The Discipleship

Climate change activists might want to pay attention to this cautionary tale out of Florida. The failure of Everglades restoration, with its many false starts, but especially the story of the latest failed attempt to overcome entrenched economic interests, has parallels to the two train wrecks that derailed action on climate change--last December in Copenhagen and more recently in the U.S. Congress. The contemporary politics of Everglades restoration is a tortured story of compromise that can be summed up in the classic political axiom: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. (Hmm, where have climate activists heard that before?) Mainstream Florida greens operate by this maxim, which is understandable, given the multiple stake holders involved and the economic interests arrayed against them. (Hmm, where have climate activists seen this dynamic before?) At some point, however, this strategy has to be evaluated for performance. Which begs the question: Is meaningful Everglades restoration underway? Hardly. Will it happen anytime soon? That was the hope and expectation after the state of Florida in 2008 agreed to buy huge tracts of land totaling 187,000 acres from the United States Sugar Corporation and convert it back to marshland. A year later, amid a deepening recession, the deal was scaled back to 79,000 acres, and according to this NYT investigation, the terms were not exactly favorable to the Everglades. By this month, as the Times reports, the land purchase has shrunk to 27,000 acres, a fraction of what was promised in 2008. You might think this would give long-time Everglades environmentalists pause. Here's what Eric Draper from Audubon of Florida had to say: