Florida

Climate change is threatening Florida’s Key deer

Published

2 hours ago

November 13, 2024

Climate change is threatening Florida’s Key deer

As the United States continues to feel the effects of global warming and rising sea levels, there is renewed concern for the Key deer, a species native to the Florida Keys who could be pushed to cataclysmic levels by environmental change. The animal is the smallest deer species in North America — adults stand at just 30 inches tall.

Key deer have been dwindling in numbers throughout the 2010s. There has been a push by conservationists to promote the deer and grow their numbers; but with continued habitat loss from climate change — a factor that is unlikely to improve — some experts are wondering whether the so-called ‘real-life Bambi’ can be saved at all.

It is mainly due to rising sea levels from climate change, which are “already altering the landscape of Big Pine Key and at least 20 smaller islands the deer call home,” said The Associated Press. By 2100, sea levels in portions of the Florida Keys will rise from 1.5 feet to 7 feet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This means that on the islands inhabited by the deer, sea level increases “will continue to shrink freshwater and food sources Key deer need to survive,” said the AP.

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If scientists can’t stop rising sea levels, freshwater will continue to turn to saltwater, and increasingly powerful storms will keep pushing this saltwater inland. Once it’s there, it “can be tough for that water to drain with roads and other human development,” said CBS News. With no “fresh water to drink or to grow food for the deer and other animals that call Big Pine Key home, it leaves them with a bleak future.” The Key deer “won’t have habitat and will become extinct,” Chris Bergh, the program field director for the Nature Conservancy, said to CBS.

The possible extinction of the Key deer could also affect other species in the Florida Keys. The Key deer is an “umbrella species that is helping all the other animals that need this habitat as well,” wildlife biologist Christina Wilson said to CBS. The animals “play a huge role in the Florida Keys, they are always eating something constantly.” This makes them an important part of the Keys’ overall ecosystem, which could be in flux if the deer disappear.

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Florida

New College of Florida offers course in ‘Woke’ movement

Published

10 hours ago

November 12, 2024

Press Room

New College of Florida offers course in ‘Woke’ movement

For the first time in the school’s history, New College is offering a course in “wokeness.”

The ‘Woke’ Movement — offered as a one-month independent study in January — paints the movement as “a kind of cult” that’s methods are “essentially illiberal” and whose members “are capable of the most dehumanizing behavior,” according to the course description emailed to students Sunday evening.

The class comes amidst a statewide movement to push diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives out of state-run institutions. Two years ago Gov. Ron Desantis overhauled the school’s board of trustees in a move to push the public honors college in a conservative direction.

The class will be led by comedian and conservative commentator Andrew Doyle, an Oxford-trained historian best known for his satirical X persona Titania McGrath, and features readings from activist and New College trustee Christopher Rufo and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Students will also read passages from historian and author Ibram X. Kendi and legal scholar Robin DiAngelo, according to the course description. Both scholars helped popularize critical race theory and have become frequent targets of some free speech activists.

In interviews and in his recent book, “The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World,” Doyle speaks to his own experience losing friends and followers for his pushback on what he calls “a new censorial and identity-obsessed brand of social justice activism.”

Doyle did not respond to multiple requests for comment. New College spokesperson Nate March also did not provide a comment in time for publication.

The course offering came as a surprise to New College faculty union co-president Nova Myhill. Courses proposed by employees who are not members of any academic division’s faculty are typically brought to the relevant division for review and approval — including Doyle’s previous course covering Shakespeare’s tragedies, but Monday morning was the first she’d heard of Doyle’s class on the “woke” movement.

The one-month January term is designed to allow students to pursue independent interests, but also includes group projects that are organized as intensive courses for students who want more structure, Myhill said. Other offerings this year include “the evolution of media and its impact on religious practices” and “investigating brevetoxins in Sarasota Bay fish and sharks.”

It’s not the first time that independent study classes have made headlines. New College dean David Rancourt garnered criticism last year after making off-color jokes about sexual assault during a class on comedy.

Doyle’s course may not have received the same oversight as other offerings because he serves as a presidential scholar — hand selected by New College president Richard Corcoran — and is not subject to the same academic review as traditional faculty.

Doyle is one of a handful of new faculty and staff hired by Corcoran’s office with a connection to right-wing media, The Guardian recently reported. Other presidential scholars include the controversial political scientist Bruce Gilly and literary theorist Stanley Fish.

Doyle’s comedy has veered in recent years from smirking parodies of progressive posturing to urgent warnings of social threat posed by “wokeness” during appearances on Tucker Carlson and Jordan B Peterson’s podcast.

“More and more people are finding themselves increasingly frustrated and confused by the impact of wokeness on their everyday lives… Good people feel unable to speak their minds for fear of being misinterpreted or mischaracterized, willfully or otherwise,” according to the course description.

“It’s unbelievably hypocritical,” said Dylan Hogan, an alumnus who was targeted by New College administrators last year after disrupting the school’s graduation ceremony with chants of “Free Palestine.”

Hogan and five other student protesters were forced to write apology letters to commencement speak Joe Ricketts after the school threatened to withhold their transcripts over the infraction.

“They accuse us of being closeminded, triggered by opposing viewpoints and a threat to diversity,” he said. “If you want a demonstration in illiberalism, look at what the school did to me.”

