environment and future generations by using resources responsibly, reducing the individual and organization’s ecological footprint and engage actively in Corporate Social Responsibility, not under obligatory pressure but with a sense of responsibility towards the society and environment on which it depends. As an individual, I believe that every individual has a fundamental duty and non-negotiable responsibility to be “environmentally responsible”- to try and mitigate the toll that Mother Nature is already been through in the name of Industrialisation and globalization. I strongly feel that everyone has not only a responsibility towards one’s self and one’s organization – but also towards the environment. Hence, it is important for me to choose an organization whose goals and corporate vision are aligned with this perspective. The closer the fit between my individual objectives and the organization- the higher my productivity and loyalty towards the Company. My responsibility as a responsible Marketing Manager- The scope...
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...Tropical Ecology Scrap Book 1. August 31, 2015 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150831163723.htm There has been changes and fluctuations in plankton and fish species in the North Pacific region that has been a mystery for some time. Several temperature changes have been linked to North Pacific ecosystem mystery. The distribution of plankton and fish species is caused by the ecosystem shifts. 2. August 31, 2015 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150831163726.htm Scientists have found ancient in many mantle rocks below the sea floor. These rocks that have been discovered contain microbial life, which show life had been present during the Cretaceous period. This discovery finally confirms a hypothesis that life can in fact be created deep below the seafloor. 3. September 1, 2015 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150901100551.htm Increase in climate threat has been identified using unique statistical analysis. The frequency in droughts and heat waves has been occurring more frequent than usual. Climate experts have been able to determine the dual climate threat. 4. September 1, 2015 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150901113432.htm Scientists discovered like humans female orangutans prefer specific characteristics. They prefer cheek padded male orangutans, which are more successful at fathering offspring. The females have standards. 5. September 1, 2015 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150901135103...
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...Patient and Family Centered Care Kimberley Masterson WGU0713 Stacy Stratton-Mentor Practice Setting Wellington Regional Medical Center is located in Wellington, Florida. It is a 233-bed, acute-care hospital, owned by a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, Inc., a highly respected, healthcare management organization. Wellington Regional Medical Center is owned and operated by a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, Inc.(UHS), a King of Prussia, PA-based company, that is one of the largest healthcare management companies in the nation. Wellington Regional is proud to have provided high-quality healthcare("About Wellington Regional Medical Center - Palm Beach, FL | Wellington Regional Medical Center," n.d.) services to the residents of Palm Beach County since 1986.The Village of Wellington has an approximate census of 60,000 in 2013. (Census.gov). Wellington is located in western Palm Beach County and borders the Florida Everglades. Initially, the land area known today as Wellington, Fl. was developed in 1953 to provide drainage and flood control suitable for agriculture. The area was once the world’s largest strawberry patch. Nevertheless, over time the land has been purchased and sold until 1985 when Lennar homes built on 500 lots. Today, Wellington is an affluent and thriving community that is willing to stake its future on being different.(“Wellington/History of Wellington”.nd) Wellington is recognized as the winter equestrian capital of the world. Wellington...
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...SPLITTING THE CHECK: AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT DARDEN RESTAURANTS, INC. vs. BARINGTON CAPITAL GROUP LP Table of Contents Executive Summary 4 Position 5 Sense 6 Uncover 7 Solve 8 Build 9 Achieve 10 Bibliography 23 Executive Summary This is the first paragraph of your executive summary. It should be indented, it should be double-spaced, and it should be in 12 pt Times New Roman font (as should the rest of the body of your term paper). An executive summary should be no longer than two pages (and preferably shorter), and should be written after your paper has been completed. It is a complete summary of your recommendations, and the reader should get a clear picture from this section alone. Assume that the reader reads nothing else. Darden Restaurants, Inc., a multi-billion dollar full-service restaurant company, is facing – and will be facing many difficult challenges. In addition to billions in lost revenue from the economic downturn and a severe shortage in their most served menu item, they have recently been challenged by a new minority shareholder who is pressuring them to reorganize their corporate structure. This activist investor, Barington Capital Group, LP, is known for being particularly aggressive and frequently getting what they want. Darden’s revenues are down significantly over the last couple of years in their two flagship – and typically most profitable restaurants, Red Lobster...
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...Name: C.T.B. Assignment: “Our Stolen Future” Date: 12/03/2012 The Book “Our Stolen Future” is considered to be a sequel of “Silent Spring“, a Rachel’s Carson classic work, a clarion call to protect the American public from manmade synthetic pesticides that cause genetic mutations and cancer. Carson not only described how persistent chemicals were contaminating the natural world, she documented how those chemicals where accumulated into our bodies. Since then, studies of human breast milk and body fat have confirmed the extent of our exposure. Human beings in such remote locations as Canada’s far northern Baffin Island now carry traces of persistent chemicals in their bodies, including notorious compounds as PCBs, DDT and dioxin. Even worse, in the womb and through breast milk, mothers pass this chemical legacy on to the next generation. “Our Stolen Future”, the scientific discovery of Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski and John Peterson Myers, takes up where Carson left off and reviews a large and growing body of scientific evidence, linking synthetic chemicals to aberrant sexual development and behavioral and reproductive problems, such as low sperm counts, infertility, genital deformities, hormonally triggered human cancers, like those of breast and prostate gland, neurological disorders in children such as hyperactivity and deficits in attention. The quality of men's sperm declined steadily in the early years of the 21st century until hardly anyone could reproduce in...
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