Monday, April 17, 2023

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Re-examining decades of climate change, environmental activism in Alachua County Residents advocate for awareness, natural resources

By Claire Grunewald Alligator Staff Writer

With its abundance of historic natural resources, Alachua County is no stranger to climate and environmental activism.

From petitions to protests, residents and students advocated and fought for decades. For “Where We Stand,” The Alligator looked through decades worth of its archives to chronicle some highlights of the county’s environmental activism.

1946: Gainesville residents call for removal of wastewater sewage in Lake Alice

In 1925, Lake Alice became UF’s wildlife sanctuary. The university originally had intentions to preserve the area, until two decades later. In 1946, UF built a wastewater treatment plan that rerouted sewage into the lake. Outraged, Gainesville residents demanded the university reverse its decision.

UF redirected the sewage to a nearby sinkhole the following year.

1971: UF students bike over 150 miles from Gainesville to Tallahassee to protest proposed highway

In 1971, a group of 85 UF students biked from Gainesville to Tallahassee to protest the state’s proposed CrossCampus Highway, also known as Lake Alice Loop Road. Two years prior, former UF President Stephen O’Connell announced the highway’s plan to drain Lake Alice, which ensued years of public outcry.

After the trip, the state and university administrations agreed to hold a public hearing at the Reitz Union, even though the highway was already approved by the state.

1972: Lake Alice advocates petition against proposed highway

Over 300 Gainesville residents and UF students and faculty attended the public hearing for the proposed Cross-Campus Highway at the Reitz Union in January 1972. Hundreds more also waited outside the Reitz. UF defended the road plan to attendees after advocates spoke out. UF law professor Joseph Little presented a 260-foot petition with 4,397 signatures against construction of the road.

The following week, the university agreed to look into alternate options, effectively killing the highway plan.

1978: Gainesville Sierra Club protests power plant

The Gainesville chapter of the Sierra Club, a national conservation group, protested Gainesville Regional Utilities’ power plant Deerhaven II. Activists claimed the coal-burning plant would attack the community’s air and water.

1987 to 1998: Gainesville residents and “Alice’s Friends” fight to preserve Lake Alice

In August 1987, it became publicly known the UF administration had

proposed to build 176 housing units and parking lots on the Bat House field that would destroy the land and impact Lake Alice. This proposed plan incited over a decade of protests from Gainesville residents, UF students and faculty.

In June 1994, “Alice’s Friends” was formed and became the main organization leading the movement.

Thousands of Gainesville residents as young as 6 years old signed petitions, held protests and wrote thousands of letters to Florida legislators to stop the proposed construction.

Valerie True, the 1998 UF Environmental Action Group president, was one of several leaders of the decade-long movement.

“It wasn’t just the environmental impact, it was also the cultural impact on the community of people who get engaged there and who took their kids there,” True said. “It was also a cultural touchstone.”

True worked with several environmental groups on campus that organized different movements and appreciated the support from the campus community, she said.

“I respect that the college did a nice job of allowing us that space and figuring out how to get through some of the rules when we wanted to do different actions,” True said.

After several years of Gainesville students and residents protesting, former Gov. Lawton Chiles moved to preserve the Lake Alice area; the motion passed unanimously.

“[It] was really impactful and empowering for all of us to feel like we could create that change,” True said. “To be involved with it and have something that was tangible in our backyard that we were able to do.”

2008: Gainesville, UF community hold global warming awareness events

Gainesville and UF held an all-day event based on Focus the Nation, a national initiative to create climate change solutions, in January 2008.

The event kicked off with Focus The Gator Nation TeachIn that included climate change presentations from UF students and professors.

Former Gainesville Mayor Peegan Hanrahan held a presentation about the role leaders have in sustainability.

Hanrahan highlighted Gainesville’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions in her presentation.

“What is really happening on the ground in America’s cities and counties?” Hanrahan said at the time. “The answer is: quite a bit. Certainly, Gainesville and Alachua County have been active.”

2009: UF Vegetarians protest climate change

A UF vegetarian students group, enVeg, associated climate change with meat consumption and protested it by writing messages outside of Library West in 2009.

“Animal agriculture = climate change” was one of the few messages written in chalk on the sidewalks outside the library. The group encouraged students to consume less meat to help eliminate the effects of climate change.

2010: UF students campaign for campus

“Meatless Mondays”

In 2010, thousands of UF students rallied to encourage the university to participate in national Meatless Mondays and remove meat from all dining halls every Monday. The movement was created in response to concerns of climate change and animal cruelty. An online petition and protest in partnership with peta2, PETA’s youth division, garnered support from thousands of students.