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Florida

6 projects eyed to increase Florida space launches

Published

17 hours ago

November 12, 2024

Press Room

6 projects eyed to increase Florida space launches

TALLAHASSEE – State aerospace leaders have outlined major upgrades around Cape Canaveral as they look to build on this year’s record number of launches, which were boosted Monday by the liftoff of two Falcon 9 rockets.

Space Florida officials think six projects, ranging from an improved electrical system to replacing a bridge, need about $100 million a year through public and private investments.

Todd Romberger, Space Florida’s senior vice president of the spaceports business unit, said the work, based on industry trends, would increase the annual “tonnage” capacity of what could be launched at the cape from roughly 1,000 metric tons to 5,000 metric tons.

“That would be the equivalent of about 220 Falcon 9 launches a year, which currently we are getting up close to about 100 or so over the next, I would say, year or two,” Romberger said Thursday during a Space Florida Board of Governors meeting.

Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez, who is the chairwoman of the Space Florida board, said listing the projects “really hones in on what the challenges are for our growth.”

The projects

The six projects involve upgrades to wastewater treatment facilities, improved electrical infrastructure, wharf expansion at Port Canaveral, added fuel distribution, wetland mitigation and replacement of the NASA-owned Roy D. Bridges Bridge over the Banana River, which connects the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

“This bridge has some, I’ll call it geometric constraints that will inhibit passage of large cargo over it,” Romberger said. “And so, this is an issue that we will need to solve to help relieve some of the bottleneck in moving large things around the cape.”

Replacing the bridge would cost $145 million.

Meanwhile, upgrading the electrical system across the spaceport is projected to cost $275 million. The current system is considered insufficient for certain launch operations.

Also, Space Florida estimates additional wharf space would cost $2.1 billion.

Space Florida this year released a report calling for a nearly doubling wharf space at Port Canaveral during the next decade to meet the needs of the private space industry.

The study priced the work at $42.2 million for the first phase, growing to $2.1 billion for what is outlined as a seven-phase project.

Space Florida is considering another study to determine how all of the state’s ports can be tied to the space industry.

Part of the reason for the wharf expansion is projected demand for liquid natural gas for launch vehicles. Keeping fuel on pace with expansion, separate from the wharf projects, would cost $182 million.

Another $180 million would go toward locating and restoring wetlands in exchange for at least 381 “wetland mitigation credits” at the cape over the next 10 years.

Also, Space Florida said the spaceport is at capacity for its wastewater. While it will look at on-site treatment, it would prefer new infrastructure that would be installed by Brevard County to accommodate up to 700,000 gallons a day. The estimated cost is $20 million.

“We do not expect these to all be solved solely by the state or by our partners at (the Florida Department of Transportation),” Romberger said. “But the bottom line here is that we need to work together with federal partners, with the spaceport users, to come up with creative solutions where we are, you know, as a community and as an industry contributing together to solve these problems.”

Space Florida didn’t provide a breakdown on how much will be requested from the state and federal governments.

The SpaceX rocket launches on Monday were the 77th and 78th from Florida this year, up from 72 orbital rocket launches from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in 2023.

There were 57 launches in 2022 and 31 in 2021.

The wharf study projects 197 launches in 2028, 282 in 2033, 386 in 2043 and 1,252 in 2073.

CBS Miami Team

The CBS Miami team is a group of experienced journalists who bring you the content on CBSMiami.com.

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Florida

Trump expected to pick Florida Senator Rubio as top diplomat, reports say

Published

1 day ago

November 12, 2024

Press Room

Trump expected to pick Florida Senator Rubio as top diplomat, reports say

US Senator Marco Rubio is known for his hawkish views on China and staunch support of Israel.

United States President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Florida Senator Marco Rubio as his secretary of state, multiple media outlets have reported.

Trump on Monday appeared to have settled on Rubio, though he could still change his mind, outlets including The New York Times, CNN, CBS News and Reuters reported, quoting unnamed sources familiar with the decision.

Rubio, who is known for his hawkish foreign policy views, would be the first Hispanic American to serve as Washington’s top diplomat if appointed to the role.

Other names who have been tipped as candidates for the role in media reports include Richard Grenell, who served as ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term, and Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security adviser.

Rubio, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee, is the latest figure tipped to work under Trump as the makeup of his incoming administration rapidly takes shape.

Trump on Monday named Tom Homan, a former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as his “border czar”, and Elise Stefanik, a House Republican from New York, as ambassador to the United Nations.

Since his election to the US Senate in 2010, Rubio has staked out a reputation for holding hardline views on US adversaries such as China, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

He has also staunchly backed Israel’s war in Gaza, telling a peace activist last year that Hamas was “100 percent to blame” for the deaths of Palestinians in the enclave.

“I want them to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on,” Rubio said in a confrontation with Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin in December.

“These people are vicious animals who did horrifying crimes and I hope you guys post that because that’s my position.”

During his unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016, Rubio clashed with Trump, mocking his then-rival over the size of his hands and saying he would “make America orange” instead of great again.

Rubio later backed Trump as the Republican nominee in 2016 and acted as a close adviser on foreign policy to the former president during his unsuccessful 2020 run.

During Trump’s latest bid for the White House, Rubio was floated as a possible vice-presidential pick and appeared with him at various events on the campaign trail.

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