$9,090 an acre

The state of Florida is pursuing a blockbuster buyout of the biggest chunk of Big Sugar, the powerful agricultural industry whose pollution of the Everglades has made it a target of environmentalists for decades.

Gov. Charlie Crist has scheduled a press conference Tuesday in Palm Beach County, where he’s expected to outline a state proposal to purchase the U.S. Sugar Corp.’s vast holdings between Lake Okeechobee and the marshes of the Everglades — as much as 187,000 acres, including refineries, railroads and rock mines.

The opening bid could be near $1.7 billion, though the figures could change during what promise to be lengthy and complex negotiations.

Miami Herald

Should the seas rise about 8 or 10 feet this century, the purchase is going to be one of the stupidest moves of all time — well, not for U.S. Sugar.

6 thoughts on “$9,090 an acre”

  1. If the oceans rise 8 or 10 feet, the Florida government will not need to worry about $1.7 billion it spent once.

  2. If the sea were going to rise ten feet this century it would have risen about 9 inches so far this century. I haven’t heard that.

    As far as I’ve heard the sea level has been essentially the same since Ponce de Leon visited and probably for millenia before that. Some species have actually evolved to take advantage of that environment which points at a MUCH longer time.

    I think that protecting the everglades by buying them up is not a good way since doing that furthers the single idea of a very small group of people. Surely a better way can be devised that allows wider use of the land.

  3. Let’s apply that logic here locally. If 24 feet of snow is going to melt on Mt. Hood this year then 12 feet should have already melted.

    Two feet would have melted in January. Two feet would have melted in February. Two feet would have melted in March….

    And evolution doesn’t happen in concentrated bursts after significant changes to an ecosystem. It happens one equal step at a time over the tens of millions of years.

  4. But, in fact, sea level has been rising. According to NASA (and many other sources):

    Twentieth century sea level trends, however, are substantially higher that those of the last few thousand years. The current phase of accelerated sea level rise appears to have begun in the mid/late 19th century to early 20th century, based on coastal sediments from a number of localities. Twentieth century global sea level, as determined from tide gauges in coastal harbors, has been increasing by 1.7-1.8 mm/yr, apparently related to the recent climatic warming trend. Most of this rise comes from warming of the world’s oceans and melting of mountain glaciers, which have receded dramatically in many places especially during the last few decades. Since 1993, an even higher sea level trend of about 2.8 mm/yr has been measured from the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite altimeter. Analysis of longer tide-gauge records (1870-2004) also suggests a possible late 20th century acceleration in global sea level.

    FIll a glass with water to the brim. Pretend the brim is Miami or Santa Monica or Bangladesh. Fill another glass with ice and set it out at room temperature. Pretend the ice is glaciers. As the ice melts, pour the contents of that glass into the glass filled with water. Have paper towel handy.

    When glaciers melt, and particularly if the Greenland and Antarctica ice caps melt, the sea will rise. The meltwater has to go somewhere.

    Scientists only debate how much they will melt and how soon, not if.

  6. Thank you Michelle. but I believe you missed my point.

    When ecosystems go through significant changes the rate of evolution accelerates, favoring creatures whose inherent characteristics allow them to better survive in the newer conditions.

    A graph of evolutionary changes as a function of time would have a sawtooth characteristic, not a straight line as many creationists I’ve listened to maintain.

    The melting of the Earth’s glaciers is speeding up and only a moron (or perhaps a cyber-troll) would insist that the sea level would not also raise at an accelerated rate.

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