The following year, UF implemented Meat-Free Mondays, a program offering vegetarian options every Monday, in response to the movement. Eddie Garza, the New York campaign coordinator of Mercy for Animals at the time, wrote an op-ed in The Alligator in 2011 commending UF’s decision.

“UF has taken a big step in the right direction by offering vegetarian meals in honor of Meat-Free Mondays,” Garza wrote. “We encourage the university to take it just a step further by going completely meat-free on Mondays.”

2015: UF group hosts “Global Divestment Day” rally

UF Intellectual Decisions on Environmental Awareness Solutions club held the university’s first “Global Divestment Day” rally Feb. 2015. About 60 gathered on campus to listen to guest speakers, a musical performance and to protest the national investment of fossil fuels.

Protestors chanted and held signs that said statements like “4 degrees warmer = millions under water.”

2017: Gainesville residents “March for Science” on Earth Day

About 1,000 Gainesville residents marched and protested to show support for science after the election of former President Donald Trump on Earth Day 2017.

Protestors carried signs saying “Make America Smart Again” and “Global Warming Is Real.”

The goals of the march were to connect the community with science and hold lawmakers accountable.

“We need to actually start seeing our ideas represented as opposed to private agendas being pushed,” Juan Zapata, one of the March for Science Gainesville organizers, told The Alligator at the time.

2019: UF Students create #SaveStrawsMidtown movement

Six UF students created a petition and @ufstraws Instagram account to call for a plastic straw ban implementation at Midtown.

Later, the Gainesville City Commission implemented the city-wide plastic straw ban at the

beginning of 2020.

2019: Climate Action Gator holds “Youth Climate Strike”

Climate Action Gator, a UF student group, organized a “Youth Climate Strike” outside of Tigert Hall and Gainesville City Hall to demand UF and the city to change their climate policies in December 2019.

Climate Action Gator formed in 2019 and this was the second climate strike the group organized in its founding semester.

2019: Alachua County residents protest Nestlé’s springs permit

On Nov. 1, 2019, about 100 protestors gathered in High Springs to protest a permit that would allow Nestlé Waters North America to bottle 1.152 million gallons of water from Ginnie Springs a day.

The protest was organized by local environmental groups such as Our Santa Fe River and Climate Action Gator.

Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, one of the movement’s organizers, helped found Our Santa Fe River to protect the river and springs with several movements over the years. The permit in 2019 was nothing new to Malwitz-Jipson, as permits to bottle the springs’ water were introduced in prior years.

“We told all the local people, ‘Listen, when that thing comes back up again, we’ll be here for you,’ and in 2019 it did,” Malwitz-Jipson said.

Despite protests, the Suwannee River Water Management District Board approved the plan February 2021.

Malwitz-Jipson was disappointed that the company and board blatantly disregarded the public’s opinions but doesn’t plan to stop advocating for the river and springs, she said.

The fight to preserve the springs is far from over. Shortly after the board’s decision, Our Santa Fe River and Florida Defenders of the Environment filed a lawsuit challenging the board’s decision.

2021: The “Save McCarty Woods” movement

At the beginning of 2021, the “Save McCarty Woods” movement was born after UF announced it planned to use the McCarty Woods conservation area as a construction site.

UF students and faculty protested against UF’s decision for months.

Leaders of the movement held marches, created social media accounts and a petition that garnered over 14,600 signatures.

Vasilios Kosmakos, a 23-year-old UF alumnus, was one of the three founders of the 2021 movement. He became involved because he knew how much McCarty Woods provided to the campus community.

“The McCarty Woods is home to over 1,000 different species or plants, animals, fungi, insects, reptiles,” Kosmakos said.

Kosmakos was a part of a lesserknown movement that occurred after

the protests that worked to revitalize the woods by cleaning up, and planting trees and plants, he said.

Similar issues happened decades ago with preserving Lake Alice, that’s why we have to consistently keep an eye out, Kosmakos said.

“That’s why keeping up with these efforts long-term is so important,” Kosmakos said.

After months of protest, UF backed off from considering the area for development. The university didn’t explain why it made this decision or if it was a result of the protests.

2022: Global Climate Strike protest at UF

About 30 protestors wearing black to mourn the Earth gathered in Turlington Plaza for a climate strike Sept. 23. The protest was organized by several campus groups like Climate Action Gator, Sunrise Movement Gainesville and Take Action Florida.

Climate Action Gator officers Campbell Al-Khafaji, an 18-year-old UF sustainability studies freshman, and Samantha Snyder, a 22-year-old UF information systems graduate student, encouraged students of all majors and backgrounds to join the movement to conserve the environment.

