If you’ve lived in Miami longer than, say, one week, you’re probably familiar with the South Florida weather sensation known as king tides. During a few stretches of the year when the moon is closest to the Earth, the gravitational pull causes higher-than-normal tides, prompting the hellish phenomenon of sunny-day flooding.
It’s pretty much inevitable that you will face at least one hurricane during your time in Miami. From June 1 to November 30, Floridians are basically always on edge about when the next storm might strike. And thanks to climate change and global warming, hurricanes over the coming years will…
The Amazon rainforest has been ablaze for weeks, cloaking Brazilian cities in smog and drawing international concern. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who campaigned on reopening the Amazon to business, says his government can’t stop the wildfires. For environmental protesters in Miami and other major cities around the world, that’s not good enough.
Last week, the Trump administration severely weakened the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in a series of changes that included erasing climate change as a threat to wildlife and removing protections from threatened species. In response, a group of environmental and animal protection organizations has filed a lawsuit arguing the amendments violate the law.
Nearly 90 percent of all sea turtle nesting in the United States occurs on Florida beaches. Every summer, thousands of threatened and endangered sea turtles emerge from the water at night to lay their eggs in the sand.
A mere six weeks ago, Surfside commissioners passed a sweeping ban of most single-use plastics, hoping to rid the town of plastic bags, utensils, and dinnerware. At the time, Mayor Daniel Dietch praised the ban as a reasonable measure that would help reduce plastic pollution in the oceanside community.
Changes announced this week to the Endangered Species Act will make it even more difficult to protect endangered wildlife or designate areas as critical habitats.
Just weeks after a pool boy was accidentally shot by an iguana hunter in their neighborhood, two enterprising Boca Raton teens began stuffing mailboxes with flyers advertising the pair’s extermination services.
We’re only one week into August, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has already upgraded its forecast for the rest of the hurricane season. Conditions in the Atlantic are now more hospitable to hurricane activity.
Florida — home of armed iguana hunters, exploding toilets, and the nation’s grandparents — just so happens to be the perfect petri dish for algal blooms. Because blue-green algae absorb energy from the sun and quickly grow in warm freshwater, the Sunshine State offers optimal conditions for the microorganisms called cyanobacteria to thrive.
A few months ago, Jennifer Diaz rented a condo for her 64-year-old mother in Doral. She had heard there was a garbage dump nearby, but for the price, she thought it would be worth it. When she moved her mother in, neither of them expected to be next-door neighbors with “Mount Trashmore” — the Medley Landfill.
We all know Miami will be underwater sooner or later. But while some folks are plotting how to spend their Atlantean retirement down here, others are asking the all-important question: How much is it gonna cost?
During North Bay Village’s commission meeting Monday, commissioners in a 3-0 vote approved a ban on single-use plastic bags, utensils, and straws, joining nearby communities of Bal Harbour and Surfside in prohibiting most single-use plastics.
Nearly two months into the 2019 hurricane season, only two named storms have emerged: Subtropical Storm Andrea and Tropical Storm Barry. Today a smaller, unnamed weather system is moving along the coast of Florida.
A new scientific study links nitrogen to the mysterious disease killing Florida’s coral reefs.
Scientists are testing cyanobacteria in the Caloosahatchee River to better understand how harmful algar blooms develop and why.
If you’ve lived in Florida long enough, you know neon-green iguanas are just part of the scenery — no different from an anti-abortion billboard or an O.J. Simpson sighting. But green iguanas are actually an invasive species. Earlier this month, state wildlife officials made national news after announcing that, yes, it is in fact perfectly legal to kill an iguana for setting foot on your land.
Dr. Cheryl Holder was volunteering at the Overtown Music & Arts Festival this past weekend when an 11-year-old girl was brought in to the medical tent. The temperature was in the low 90s, but the heat index level — a combination of heat and humidity that more accurately explains what the temperature feels like — was closer to triple digits. Noticing the girl was extremely ill and unaware of her surroundings, Holder treated her young patient for heat exhaustion.
From the oaks of Coconut Grove to the mahoganies of the Upper Eastside, the trees in Miami give each neighborhood a distinctive flair. So, for years, the City of Miami — which is designated a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation — has passed myriad regulations protecting the canopy and preventing residents from chopping down trees without significant approval.
Two years ago, an Israeli theater student, Elizabeth “Ellie” Goldenberg, went on an airboat ride only one day after graduating from the University of Miami. The trip began innocently enough, but five minutes into the ride, the boat tipped over while trying to navigate around a disabled vessel. In an instant, the passengers were thrown from the airboat and Goldenberg was crushed beneath the engine cage. A toxicology report later showed the airboat operator had high levels of THC in his system.
On the outskirts of Wynwood is a colorful warehouse-turned-Airbnb where 25 teenagers are on a mission to save the world. As electronic and pop music plays loudly inside, students huddle together on their laptops to put the finishing touches on their plans for this weekend’s Youth Climate Summit in Miami.
An official from the Army Corps of Engineers confirmed yesterday what people have known for years: the Corps has been dumping toxic water from Lake Okeechobee into local estuaries without warning the populace.
