When people are polled about the environment, the percentage who believe that the environment is a serious concern are low -- often in the single digits. The pollsters aren't asking the right questions or in the right sequence.
Try asking: "Do you want Alzheimers?" 100 percent of respondents would say, no.
Then: "If you knew toxic fresh water could cause Alzheimers, would you support regulations to protect against that outcome?" Again, 100 percent would say, yes.
Then, ask this: "Do you support protection of the environment or industries that poison the environment?"
These are not academic questions in Florida, they are just questions that don't get asked because polls are expensive and who is going to pay to ask hard hitting questions.
Today there is an outbreak of toxic blue green algae in the Caloosahatchee River. Here is one story from the local Fox affiliate: "Algae blooms close Franklin Park on the Caloosahatchee River".
The Caloosahatchee, one of Florida's most diseased arteries and now filled with blue green toxic algae, runs straight through the district of Big Sugar's latest mouthpiece in the state legislature: Lee County Representative Matt Caldwell. Hundreds of scientists have pleaded with legislators like Caldwell: take more land out of sugarcane production south of Lake Okeechobee to store stormwater adequate to the volume and purpose of stopping the harmful discharges to Florida's rivers, bays, and coasts. Feeling the weight of Big Sugar money in his pockets, Caldwell said, no.
Top elected officials like Gov. Rick Scott, Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam and Caldwell promote legislation, pass laws that weaken public health while denying funding and disclosure of data that could illuminate these issues for taxpayers.
Exactly one year ago Eye On Miami wrote about the failure of the State of Florida to adequately disclose data to match with independent statistical evaluations in peer-reviewed journals that rare pediatric cancer clusters do exist in Florida. Right here, in Miami-Dade. Nothing has happened, since. Zero. Zilch ("Cancer Clusters In Florida: The Silence Of The State").
Voters ought to stop and ask: do you want Alzheimer's? Do you support tax dollars to regulate pollution that may cause Alzheimer's? Would you vote for a candidate who values environmental protection or a candidate who favor polluters by blocking science related to Alzheimer's and pediatric cancer?
If enough voters were asked these questions in this way, there would be a revolution in American politics.
New York Times
May 26, 2016
Could Alzheimer's Stem From Infections? It Makes Sense, Experts Say
Could it be that Alzheimer's disease stems from the toxic remnants of the brain's attempt to fight off infection?
Provocative new research by a team of investigators at Harvard leads to this startling hypothesis, which could explain the origins of plaque, the mysterious hard little balls that pockmark the brains of people with Alzheimer's.
Scientists: Toxin in blue-green algae could trigger neurological diseases
By Tyler Treadway of TCPalm
Just as the potential for blue-green algae blooms in local waters ramps up, scientists are warning there's a newly discovered and potentially deadly toxin in the slimy stuff.
Blue-green algae produces a toxin called BMAA that is suspected of triggering neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease.
The link between BMAA (Beta-N-Methylamino-L-alanine) in blue-green algae blooms and neurological diseases is "still a hypothesis," said Larry Brand, marine and atmospheric science professor at the University of Miami, "but the evidence is growing."
A new General Services Administration study examined the possibilities for replacing the U.S. Court in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and concluded that constructing a new facility is likely the best solution.