“It’s good to get together with like-minded individuals and try to spread that hope and passion and sometimes necessary anger to get people going,” Al-Khafaji said.

The two recognize that advocating for sustainability and conservation can feel daunting and upsetting at times, they said.

“A lot of college students, and I don’t blame them, start to filter out that information because they don’t have the capacity to emotionally take that on,” Snyder said.

Al-Khafaji hopes students in the area will incorporate environmental and climate activism into their lives, as the Gainesville area is full of activists, she said.

“Gainesville has a huge reputation for activism going back to the ‘60s, even outside of environmental activism,” Al-Khafaji said. “It’s an interesting cultural climate and political climate to be in within Florida.”

2023: Sunrise Movement Gainesville marches for climate action Sunrise Movement Gainesville, the local chapter of the national youth climate action movement, organized a march in downtown Gainesville to protest climate change March 3.

About 15 residents marched to bring attention to renewable energy and climate change impacts in Florida.

The protest also featured local leaders such as former U.S. congressional candidate Danielle Hawk and former City Commissioner David Arreola as keynote speakers. They spoke out about the impact legislation can have on climate climate change.

@grunewaldclaire

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park continues to compel nature-lovers

FORMER UF PROFESSOR HONORED FLORIDA’S RURAL CLIMATE IN HER NOVELS

By Loren Miranda Alligator Staff Writer

Every morning before heading into the orange groves for his shift, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park tour guide Rick Mulligan reads one of the titular author’s letters. He tries to pick a letter that was written on the date he’s going in, to get a sense of how she was feeling that day.

With about 1,400 letters at the Special and Area Studies Collections at George A. Smathers Libraries to choose from, 10-year-veteran tour guide Mulligan has plenty of options.

Rawlings — the earnest and masterful penwoman of “The Yearling,” “Cross Creek,” and “South Moon Under” — was a best-selling novelist of the early 1930s-40s. Characterized by her coarse tongue, descriptive vocabulary and environmental passion, the prize-winning author brushed elbows with some of the most renowned writers of her generation and was considered one herself.

Mulligan, 71, said he has been entranced by the compelling emotion of Rawlings’ writings since the first time he was required to read “The Yearling” in school.

Judy Baker, a worker at Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park, tends to the floral garden next to Majorie Rawlings home Saturday, April 15, 2023. The garden houses a single, struggling rose bush dedicated to Rawlings memory.

FOOTBALL

“She’s able to put visual images in your mind,” Mulligan said. “Although the writing is very dense and you have to take time and ex-

plain these images … somehow, it captivated me.”

Born in Washington, D.C., Rawlings is best known for her appreciation of Florida’s wildlife and the natural ruggedness of north and central Florida. She lived and wrote some of her best-known work in the small Alachua unincorporated community Cross Creek for most of her adult life, before dying in St. Augustine in 1953.

Her home, located at 18700 South County Road 325, now serves as a museum and historic site, nestled between Orange Lake and Lochloosa Lake. The park grounds are open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In 1939, Rawlings won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “The Yearling,” the post-Civil War drama about a young boy’s relationship with a fawn. The novel inspired a motion-feature adaptation in 1946, shooting Rawlings to international fame. She also published a recipe book, “Cross Creek Cookery,” guiding readers through her deep-Southern culture — inspiring a Hawthorne restaurant named The Yearling Restaurant after the award-winning novel.

“Cross Creek” is an autobiography that recounts the rugged yet colorfully captivating details of Rawling’s farmhouse and life in The Big Scrub, which encompasses the geographical area of the Ocala National Forest. When she arrived, the rural area was remote — even more remote than it’s considered today — and sparse.

SEE RAWLINGS, PAGE 6

UF recommits to climate action

SUSTAINABILITY PLAN PENDING APPROVAL

By Alissa Gary Alligator Staff Writer

UF first promised to become a leader in climate change mitigation among universities in 2006. Seventeen years later, it’s busy renewing its vows to meet the needs of the shifting climate.

By Jackson Reyes Sports Writer

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium has served as a formidable fortress for the Florida Gators football team over the years. The Swamp’s humid conditions have given UF an edge, as student-athletes from other teams aren’t as acclimated to the year-round heat.

But rising temperatures could become something much bigger than a home-field advantage.

Average Alachua County temperatures between 1991 to 2020 are higher than those in the 1981 to 2010 period, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Numbers have increased by 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit — meaning now more than ever, heat is affecting outdoor sports as conversations emerge about how to best protect student-athletes.

David Keellings, a UF professor who specializes in climatology and extremes, observed the change in the average number of days in Gainesville where the maximum temperature exceeded 95 degrees over the past 60 years.

