Category Archives: Articles

by dr. bob knight, director, howard t. odum florida springs institute

“Primum non nocere” (first, do no harm) is commonly referred to as the Hippocratic Oath, the pledge taken by all physicians. Perhaps this oath should also be taken by public servants responsible for the health of Florida’s environment.

The absence of normal rainfall in north central Florida earlier this year revealed an inconvenient truth – there is not enough water left in the aquifer during dry spells to maintain the baseflow of our springs. As long as we have average rainfall, the springs keep flowing and it is easier to believe that long-term flow declines in our springs are just a response to a low spot in a multi-decadal weather cycle. But strip away normal rain and what is left? In May of 2012 prior to the onset of the rainy season, Silver and Rainbow springs in Marion County had the lowest flows ever recorded in more than 80 years. Over the past 25 years the average flows from Silver Springs have been declining at a precipitous rate. While last year’s drought was one cause for these extreme flow declines, there is convincing evidence that excessive groundwater pumping has made a bad situation worse.

Due to Marion County’s limestone geology, the underground basins or springsheds that recharge groundwater to Silver and Rainbow Springs are adjacent and overlap. Flows at both Silver and Rainbow Springs have been declining in magnitude for the past sixty years. Silver and Rainbow flow trends were roughly parallel for the first 35 years of this period. From 1950 to 1985, Silver’s flow averaged about 495 million gallons per day or on average about 51 MGD higher than Rainbow’s flow.

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by joe courter

Sometimes you get a day when the contradictions we face looking at our world are right there as this nation and the world move into an uncertain future. On Sept. 17, I attended, along with over 10,000 others, the campaign appearance by Michelle Obama at UF’s O’Connell Center. The energy was high, even electric. She is as gifted an orator, as is her spouse. That this couple lives in the White House, both coming from working class upbringings, is really quite stunning… This nation has come a long way.

But then that evening I attended the Civic Media Center’s showing of “Inside Job,” the Oscar-winning documentary of the 2008 financial collapse and its roots going back over 20 years, laying fault with both political parties. That Barack Obama chose insiders of Wall Street and the banking industry like Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers makes his administration seriously part of the problem. We are living in a very broken political system, and for all the hope of the afternoon, the evening was a profound counterpoint. And that that day, Sept. 17, was the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, only underscored the dissonance I was feeling.

There are many levels of discontent bubbling below the surface in this country. There is major consensus that our institutions of government are not serving us well, and who can doubt that when one party declares their goal is to have the other party fail. Likewise, listening to Michelle Obama, I had a feeling that the administration’s gains cited were tactical talking points geared for re-election, and not true efforts at fixing what’s wrong. And truly, given the climate, maybe that’s all they could get. I heard it referred to as “obsessive compromise disorder.”

When I was a kid in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, the big threat to the future was nuclear war. Pollution was just being seen as a problem, but it was not an existential threat except in localized situations like Love Canal. Now we have manifold threats on the environmental front – climate change, ocean fish-stock depletion, agricultural practices that hurt both the land and our health as consumers of the food, deforestation and animal habitat loss, etc., etc.

And then there is the military-industrial complex and corporate power gone wild.

At the quite successful Radical Rush, I was speaking to a UF freshman about the times we are in, and I asked her about what she felt most uneasy about when looking toward her future. She said it was economics, finding meaningful work and a secure life. For me at her age, that would have never entered my mind.

Occupy was the start of a generational statement or resistance of a future being stolen by greed. As important as this election is, it will not fix what is wrong. It will take a revolution in consciousness from below, using the tools available for knowledge, communication and organizing. It will not be easy, but out of the dysfunction of our times we may be able to turn it around.

by joe courter

This is the last Iguana until the election, so what follows will be a summary and voter recommendations. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 9, and this includes both address changes and new registrations. Absentee ballots can be requested until Oct. 31. Early voting starts on Oct. 27, and, of course, Election Day is Nov. 6.

However you choose to vote for President, and I know there are folks reading this who have problems with the “lesser of two evils” situation we seem to be in, please do vote. The local races are pivotal for continuing the progressive direction we’ve been taking in our County.

While the Iguana has endorsed a Republican or two in the past, we advocate the Democratic line down the ballot, with the one option for a protest vote by writing in “Rob Brinkman” in the State Representative District 20 race should that be on your ballot.

The ballot is four pages, so please persevere through to the end, as the LAST question deals with renewing the one mil tax, which provides for funding school nurses, music programs, technology and libraries, to which we say emphatically YES.

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Check out our near-comprehensive calendar for Gainesville and surrounding areas here: October 2012 Iguana Community Calendar

Want to submit an event to the Iguana Community Calendar? Email gainesvilleiguana@cox.net.

Can’t get into town for the print Iguana? Or did you make it to the box a little late this month?

Well, don’t worry! We have the whole October 2012 issue here for your perusal.

Lubee Bat Conservancy will host its 8th Annual Florida Bat Festival in Gainesville on Oct. 27, from 10a.m. to 4p.m., providing a rare opportunity for the general public and wildlife lovers to visit a working research and conservation center to see some of the largest species of bat face-to-face. This is the only day of the year when the center is open to the public, and is expected to draw some 5,000 people from Gainesville and beyond.

The Lubee Bat Conservancy, a non-profit organization, houses the largest collection of fruit bats in the world, and it works with global conservation partners to protect at-risk species of bats. Efforts are focused on plant-visiting “fruit and nectar” bats because they are vulnerable to extinction yet vital to the world’s rainforests and deserts and to the economies of developing countries.

The free festival will be held on the grounds of the conservancy, a 110-acre ranch, located at 1309 N.W. 192nd Ave. in Gainesville. Each year this event features free activities, including bat-themed crafts and games for kids, educational exhibits, presentations by bat experts, and the unique opportunity to see live fruit bats with five-foot wingspans on exhibit in our Bat Zone. Local vendors will be spread across the grounds of the conservancy selling food and beverages, providing local environmental educational information, and selling batty merchandise.

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