The University of Miami’s 2024 Climate Café Series is holding two upcoming events featuring the WLRN podcast Bright Lit Place.
The podcast, hosted by award-winning environmental reporter Jenny Staletovich, explores Everglades restoration efforts.
Congress passed the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) in 2000, but the project has been plagued by delays and soaring costs. The two-part discussion will cover the CERP’s inception to the present in discussing the best path forward.
Part one of the discussion will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science on Virginia Key. It will start with a 4 p.m. reception, which will be followed by a 4:30 p.m. program.
The discussion will include an overview of how the CERP, the largest water restoration project in U.S. history, began. The panelists will be:
- Thomas Van Lent, Ph.D., senior scientist, Friends of the Everglades
- Curtis Osceola, chief of staff, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida
To register to attend in person, click here. To register to watch by Zoom, click here.
Part two will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at the same location and times. That session will explore where we are today, how we got here and break down what was promised and is still being delivered. The panelists will be:
- Ben Kirtman, Ph.D., Department of Atmospheric Sciences, William R Middelthon III, Chair of Earth Sciences and Director Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami Rosenstiel School.
- Col. Terrence “Rock” Salt, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Ret.).
- Evelyn Gaiser, Ph.D., Endowed George Barley Eminent Scholars Chair; Distinguished University Professor Biological Sciences; Institute of Environment; FCE-LTER, Florida International University.
To register to attend in person, click here. To register to watch by Zoom, click here.
For more information on Bright Lit Place and Everglades restoration, read The Invading Sea’s Q&A with Staletovich. The Invading Sea also published a two-part photo essay from WLRN on the people who fight for — and depend on — Everglades restoration (part one, part two).
Banner image: The view from the Pa-Hay-Oke trail in Everglades National Park, (Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu.