From 1960 through 1990, the average number of days when the temperature exceeded 95 degrees was just under six days a year. From 2010 through the present day, the average has exceeded 95 degrees more than 10 days a year, Keelilings said.

“That's the reality of what we have right now,” Keellings said. “The fact that this has changed so much over the last few decades is really problematic.”

NOAA projections show temperatures continuing to increase in Alachua County regardless of whether emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced going forward. However, reducing emissions would help reduce the rate at which temperatures rise in the future.

SEE FOOTBALL, PAGE 15

The UF Office of Sustainability is in the final stages of developing its Climate Action Plan 2.0, a revival of CAP 1.0, the 2009 original, meant to curb the university’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The plan is organized into five points: energy and buildings; transportation; education and research; resilience; and offsets and finance. The categories take aim at the university’s energy consumption, promote low-carbon transportation and establish guidelines for sustainable buildings — all while hoping to secure $15 million in a centralized fund to finance those goals.

The new plan is the first update

to the original plan from 14 years ago, which was supported by former UF President Bernie Machen. The Office of Sustainability has been renovating the plan ever since, said Liz Storn, senior program coordinator.

“Obviously, actions are happening all the time across campus that make the campus more sustainable,” she said. “But this is really one way to bring them all together and really account for all the great stuff that is happening.”

However, the plan now sits in limbo while the Office of Sustainability waits for the right time to present it to UF President Ben Sasse or other senior vice presidents, Storn said.

“The actions that we have make sense for the university as a whole,” Storn said. “We had 80 or more people involved in the drafting of this process. There is a lot of buy-in from campus for it.”

Storn is confident the plan will be approved, she said.

UF spokesperson Cynthia Roldan

SEE PROMISES, PAGE 6

Caia Reese // Alligator Staff

Gators face most stubborn opponent yet: rising temperatures

Increased temperatures could lead to heat-related illnesses for student-athletes

Are Gainesville’s 2040 waste diversion goals attainable?

City hopes to divert 90% of waste from landfills

By Jake Lynch Alligator Staff Writer

Florida is the flattest state in the nation, yet hills line most of its major roadways. Hills made of brown banana peels, old iPhone chargers and stained mattresses. These hills are landfills, and the highest one in Florida is over 200 feet tall.

With the startling amount of waste becoming more than just an eye sore, three cities in the state have made it a goal to reduce their amount of waste. Gainesville joins Key West and Orlando in the fight to reduce waste and resulting greenhouse gases.

In May, updates to the Solid Waste Ordinance were passed unanimously by the Gainesville City Commission to help reach the goal to be zero waste by the year 2040. For Gainesville, the phrase “zero waste” doesn’t actually mean zero; instead, it’s a 90% reduction in waste diverted to landfills by the year 2040.

Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward isn’t focused on achieving any specific number goal — rather, it’s something he thinks residents should strive for, he said.

“Percentages matter less to me than actually making sure folks understand what they need to be doing,” said Ward, who recently served his 100th day in office. “How we all work together on this, that is how we get there.”

Municipal solid waste is the third leading cause of humanrelated methane emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Methane is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Reducing that waste means a possible 16% reduction in those emissions.

With over a year to start implementation, Gainesville still has ordinances to write in order to reach its goal of becoming a zero-waste city. So far, as one of the more than 90 cities in the U.S. with zero-waste goals, Gainesville has begun educating its residents through the community-led initiative Zero Waste Gainesville and limiting commercial and multi-family waste.

The ordinances currently in place have banned single-use plastic straws in restaurants, along with making it so plastic utensils are only given to patrons upon request. Gainesville will also match the number of public

garbage receptacles with recycling receptacles.

Starting June 1, three new ordinances that regulate how the city handles waste will go into effect.

Two of those ordinances involve commercial food waste. Not only will commercial establishments be expected to separate all of their food waste from other types, but they will also be following the Food Recovery Hierarchy.

The hierarchy states that food on track to become waste must first be diverted to hungry people, such as Gainesville’s homeless population, Ward said. If not to people, it then goes to feeding animals; if not animals, it goes on to industrial uses and then finally composting.

The goal of these ordinances is to keep food out of landfills at all costs.

Waste that doesn’t go to the landfill is either recycled and repurposed or composted to help with soil quality.

Three of the biggest contributing factors to Gainesville’s waste, Ward said, are commercial and grocery food waste, construction waste and the waste resulting from students at UF moving off campus during the end of Spring and Summer semesters.

Future ordinances will focus on repurposing UF student furniture, as well as the better handling of construction materials, Ward said.

