- Source: Gainesville
Eleanor K. Sommer
The Other Source of Sea Level Rise
New studies reveal that water consumption worldwide may be contributing to sea level rise as dramatically as melting land ice. Freshwater from the world’s aquifers is being pumped for human use, channeled into agriculture and municipal wells—and ultimately into rivers and then oceans. Sea level expert Robert Nicholls of the University of Southampton in England said that climate change will remain the significant driver of sea level rise. But even if society managed to mitigate climate issues, burgeoning ground water consumption would contribute to sea level rise. While reservoirs have so far offset freshwater flowing into the world’s ocean, aquifer systems have caused sea level rise at an average rate of one millimeter per year since 1961.
Read more at The Guardian.
Share the Water
Based on the book The Ripple Effect by Alex Prud’Homme, Last Call at the Oasis makes its theater 
premiere in May 2012. Already screened at various spring film festivals across the country, the documentary has received praise from reviewers, including Huffington Post Green:
If there’s one film that every human on earth should be required to watch, this is it.
—Stefanie Penn Spear
Director Jessica Yu puts the global water crisis center stage with this documentary that highlights the social challenges, politics, and mechanics of making sure everyone in the world gets an adequate supply of fresh water. The film features environmental activist Erin Brockovich, water experts, and others who present the problems and solutions.
See the trailer.
Sea Level Rise and Florida Coastal Forests
No doubt most Floridians are aware of the potential challenges of sea level rise–at least in relationship to their houses, property, and communities. Ecosystems, though, may be a less visible problem for many residents of the sunshine state.
Francis E. “Jack” Putz wants to bring the plight of at least one ecosystem community to the foreground. He recently published an article, “Coastal Forests Retreat as Sea Levels Rise,” about how Florida’s coastal forests will likely respond to sea level rise.
“I hope that Floridians accept that sea level rise is something about which we need to be concerned now, and not just people in [other countries] and not just our children’s children,” Putz wrote in an email release about the article that has been published in the Palmetto, a quarterly journal for the Florida Native Plant Society.
“[The article] is 20 years of research,” said the professor of conservation biology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. Putz teaches courses on the ecology and management of local and tropical ecosystems. His research includes silviculture, fire ecology, and ethnobotany.
Raking Glen Springs Back to Life
Eleanor K. Sommer
Pressure-washed message makes plea to help Glen Springs.
Volunteers showed up at Glen Springs in Gainesville, Florida, Saturday morning to restore a once popular bathing area. Never heard of Glen Springs? That’s because it’s on private property, tucked behind the Elks Lodge on NW 23rd Avenue next to Alfred Ring Park.
Linda Califf, a member of the lodge, was inspired in the summer of 2011 to begin clean up of the headspring and the pool and was joined by other Elks lodge members and some friends. Six hours of hard work were rewarded with a sparkle in the water that replaced the formerly dense mats of algae.
Those involved in the project said the water has begun to flow more freely from the spring that is one of six that flow into the Glen Spring run and then on to Hogtown Creek.
Saturday’s clean cleanup effort attracted new volunteers. Some were curious neighbors and others came to because they remembered the pool from their childhood.
“I came here for swimming lessons back in the 1960s,” said Paul Czapiga, owner of Gainesville Pool Renovators. Czapiga donated his time and equipment to help with the restoration.
Eleanor K. Sommer
Paul Czapiga, bottom right, pool contractor volunteering at Glen Springs.
The three-tiered pool was designed by architect Guy Chandler Fulton, who also designed several buildings on the University of Florida campus including the Smathers Libraries and some of the dormitories.
Califf looked into the history of the pool and created a pamphlet to promote clean up. According to her research, the pool was built in the 1920s by Cicero Addison Pound. From the ‘20s until the 1970s the pool and the attached pavilion (now the Elk Lodge) had been a place for recreation, dancing, and swimming. Lifeguards drained and cleaned the pool every Sunday, Califf discovered.
Lesley Gamble rakes algae from bottom of pool at Glen Springs.
Springs enthusiast Lesley Gamble, who teaches at the University of Florida, donned a wetsuit and climbed into the pool to rake algae from the bottom. By the time a dozen or so volunteers had climbed in, the water had become murky.
“It will settle down again,” Califf said, pointing to the crystal clear water emerging from a little pipe out of the spring vent.
“This is living water,” Gamble said, and then began to tell Califf about a polluted river in China that was diverted as a demonstration project to show citizens how the water could be cleaned through aeration and vegetative filters.
The installation, called The Living Water Garden, she said, could be an inspiration for Glen Springs. The project brings together art, education, and community, said Gamble, who recently taught a class called Art, Water, and Ecology at the university.
A fund has been established by the Elks to help support the project. To find out more about Glen Springs, contact Califf at lindacaliff@att.net.
Florida under Exceptional Drought Conditions
A drought is gripping the nation, and according to a report issued April 10 by the U.S. Drought Monitor, the country has not been this dry in five years. The South Florida Water Management District has issued water restrictions in 16 counties, and Lake Okeechobee is two feet below its historical average level of 14.12 feet.
The interactive map on the U.S. Drought Monitor site shows drought areas across the nation, for regions and for individual states. Jacksonville has experienced the driest period this year since1921. Monitoring stations reported the driest such 6-month period on record for Florida, especially in north-central Florida, according to the Drought Monitor report. South Florida has had slightly more rainfall than the rest of the state, but there is still a lack of decent short-term precipitation.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is a joint effort of the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility (U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Climate Prediction Center (U.S. Department of Commerce/NOAA/National Weather Service; National Climatic Data Center (DOC/NOAA), and other agencies and academic organizations.
Florida Drought Levels