Commentary: Florida’s great green algae disaster

We asked for it… us and Rick Scott

Imagine for a moment that you see a guy slowly reaching toward a scalding hot stove. Everyone around screams: “Don’t touch it! You’ll hurt yourself!”

But the guy pays them no mind and places his palm flush upon the bright orange burner, only to scream in surprise and agony as his flesh begins to char.

You’d think this man was pretty stupid, right?

Like sell-your-car-for-gas-money stupid.

Well, we are this man. This entire state.

For the past eight years, we stood by as the state decimated its environmental and water-protection agencies and repealed checks on sustainable growth.

Every step, we were warned: “Don’t do it! Things will go bad!”

But we paid them no mind. We watched as politicians shut down water-quality monitoring stations, stocked environmental boards with developers, slashed staff at the agencies that check for pollution and cut back on land-preservation programs.

Then we re-elected them. And now our state is cloaked in gloppy blue-green algae that is shutting down businesses, killing animals and sending people to the hospital.

The headlines tell the story: “ Blue-green algae in St. Lucie River sending people to emergency rooms ” “ Blue-green […]

Full article: Commentary: Florida’s great green algae disaster — we asked for it … us and Rick Scott