While UF’s campus waste isn’t included in the city’s estimates of waste reduction, the university does know about the 90% reduction goal, UF spokesperson Cynthia Roldan said.

“Currently, UF diverts between 40-50% of our waste from landfills, exclusive of construction waste, depending on what is included,” Roldan said.

That’s actually an impressive amount, said Wendell Porter, a waste efficiency expert who was a UF agricultural and biological engineering senior lecturer for 16 years.

While UF is having more success than the city in diverting waste, Ward cites the university’s ability to regulate all of its own vendors. This means that UF has a better handle on the amount of possible waste coming in in order to divert better the actual waste made.

For Porter, there are three

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things the city and its residents could focus on that would drastically reduce the amount of waste going into landfills: food waste, paper waste and glass and metal waste.

Those three types of waste account for nearly 60% of the U.S.’ waste going to landfills, Porter said. But they’re also some of the easiest to recycle and limit. These issues need to be pushed more in public education, he added.

“Public education is a key issue,” Porter said, “and I don’t think we are doing a nearly good enough job on that right now.”

The City Commission considered including sustainability education in Gainesville public schools, Ward said, though that’s since been tabled.

Accountability is also a key issue in the effort to divert waste. With a commission that changes leadership every four years, it can be difficult to ensure change is long-lasting over a more than 20year period.

Michael Heimbach, Gainesville’s sustainability manager of public works, said the commission will always be responsive to what the community wants. And, right now, the community is in support of these ordinances, he said.

“Keeping us accountable is not the issue,” Ward said. “Keeping the community accountable is the issue.”

If elected officials are held accountable, and the community continues to push for ordinances to help the city meet its goal, Porter said, the goal of a 90% reduction is incredibly realistic by 2040.

“You can make huge progress really quick if you really focus on the things that people are already doing but maybe not so well,” Porter said.

These efforts include recycling of all kinds, as well as composting food waste. The issue, he said, is how efficiently the residents of the city conduct their waste handling.

“Not only is it realistic,” Porter said, “I think in the very near future, it’ll be necessary.”

@JakeLyn20488762

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Feeding Florida in a changing climate

Farmers, food researchers plan for more severe storms, higher temperatures

By Jack Lemnus Alligator Staff Writer

Amy Van Scoik is driven by her passion for feeding people, but this mission grows harder each year as the climate becomes more unpredictable. It’s never clear what extreme weather to expect during the next season.

On her Hawthorne farm, Frog Song Organics, an abnormally long freeze last winter wiped out this year’s prospects of a plentiful harvest.

“We’re growing the worst strawberry crop that we’ve seen in a decade,” Van Scoik said.

As severe weather such as hurricanes, floods, freezes and droughts become more common, farmers like Van Scoik are adapting to ensure there’s enough food for Florida’s growing population, which is projected to increase roughly 27% by 2050, according to UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

Farmers are combating these challenges with new sustainable technologies and practices, such as advanced fertilizers and cattle bred to withstand high heat.

Other measures are older, such as organic farming, which has been on the rise in the U.S. in recent decades, according to the Pew Research Center.

At Frog Song Organics, sustainable agricultural practices are crucial to Van Scoik’s operation.

One strategy is planting cover crops, which aren’t intended to be sold but are meant to act as natural fertilizers while also pulling carbon dioxide from the air. She also uses crop rotation, meaning she plants different produce each year to improve soil health.

When intense storms like hurricanes sweep through Florida, they batter and erode the soil, removing vital nutrients; practices like crop rotation and cover cropping mitigate that damage.

But despite Van Scoik’s efforts, extreme weather like last winter’s freeze still threatens her harvests. That’s why sustainability is more important than ever, she said.

Van Scoik learned her stewardship of the land while watching her grandmother grow food for her family in China, she said.

“It didn’t really all click together until later in life. I was like, ‘Oh yeah, my grandma was showing me how to do all these things,’” she said. “She actually kinda teased me,

like ‘Hey, we left mainland China to leave the farm, and you’re wanting to start up a farm?’”

On her farm, Van Scoik and her family produce organic crops like potatoes, squash, onions and peaches, while using livestock to graze and fertilize the land.

For a product to be certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, no synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or genetic engineering can be used, and 95% of its ingredients must be organic.

This type of farming reduces exposure to pesticides, improves biodiversity and helps store carbon dioxide. But there’s debate whether organic farming could substantially reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Nonetheless, the reduction in synthetic fertilizers from organic farming is crucial to protecting Florida’s groundwater, said Kevin Korus, Alachua County’s UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences agriculture and natural resources agent.

