Florida's Insane $10 Billion Plan To Solve It's Geography Problem!

an insane absolutely enormous plan is underway in Florida on a scale that's never been seen before that's costing billions of dollars in an attempt to solve its geography problem home to Disneyland Space Shuttle launches and the Everglades Florida is the fastest growing state in the US it has the fourth biggest economy and is now the third most populated state in the USA with a thousand people a day moving there for as temporate climate favorable tax laws and expanding business community Florida is one of the country's top tourist destinations tourism is its biggest industry drawing millions of visitors each year to dozens of state and national parks in 2022 it had a record 137.5 million visitors which contributed over1 billion do to the state's economy one of the sunshine State's most notable tourist attractions is the Florida ever Glades a UNESCO world heritage site and 1.5 million acres in size the Florida Everglades is one of the largest wetlands in the world home to endangered rare and exotic Wildlife it's often thought of as a swamp however the Glades are actually a slow moving river flowing over an area that's 40 Mi wide and 100 m long from the Southshore of Lake okobi to the mangrove esteres of the Florida Bay Florida's population has risen massively from 2.7 million in the 1950s to 22.6 million in 2023 transforming it from an agricultural state of sparsely populated rural areas in the 50s to the densely populated state of massive growth that we know today in fact the expanding urban development of Miami Orlando Tampa and Jacksonville have all merged into one Mega City region which is known as a megalopolis however Urban Development combined with agricultural expansion has had highly problematic consequences Florida is running out of drinking water and it's dealing with unprecedented flooding water contamination increasing sea levels Coastal erosion and a record-breaking uptick in devastating storms and all of this is not only threatening its huge tourism and Leisure industri but it's actually jeopardizing its entire existence which is why in order to save the state from increasing environment weather and drinking water problems Florida has been spending billions of dollars on the world's largest restoration Endeavor ever seen it's happening across the entire State and it might just be working in Florida everything depends on water the state's unique water-based environment is not only the heart of its tourism and Leisure industry but it's home to its unique Wildlife it is also responsible for providing its inhabitants with drinking water preventing floods coping with sea level rises and saltwater intrusion however leaky septic tanks and fertilizer that washes from Lawns and Farms have been seeping into the Watershed and feeding massive toxic algae blooms forming in Florida's lakes rivers and along its coastlines these are some of the most potent natural poisons on Earth the blue rooms take many forms from Red Tide to clunks of brown Gunk and the more serious forms that make the water look like green paint or this bluish purple which releases a toxin called micro syy that scientists have tied to liver damage in people scientists politicians and water agencies have been working together on giant River flood plane and Wetland Restorations as part of a massive project to renaturalization at a cost of more than $10.5 billion and with 35 Plus year timeline this is the largest hydrolic restoration project ever undertaken in the United States over the past 100 years humans have disrupted the natural flow of water in Florida dredging and draining its rivers marshes and flood Plains to make room for development and agricultural Farmland the natural winding twisty Rivers were straightened and concretized into channels that ran into straight lines this sucked up most of the water polluted the waterways and killed off Wildlife while depleting drinking water supplies and increasing the risk of flooding flooding isn't just caused by heavy rainstorms it happens because the natural landscapes have been severely altered winding rivers that stretched out over vast plains would absorb the water from heavy rain and soak it into the ground recharging underground water reserves called aquifers which are the main source of drinking water but by turning Rivers into straight concrete canals in heavy rain events the water has nowhere else to go but to overflow into urban areas massively reducing the drinking water supply in the ground this can be seen clearly with what happened to the Kissam River the Kissam river is the most important river in the everglaze Watershed but it was straightened and concretized during the 1960s the source of water in the Everglades begins just south of Orlando in The kissm Chain of Lakes from there water flows South through the kissm river to Lake okobi during the wet season the water would overflow on its Southern Edge then slowly move down through the Everglades to the Gulf of Mexico historically the kissm river had twists and bends and overflowed into a huge area the slow moving Waters filtered nutrients and surface water over a wide flood plane into the ground recharging the underground water reserves which are the primary source of drinking water in Florida than millions of residents depend upon however between 1962 and 1970 the kissm river was dredged and turned into a concrete Canal shortening the 103 mile distance from Lake km to the lake Oobi to just 56 miles after the river channel was straightened 40,000 Acres of flood plane below Lake kame dried out ranches grazed beef kettle on the now dry flood Plains and wildlife habitat and fish numbers were reduced by 90% this practice was applied to the rivers and waterways across the state and throughout the mid 1900s the entire Everglades Watershed was ditched dredged and drained Florida's water no longer flowed freely but instead through a series of concrete canals and flood control structures however as a result Florida started to run out of drinking water the concrete canals only made flooding worse and the Watershed became increasingly contaminated so the decision was made to unstraightened Natural winding routs Engineers determined the best method to restore the river was to use a material called spoil it was piled along the edge of the canal during the channelization process and simply push it back into the canal a process called back filling the project began in 1999 and over the next 20 years at a cost of $875 million 22 Mi of concrete can now have been backfilled returning flow to 45 Mi of the river's historic Channel and restoring approximately 40 square miles of the river's flood plane ecosystem reestablishing the flood plane has had a positive impact throughout the Watershed all the way down to Florida Bay Wildlife is bouncing back wading birds and water foul have returned sand bars have reemerged and once storm up plants have begun to reestablish themselves fish populations have been boosted which has led to a rising in burd and alligator populations so the entire food chain has benefited an important part of the renaturalization process has been to remove an entire road which is built across the Everglades blocking almost completely the natural flow from north to south a 1.5 million acre water feed used to flow naturally in an average rain year into the Florida Everglades however in 1928 The tamami Trail Road was built across the Everglades which formed a barrier stopping the natural flow of water from the central Everglades to the southern Everglades the Everglades reduced water flows increased wildfires and increased nonnative plant species as well as decreased habitat for wading bird colonies and alligators so in order to restore the natural water flow the decision was made to remove the Old Trail Road and reconnect the entire everglaze Watershed and in March 2020 a project began to remove the old road the worn out asphalt had been chewed up and hauled away way Bridges have been taken out and the Tangled vegetation that had built up on either side of the road so that the water now flows here once again restoring flood planes for flood prevention and wildlife habitat is a key aspect of the Regeneration effort as part of this faka Union pump station has been created the new pump station is moving water into previously drained area to restore a 55,000 acre natural habitat which is benefiting both people and Wildlife the pump is is a measure to reduce excess water levels from the Golden Gate estate urbanization area providing flood protection for residents by moving large amounts of water into a huge spreader Basin which also restores the flood plane habitat benefiting Wildlife extensive large- scale invasive species removal projects have also been undertaken which have seen areas where invasive plant species have taken over have been cleared by controlled Burns and excavation the state subtropical climate and ornamental plant industries make the region especially vulnerable to the establishment of invasive species which adversely affects and competes with the natural ecology removing them is crucial to restore the native ecosystem and for the long-term sustainability of the region

Channel: Leaf of Life

Views: 779,622

Keywords: world news, elon musk, elon musk news, elon musk motivation, elon musk on joe rogan, sam altman, floridas geography problem, is florida underwater?, is florida too business friendly, why florida is failing, geography now, water crisis, water crisis solutions, floridas water crisis, floridas people problem, world map with countries, world geography quiz, facts you didnt know about, geography trivia, geography quiz, florida gators, stock market, personal finance club

Id: 7g-jnqs1f_8

Length: 10min 19sec (619 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2023