A roundup of news items related to climate change and other environmental issues in Florida:
Prisoners in Texas and Florida face biggest risk of increasingly deadly heat | The Guardian
Deadly heat is threatening the lives of America’s aging incarcerated population, who are trapped in increasingly hot and humid conditions as the climate emergency escalates, new research has found.
Almost 45% of detention facilities on the U.S. mainland suffered a rise in hazardous heat days between 1982 and 2020, with the south most severely affected. People incarcerated in state-run facilities in Texas and Florida are the most exposed to dangerous conditions.
Hazardous heat refers to the number of days a year when the indoor maximum wet bulb globe temperature exceeds 82 F – the safe humid-heat threshold set by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for acclimated populations under moderate workload.
Bill making it easier to demolish historic Florida buildings heads to DeSantis’ desk | Miami Herald
Legislation giving developers more power to knock down historic buildings near Florida’s coast without interference from local governments is heading to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.
The Florida House passed the measure on an 86-29 vote on Wednesday, despite objections from city officials and historic preservationists in Miami Beach who said the bill threatens to wipe out some of the city’s iconic Art Deco architecture. Lawmakers from the Tampa Bay area also raised concerns about the impact potential developments would have on vulnerable coastal communities.
The proposal has been retooled since last year, when similar legislation passed in the Senate before dying in the House amid an uproar from residents in Miami Beach and several other coastal communities.
Residents in low-lying Pinellas mobile home park told to elevate houses or leave | Tampa Bay Times
Pinellas County has ordered dozens of residents in a frequently flooded mobile home park to elevate their homes to nearly 11 feet or leave by the start of hurricane season in June.
Residents of Twin City park, which is in the Gandy area, say it makes no sense to spend as much as $50,000 to elevate homes that are valued at half that amount — or less. Some have nowhere to go and plan to stay as the summer deadline approaches. Others say they intend to move out of Florida because of hurricanes, sea-level rise and flooding.
“I’ve done it for 10 years,” said Douglas McVey, who replaced the floors in his home five times after storms. “I’m done.”
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.