“We have these sandy soils that don’t hold a lot of nutrients,” Korus said. “There’s always going to be a need for high fertilizer inputs in Florida.”

Proper fertilizer use is just one way Florida must adapt to meet growing demand while also protecting the environment, Korus said.

If agriculture continues to become more productive, Korus believes there will be enough food to meet global demand by the end of the century.

“What we have to fix now are our distribution chains and food waste,” he said.

But that’s no minor task.

Studies show the global demand for food is projected to increase by an average of 78% by 2050. By that time, the population is expected to reach 9.8 billion people, according to the United Nations.

And as the population boom puts a strain on already overtaxed resources, so will the effects of climate change. More frequent and intense storms mean more stress on agricultural output.

To feed the planet, all types of food production need to become more efficient, including livestock, said Raluca Mateescu, a UF animal science professor.

“The world is still going to need a lot of animal products,” she said. “I know there’s a movement to move away from it, and I have nothing against it. I think that everybody should have the choice to eat what they

want.”

But that doesn’t mean ruling out meat consumption completely, she said.

Mateescu studies animal genomics, particularly breeding livestock to withstand the harsh conditions of climate change. Considering nearly half of Florida’s agricultural land involves cattle production, breeding heat-tolerant cows is essential as Florida gets more hot and humid, she said.

Smaller internal organs, slower metabolisms and shorter hair are all favorable traits that reduce body heat — all found in the Brahman cow originating from India, which is used to breed with native Florida cattle.

But the cattle industry also contributes to climate change, with 25% of U.S. methane emissions coming from livestock digestive processes, mostly from cow burps, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Instead of abstaining from meat entirely, Mateescu said emissions will have to be reduced by producing a more sustainable animal.

“A more efficient cow is going to be one that produces less methane,” she said.

Today, the cattle industry can produce the same amount of beef as nearly 50 years ago but with roughly two-thirds the number of cattle, according to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science at Oxford University. However, this includes improvements in many parts of the overall cattle industry, including advances in diet and machinery.

Fourth-generation rancher John Nix understands the importance of climate-conscious cattle breeding. He uses a combination of the Brahman and Angus cattle, called a Brangus, known for its heat tolerance and high meat quality.

He also plants long-roots grasses on his pastures to protect the soil while absorbing carbon dioxide.

“I’m basically a grass farmer with cattle as a byproduct,” he said.

In the last 50 years on his farm in Rochelle, an unincorporated community roughly nine miles southeast of Gainesville, Nix noticed the seasons become less predictable. Every year, climate change became more visible, he said.

That’s why in 2020, he joined the Citizen Climate Advisory Committee, a board that counsels the Alachua County Commission on climate policy.

One of his key concerns is equity.

Growing up in East Gainesville, Nix, who is Black, noticed his predominantly lowerincome neighborhood was a food desert — without a proper grocery store.

People will always find food, but he’s worried about who will get quality food, he said.

“We don’t want to go into a class system where we lose people with food and we make food a way to discriminate,” Nix said.

Steps must be taken to ensure food is available for marginalized communities, or there will be a social gap in food quality as costs rise, he said.

That’s why he plans to build a youth and community development center near his farm to educate youth on the importance of fresh, nutritious food, he said.

Solving the problems of climate change isn’t just about new research and technologies — it’s also about taking care of those most vulnerable, Nix said. To move forward means analyzing the intersection between environment and social issues and understanding how they impact each other.

For Nix, that means grasping how climate change-induced food scarcity can lead to more food deserts in communities of color.

As the developed nations of the world have demonstrated, it’s the powerless who bear the brunt of climate change, Nix said. And without drastic action by the largest culprits in the industry, the efforts of small and marginalized farmers just won’t be enough.

@JackLemnus jlemnus@alligator.org

Gabriella Aulisio // Alligator Staff Farmer John Nix feeds bread to one of his escaped cows before taking them back to the pasture Saturday, April 15, 2023.

Rawlings’ citrus trees dwindle

RAWLINGS, from pg. 1

Rawlings was fascinated by the way local backwoodsmen – affectionately dubbed “Crackers” – lived. She observed them in what she called “invisible Florida,” not because of its inaccessibility, but because it must be seen with the spiritual eye. The locals taught her to fish and hunt for her own food, and she repaid them by honoring their culture in her writing.

Nostalgic bookworms, movie fanatics and wilderness admirers alike hail to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. Her wood-frame country home, with some of its oldest parts made in the mid-19th century, stands as a testimonial to the work Rawlings contributed to the world of literature.

The author briefly worked as a creative writing lecturer at UF. In 1958, UF named the student housing dormitory Rawlings Hall in her honor.

