A roundup of news items related to climate change and other environmental issues in Florida:
$1 million grant to help combat flooding, sea-level rise in Palm Beach County | WPTV NewsChannel 5
Palm Beach County is receiving a big boost to help assess flood and sea-level rise vulnerability.
County officials said in Wednesday statement that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) awarded the county a $1 million grant from the FDEP Resilient Florida Program to assist six municipalities.
The vulnerability assessments will help each municipality address current flooding and prepare for future flooding, the county said.
‘Literally off the charts’: global coral reef heat stress monitor forced to add new alerts as temperatures rise | The Guardian
The world’s main system for warning about heat stress on the planet’s coral reefs has been forced to add three new alert categories to represent ever-increasing temperature extremes.
The changes introduced by the U.S. government’s Coral Reef Watch program come after reefs across the Americas were hit by unprecedented levels of heat stress last year that bleached and killed corals en masse.
“We are entering a new world in terms of heat stress where the impacts are becoming so pervasive that we had to rethink how we were doing things,” the Coral Reef Watch director, Dr. Derek Manzello, told the Guardian.
Miami-Dade pipes wastewater into the ocean. This overhaul will reduce the foul flow | Miami Herald
Miami-Dade’s biggest — and most vulnerable — sewage treatment plant is getting a big upgrade, which could help the county stop piping tens of millions of gallons of wastewater into the ocean in the next few years.
On Thursday, county leaders praised the project as a step toward a “future-proofed county.”
“We are making bold achievements to ensure we have a resilient future — we will and we must,” said Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
If you have any news items of note that you think we should include in our next roundup, please email The Invading Sea Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here.