Over the course of the Pine Jog Fellowship, I Iearned about many different environmental issues that are currently impacting Florida. The five main topics that we covered were Sustainability and Climate Change, Water Quality and Quantity, Waste Management and Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture, and Biodiversity.
For Sustainability and Climate Change I learned about how we are trying to restore the water quality that we once had in Florida as well as what an increase in climate will do to our environment. As Grassy Waters Preserve, I learned that there are fifty percent less wetlands than there originally was in Florida. Wetlands are important because they are what recharge our groundwater. Grassy Waters is working to restore the habitat …show more content…
Storm water treatment areas work to reduce the amount of phosphorous that makes it into the Everglades. Both submerged and emergent vegetation reduce the amount of phosphorous in the water from one hundred or two hundred parts per billion all the way down to thirteen parts per billion. The Clean Water Act is what makes it necessary to have a low amount of nutrients in the water. Water conservation is also very necessary to make sure that Florida has a large enough water supply for the future. Florida is a subtropical climate that has a history of droughts and has a high rate of evaporation. Groundwater depletion has many effects including wetland drying, lowering lake levels, and sinkholes. To meet the future demands, it will be necessary to decrease the demand of water rather than increasing the supply because that is expensive and will increase carbon levels in the atmosphere. To reduce the demand of water, we must reduce the wasteful use of water as well as increasing efficiency. I also learned about the Everglades and how it has changed over the history of Florida. There are now more lakes and canals that make it impossible for all of the water to reach the …show more content…
At Green Cay Farms, I saw different methods of integrated pest management, including plastic mulch and pesticides. This was contrasting to Farmer Jay, who was an organic farmer. At Grey Mockingbird Community Garden, I saw how a community can come together and benefit from gardening. This particular community garden rents out plots to the community and offers many different methods of farming. Any food that is not used, is then donated to local shelters. I believe that every community could benefit from a garden. At the Breakers, a presentation was given on how we can all work together to feed the world in the future. We can do this by not building any more farms, growing more on the farms that we already have, using our current resources more efficiently, shifting diets to consume less, and reducing the amount of wasted food. I thought this day was one of the most important as well as one of the most interesting because food is the most important aspect of human
For Sustainability and Climate Change I learned about how we are trying to restore the water quality that we once had in Florida as well as what an increase in climate will do to our environment. As Grassy Waters Preserve, I learned that there are fifty percent less wetlands than there originally was in Florida. Wetlands are important because they are what recharge our groundwater. Grassy Waters is working to restore the habitat …show more content…
Storm water treatment areas work to reduce the amount of phosphorous that makes it into the Everglades. Both submerged and emergent vegetation reduce the amount of phosphorous in the water from one hundred or two hundred parts per billion all the way down to thirteen parts per billion. The Clean Water Act is what makes it necessary to have a low amount of nutrients in the water. Water conservation is also very necessary to make sure that Florida has a large enough water supply for the future. Florida is a subtropical climate that has a history of droughts and has a high rate of evaporation. Groundwater depletion has many effects including wetland drying, lowering lake levels, and sinkholes. To meet the future demands, it will be necessary to decrease the demand of water rather than increasing the supply because that is expensive and will increase carbon levels in the atmosphere. To reduce the demand of water, we must reduce the wasteful use of water as well as increasing efficiency. I also learned about the Everglades and how it has changed over the history of Florida. There are now more lakes and canals that make it impossible for all of the water to reach the …show more content…
At Green Cay Farms, I saw different methods of integrated pest management, including plastic mulch and pesticides. This was contrasting to Farmer Jay, who was an organic farmer. At Grey Mockingbird Community Garden, I saw how a community can come together and benefit from gardening. This particular community garden rents out plots to the community and offers many different methods of farming. Any food that is not used, is then donated to local shelters. I believe that every community could benefit from a garden. At the Breakers, a presentation was given on how we can all work together to feed the world in the future. We can do this by not building any more farms, growing more on the farms that we already have, using our current resources more efficiently, shifting diets to consume less, and reducing the amount of wasted food. I thought this day was one of the most important as well as one of the most interesting because food is the most important aspect of human