Coastal floodplains across the southeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States are at the leading edge of climate change’s effect on what were largely freshwater ecosystems. Because of the low elevation and flat or gently sloping characteristics of coastal forests in these areas, they are among the most vulnerable globally to saltwater intrusion.
One of the thorniest problems arising from the changing climate is the degradation of inhabited areas that forces entire communities to relocate permanently. Basically, we don’t really have the infrastructure in place to deal with such occurrences.
Nobody really knows how many alligators live in Florida. It’s estimated that there are anywhere from 1.3 million to 2 million alligators in the Sunshine State, which means there’s one gator for every 10-15 Floridians. It’s this ratio that makes it just about impossible for someone living in Florida not to encounter an alligator at some point. And if you have seen one recently and thought it looked a little bigger, you may be onto something.
In 2010, an explosion on the BP-owned Deepwater Horizon drilling rig released more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the oil was recovered, burned, or dispersed at sea, while some washed up onto the shorelines of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
The Caribbean island nation of Grenada has installed a wind and solar powered off-grid streetlight. An Irish company called airsynergy has developed the underlying technology which it calls a Remote Power Unit or RPU.
People continue to find new ways to generate energy from unusual sources. A team of scientists at several universities recently reported on a new fuel cell that uses tomato waste left over from harvests in Florida.
Complex ecosystems often create complex interrelationships between animals. One of the more surprising ones is that between waterbirds and alligators in the Florida Everglades.
