Matt Sheehan is the State of Water director, and oversees the multimedia reporting and production of the project. Matt is director of the 21st Century News Laboratory at UF’s College of Journalism and Communications. Sheehan joined the college after two years in the media startup world, where he served as chief operating officer for a niche media company. A journalist and MBA, he has jumped between established/emerging media and the academy. He’s served as an assistant news editor at The Washington Post, worked at a few East Coast papers (as an editor, reporter, designer and online producer), and spent a few years as an academic administrator at the University of Maryland, where he also taught.
The dedication of a new plant science research center for the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Science was marred by protest against the namesake of the facility, Frank Stonach. Stonach is at the center of controversy over a 30,000-acre cattle ranch, which opponents are concerned about the water usage required to sustain the farm.
The Frank Stronach Plant Science Center is the home of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Science’s agronomic, fruit and vegetable research efforts. Today marked the dedication of the conference center to Stronach himself. The celebration wasn’t without controversy.
Read more at: www.wuft.org
A sinkhole that opened near a residence in Gainesville Saturday could be the first in what experts worry may be a strong season for sinkhole activity.
On the surface, it appeared Monday that little had changed in Robert and Rhonda Matheny’s backyard. The crater-like sinkhole that opened up Saturday, its lip a few yards from the swimming pool, hadn’t grown much since Sunday. But what was happening below the surface on the Mathenys’ property in Jonesville was of concern to geologists.
Read more at: www.gainesville.com
Area lakes in North central Florida are at record lows as dry conditions continue in the area and throughout the state.
As part of our continuing coverage on low water levels, Florida’s 89.1, WUFT-FM’s Kelsey Peck reports on how the low water levels in the Keystone Heights region have business owners and residents hoping for rainfall for more reasons than one.
Read more at: www.wuft.org
Mother Jones translates a scientific study appearing in Science magazine that shows evidence that changes in the saltiness of areas of the ocean are causing shifting weather patterns, including more or less precipitation. The study posits that moving forward dry regions of the world are going to get even drier and wetter regions could be prone to more flooding.
Surface salinity changes from 1950 to 2000. Red shows regions becoming saltier, blue regions becoming fresher: P.J. Durack, et al. Science. 2012. DOI:10.1126/science.1212222 A paper in Science today finds rapidly changing ocean salinities as a result of a warming atmosphere have intensified the global water cycle (evaporation and precipitation) by an incredible 4 percent between 1950 and 2000.
Read more at: www.motherjones.com
NPR’s Diane Rehm Show (from member station WAMU) took a look at how water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. The American intelligence community is now warning that water conflicts could destabilize entire regions across the globe over the next decade. Listen in as guest host Tom Gjelten and various experts discuss this topic.
