By Amy Butler, Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University received a gift of $25,000 from VoLo Foundation to support The Invading Sea, an award-winning website dedicated to sharing nonpartisan news and opinion pieces about climate change and other environmental issues in Florida. In 2023, the university became home to The Invading Sea and is now managed by Florida Atlantic’s Center for Environmental Studies (CES), within the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.
“VoLo Foundation is a leader in bringing attention to climate impacts and solutions in Florida,” said Nathan Crabbe, editor of The Invading Sea. “As Florida experiences climate impacts like extreme heat, sea level rise and stronger hurricanes, The Invading Sea is working to help people better understand why these changes are happening and what can be done about them. VoLo Foundation’s support will help us encourage bipartisan dialogue that brings Floridians toward consensus on potential solutions.”
VoLo Foundation is a private family organization that exists to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education and improving health. The foundation believes that developing and sharing knowledge through facts and data will accelerate positive, global change.
“Climate change is not a blue or a red issue. It is a green issue,” said Thais Lopez Vogel, trustee and co-founder of VoLo Foundation. “The Invading Sea is relevant and necessary in a state like Florida, where residents and tourists are so vulnerable to the economic and health impacts of a warming climate.”
The Invading Sea aims to reach a broad audience through news articles, opinion pieces and videos about climate change and other environmental issues that affect Florida. All materials and educational content are available at theinvadingsea.com for free without a subscription. The website puts aside competitive interests and distributes its published opinion pieces to 27 major newspapers across Florida, further extending its reach.
VoLo Foundation’s support will also enable Florida Atlantic students to become strong science communicators. Undergraduate and graduate students from the Schmidt College of Science and the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters are involved with The Invading Sea.
Undergraduate multimedia journalism students serve as reporting interns for the website, producing news articles on issues such as the climate challenges facing Florida’s infrastructure and new technologies being developed in areas such as “ocean tech.” Graduate students who work for CES also contribute to the site, producing such pieces as Q&As with Floridians on the front lines of addressing climate change, including academics, nonprofit leaders, public officials and startup founders.
“Our goal is to help these students learn to be effective science communicators while producing quality environmental journalism,” stated Crabbe.
In 2018, The Invading Sea began as a collaboration among the editorial boards of the Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and Sun Sentinel, with Miami-based public radio station WLRN serving as a news partner. Rosemary O’Hara, former Sun Sentinel opinion page editor, and her husband, Tom O’Hara, a veteran newspaper editor, edited the site before CES took over management.
Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here. To support The Invading Sea, click here to make a donation. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Banner image: Thais Lopez Vogel addresses a group. (Photo courtesy of VoLo Foundation).