Guests describe the state park as an escape into the Old Florida wilderness, emoting a tugging feeling of nostalgia for an era that you haven’t lived in — but feel like you could belong to.

The area was remote when Rawlings thrived there as a divorced writer. Only seven families lived in Cross Creek when she arrived.

The allure of isolation in the wilderness is an intriguing pull for many readers, idealizing the immersion experience.

Susan Meany, 71, drove up from the Winter Villages to visit the park with her group of biker friends Feb. 25. She read “The Yearling” in grade school, she said, and was inspired to buy “Cross Creek” after attending the tour.

“It was interesting how she would come back here,” Meany said. “She never got out of her element. She just always stayed right here.”

The federally-protected sanctuary allows wild rattlesnakes, ducks and sandhill cranes to roam freely as neighbors to employees like Geoff Gates.

Gates, 66, has been guiding detailed tours of Rawlings’ life for

nearly five years and is the resident gardener of Rawlings’ vegetable garden, which she maintained next to her home.

There’s no denying Rawlings’ work transformed the area of Cross Creek, Gates said. The area enriched her just as much as she impacted it.

“She was enormously changed by this place and the people that lived here,” Gates said. “The development of Cross Creek came from her famous writings … people wanted to be a part of it.”

At the peak of its popularity in the 1950s, the “Cross Creek”-inspiring home could have hosted over 40,000 visitors in a year, Gates said, with movie fanatics arriving in droves on buses to visit the literary hallmark.

“Hundreds, if not thousands, of people per day were coming here,” Gates said. “For several years after the movie premiered, it was absolutely a transformation of this place into a tourist mecca.”

Now with over 500 families living in the area, efforts have consistently been made to ensure

Cross Creek isn’t overcapitalized, ensuring the slice of Old Florida so many have come to love doesn’t change.

The Big Scrub Rawlings wrote of in “Cross Creek” is currently used by the fishing and agriculture industries surrounding the area for boat rentals, fishing, frog gigging and hunting in the surrounding lakes.

The boat ramp fishers use is located directly behind the state park. It’s named after Cross Creek artist Kate Barnes, another conservationist who has made efforts since the 1980s to preserve the surrounding land and preserve the natural and cultural resources of the area, founding the citizen group The Friends of Cross Creek.

The group opposed the development of "Lochloosa New Town," a city of up to 200,000 people with proposed amenities including a regional shopping center, golf courses

declined to answer questions on Sasse’s behalf about whether he would support the initiatives. James Wegmann, a spokesperson on the new president’s transition team, didn’t return requests for comment, and Sasse hasn’t responded to The Alligator’s interview requests since he took office in February.

Before the plan’s first version was published, Machen was one of 12 college and university presidents to sign a commitment to curtail climate change in 2006 — and, in the process, tried to establish UF as a sustainability leader within the academic world.

Machen himself became a beacon of climate hope on campus: The president gave an annual “State of Sustainability” address on UF’s Campus Earth Day, and he even received a “green valentine” from students thanking him for his climate efforts in 2009.

“If you took the campus map and threw a dart anywhere on it, you would likely hit an

and marinas on both lakes.

At the time the development was proposed, there was one road in the town with no sewers, cable TV or town government. The Owens-Illinois Corporation dropped out of the development project shortly before Alachua County passed the Cross Creek Special Area Study, a blueprint guideline with restrictions on developments within natural areas.

Some years later, The Friends of Cross Creek managed to protect 16,610 acres of forestry, in addition to 10,593 acres of lakefront property purchased by the St. Johns River Water Management District.

In 2022, 605 acres of natural land area in Hawthorne were secured within the Florida Wildlife Corridor, containing over two miles of Lochloosa Creek. Land stewardship program group Alachua County Forever purchased the land for $1.5 million after deeming the land worthy of special protection because of its exceptional ecological significance.

When Rawlings lived in Cross Creek, similar “big interests” were at odds with maintaining the beauty of the small rural town’s natural state; during her time, it was timber that was being overconsumed which led to Rawlings’ continually being asked to support the conservation of the land.

“The whole situation is maddening,” Rawlings wrote in a letter displayed in her home. “Greed seems to make people totally blind.”

Rawlings’ protesting spirit is still felt in writing, even if now it’s no longer her own. Rawlings, along with Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Marjory Harris Carr, inspired “The Marjorie,” an independent environmental and social justice news outlet featuring pieces from local citizen journalists. The publication has received grants from the Knight Foundation and the Society of Environmental Journalists because of its coverage honoring the beauty and depth of Florida’s climate.

