Everyone knows that fancy cars and glass-walled condos are just but a few of Miami-Dade’s little luxuries, but did you know sand was a precious commodity? Yes, sand. In a recent article posted on Florida Sportsman’s website, I learned that Miami is basically shopping for that stuff under our feet, trying to whisk it away from other Florida beaches.

"Deepwater dredging is difficult and expensive, and the environmental impacts aren’t well understood. And according to Dade County officials, they have but one easily accessible ‘borrow area’ left in emergency reserve, which they say contains relatively low-quality material. The pressure to dredge very close to coral reefs in Broward suggests that those municipalities have nearly exhausted offshore ‘borrow areas.’"

The debate on the efficacy of beach nourishment is considerable and beyond the scope of this introduction to the article. But one thing is certain: beach nourishment is common public works in many coastal areas around the world, as erosion occurs naturally, even without the encroachment of human habitat.

Benefits of beach nourishment include storm surge protection and additional habitat for flora and fauna that depend on shorelines for food. Humans also enjoy the recreational advantages of simply having more sand in between the water and the parking lot, which fuels the tourism industry. Beach nourishment, like so many things South Beach, is the environment’s equivalent of plastic surgery. Without beach nourishment, bikini-clad damsels and their six-pack princes would have to endure such annoyances as high tide.

It’s all good, until you notice two remarkable disadvantages, which are painfully obvious: beach nourishment doesn’t last forever and sand is not an easy renewable resource.

This is a case of human hubris meets environmental reality. A naturally occurring condition and the scarcity of sand only underscores yet another oversight from developers and local officials who keep signing permits by the dozen to build yet more condos for transient residents on our already overcrowded island. Let’s face it: it’s not for the birds, it’s for the selling power of dream vacations and high-priced condos.

"Borrowing sand" away from an ecologically sensitive yet relatively stable area like Port St. Lucie’s shoal isn’t borrowing — it’s stealing. Let’s hope our scientists, engineers and local officials put on their thinking caps to arrive at a better solution for all creatures great and small. In the environment, as in life, everything is connected.

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Let’s go through some portions of the lyrics:

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

This sounds like Miami, especially with the pink hotel, boutique and hot spot! You’ll read about it in the papers, hear about it at commission meetings, and see it every day on your way to work: The developers vs. the environment. We’ve got no where to grow with the ocean on one side and the Everglades on the other. I do believe that we can grow the city in a smarter way. I know people are working on it. But I also believe that if even more people realized, "that you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone," we’d be on a better road to the future.

More lyrics:

They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them

I visited Fairchild for the first time recently, on the last day of the Chihuly exhibit. Fairchild has the world’s largest and most diverse palm collection. If that’s not a tree museum, I don’t know what is. And I paid a lot more than a dollar and a half to get in. But that’s not Fairchild’s fault. They are part of the solution. As stated in last week’s Miami Today interview with Michael Maunder, Director of the gardens, "We have some of the rarest plants in the world here in our collection – rarer than pandas and more difficult to breed, some of them." Some plants that supported a specific species of butterflies, for example, were all destroyed in the wild…so then what happens to the butterflies?

Lyrics:

Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don’t care about spots on my apples,
Leave me the birds and the bees
Please

DDT, a pesticide now banned, is just one example. This section is really talking about organic. Now, up to even a year or so ago, I didn’t really care about organic. Here’s the thing. Pesticides are on our food. They also are in our farm land, which affects our water. They are extremely toxic to the people administering the chemicals. They also kill everything…and then we won’t know what we’ve got til it’s gone. When you buy organic, your veggies aren’t going to be flawless. That doesn’t mean that anything is wrong with them. In fact, flawless food should make you wonder what it took to get the food so perfect. Do you remember how good tomatoes used to taste? And how they taste now? Leave me the birds and the bees.

Let me try to sum it up:

First of all, the study states, "Miami…is more vulnerable to natural disaster than any other city in the study." WE WON!!!

It goes on to talk about how all of this construction is showing effects in our water. Additionally, "South Florida residents already use more water per person than any other city in the nation."

In the food and agriculture category, we scored a lousy 45 (50=worst). They were looking for "sustainable basics like local food"…something we’ve been talking about here at greenerMIAMI. (Stay tuned, because this is about to become a big topic around here!)

We ranked decently in public transportation, which I think we all will find quite surprising. As for green building, we ranked #33…huge amounts of construction almost none of which meet LEED standards.

SustainLane’s Miami Summary (read this)

Miami receives high marks for superior air quality and decent transit options, but has an unfocused approach to sustainability. Known as the Gateway of the Americas, it has an opportunity to set the example for Latin and South American development. Currently, the city is developing a luxury skyline, despite the fact it fronts the coast of the most dangerous hurricane zone in the nation. If Miami wishes to make a statement about the future of the Americas, it might consider developing a comprehensive sustainability plan now to better shape the current transformation of its urban space.

via The Worsted Witch