It's a cliché by now that water is life. It's also true, and right now our fresh water in North Central Florida is at risk.
Have you wondered what's really in the water coming from your tap or well? How much stress is the Floridan Aquifer under? Who makes the decisions that determine how much water is pumped, where development occurs, and how our springs, rivers, and wetlands are protected?
On October 10th, the Sierra Club Suwannee-St. Johns Group is convening a Water Summit in Alachua. Some of Florida's leading water scientists, policy experts, and clean-water advocates will give residents clear, reliable information about the challenges facing our water, and about how we can respond.
David Hastings Chair, Sierra Club Suwannee-St. Johns Group
Climate Week: Take Action for Water
Our water needs your voice. Here are four ways to take action this month:
1. Act Now to Protect Clean Water! - Oct 9. Deadline for public comment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving forward with gutting the Clean Water Act by further limiting which waters are protected at the federal level.
This move puts practically all streams and wetlands at risk and is a blatant giveaway to corporate polluters who have been trying to weaken the Clean Water Act for decades.
2. Join our Water Summit: Our Water | Our Future | Our Voice - Oct. 10. Learn why protecting our water matters in this election year.
Our water is under stress. Our voices can make a difference.
Energy Committee Meeting
Monday Oct. 19, 4 - 5:30pm
The SSJ Energy Committee is being revived! Come explore local answers to a global question as we create and expand on solutions in N. Central Florida. Join us!
This is a virutal meeting over Zoom. Please register for link.
Our Energy and Climate Book Group is discussing books that focus not just on the problem, but on different solutions and approaches that address the climate crisis.
In her new book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer uses the ecology of the serviceberry tree to reframe our modern energy and climate crises through the lens of a "gift economy."
It is a gorgeous, concise, and accessible call to action that offers practical, hopeful ways to build community ties.
Our State Forest needs our help on a scavenger hunt through our public lands. Using iNaturalist application we will stroll through the Watermelon pond area uploading the flora and fauna. This is fun for all ages, learn to see the details of the beauty all around us.
The Upper Santa Fe is the section above O'Leno Sink, on the Cody Escarpment. Santa Fe Spring follows a former First Magnitude Spring and recreational area: Worthington Spring. Worthington Spring was a First Magnitude which dried up in the 1970's.
Alachua Is Hitting Pause on Data Centers. Now We Need to Make That Pause Count.
On October 5, the City of Alachua Commission will consider Ordinance 26-17, imposing a temporary moratorium on data centers, large-scale data centers and large-load facilities.
Sierra Club, along with many others, strongly support the pause. But after watching recent development decisions in Alachua, we are equally concerned about what happens during the moratorium and whether the public will have a meaningful voice before the City decides what comes next.
Sabal Trail is back - Bigger, Greedier, Shadier than ever - just like those Data Centers they want to fuel
Sabal Trail is a massive interstate natural-gas pipeline system owned by affiliates of Enbridge, NextEra Energy and Duke Energy. And now, nearly a decade after the original fight over the pipeline, landowners across Alabama, Georgia and Florida have been sent notices that their property is within or near a new study corridor and are being asked for permission to conduct surveys. Read more here
Claim the Tag. Spare the Bear. Defend the Forest.
Let that bear walk back into the woods.
And let its tracks remind us what we are fighting to keep.
The Community Weatherization Coalition (CWC) is a grassroots community coalition made up of citizens, religious leaders, and NGOs concerned about Alachua County citizens spending a lot of their income on home energy bills. Our mission is to help our neighbors save energy and water and reduce their utility bills.
Their fall training is coming up on starting October 29th. Registrants will learn how to perform home energy tune-ups for neighbors in need! Register here!
