Some good news on the environment front today. The State of Florida is buying out a major sugar producer for $1.7 billion, and when that company officially shuts down six years from now, 187 000 acres -- about 292 square miles or 757 km² -- will be restored to the Everglades, by restoring the natural flow from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay.
We know that wetlands, like old growth forests, act as a carbon sink; as well as cleaning upstream water sources for major urban centres, so anything that helps give back what we've taken away is a good sign. Now it's important that this change is made permanent, and the land freed up off limits to development permanently.
We need policies like this in Canada as well, obviously. Green Belts are a start, but the leapfrog phenomenon of land development where suburban surveys simply jump over "off limits" zones needs to be stemmed. If people need to live in urban areas, there should be a focus on brownfield development before even more marshes and farms are expropriated.
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