Over the course of her time at the farmhouse, Rawlings planted over 1,600 citrus trees across 73 acres of land, Mulligan said.

Today, fewer than 50 remain.

Tour guide Peggy Bowie said oth-

area that has been impacted by our sustainability efforts,” he said during his 2011 sustainability speech.

Last month, UF received $20,000 worth of free consultations with Second Nature, the non-profit that oversaw The Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments. As one of nine universities and the only in Florida to earn the stipend, UF will put the money toward shifting to renewable energy. It was under Machen’s tenure that the university started to track emissions and officially formed the Office of Sustainability. Soon after, the original climate action plan appeared.

Between 2009 and today, the Office of Sustainability worked toward completing CAP 1.0 while developing CAP 2.0.

While some of UF’s original climate goals were completed, others failed or were reiterated in CAP 2.0. In 2006, the university promised to achieve zero waste — when 90% or more of waste is not put in landfills — by 2015, but it failed on that promise when the deadline

er than this decline, the park hasn’t changed much — the citrus smell Rawlings was so fond of can still be faintly recognized through the palm fronds.

“A lot of the places that used to have orange groves when the freezes came and trees were killed, they just mowed it all down,” Bowie said. “I can't say that's true out there, because if you look at Cross Creek, it doesn't look that different from the way it did when Rawlings was there.”

Bowie originally joined the state park team in 1983 as a park ranger, but she now volunteers as a tour guide. Although she carries a stack of notes to refer to throughout her presentation, she rarely uses them — instead relying on memorization and habit.

The decrease in trees, Bowie said, can be attributed to seasonal changes that are detrimental to the local orange populations, as well as generally decreasing temperatures.

“We’ve had these big freezes that came through and just completely froze entire groves down,” Bowie said.

This past winter was the first time in recent history that a real freeze had taken most of the park’s orange crop, with Christmas night dipping down into the lowest temperature — a low of 23 degrees.

Orange grove farmer Andy Johnson has over 4,000 citrus trees in his Ocala field. He uses microjet irrigation technologies to protect against

freezes like those from this past Christmas, he said, unlike the techniques seen in the “Cross Creek” movie when they set bonfires around the field to keep the citrus trees warm.

Something northern Florida farmers have to contend with while maintaining the health of their crops is citrus greening, Johnson said. Compared to the insect pressure threats a southern Florida crop could face, northern Florida citrus groves prefer to have a bit of the cold on their side to avoid citrus psyllids, disease-infected insects that transfer damaging bacteria.

“I would say we get changes, and this cold spell was unexpected,” Johnson said. “We're at the teetering point between wanting the cold and getting rid of the bugs and to stay warm enough to be able to crop.”

Despite the climate working against them, the staff at Rawlings State Park maintain the remaining citrus trees to the best of their ability to pay homage to Rawlings’ taste for beautiful sights.

The staff replanted the varieties Rawlings originally seeded, Mulligan said.

“The aromas of the orange blossoms … you can come out and smell [them], it’s a great experience,” Mulligan said. “It's all your senses can get.”

@LorenMiranda13 lmiranda@alligator.org

came.

The university continues to double down on its 2009 promise of carbon neutrality, meaning the university would spend the same amount of carbon as it takes in, bringing net carbon emissions to zero, by 2025 in CAP 2.0.

In order to meet that goal, UF is developing a policy in which it would buy carbon offsets — that is, a transferable credit that counts toward reducing carbon emissions. For example, if UF wants to emit two units of greenhouse gases, it can purchase two units of carbon offsets from another company; the second company then has to reduce its emissions by an equivalent amount.

UF is looking into the highest-value carbon offsets to help reach climate neutrality, Storn said. But the larger goal is to become climate neutral without having to purchase offsets, she said — meaning the university emits no greenhouse gases at all in the future.

“The goal is to do this in a way that supports students, supports research, supports academics and is efficient and effective,” she said. “We don't want to just go out there and be just spending money. We want to do it in a way that makes an actual difference.”

UF Planning, Design and Construction is on its own mission to reduce carbon output from campus buildings: Both versions of CAP require constructions and renovations that cost $4 million or more to reach at least LEED Gold certification or equivalent.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications assure that buildings have met certain standards for sustainability, including lower energy use, healthy air quality and long-lasting materials.

Gold is LEED’s second-highest certification, trumped only by Platinum. UF also participates in other certification programs that similarly evaluate buildings’ sustainability, including the Florida Green Building Coalition and WELL.

UF will celebrate its 100th building to obtain certification in Fall after the construction of the Malachowsky Hall for Data Science and Information Technology, located on Museum Road.

Read more online at alligator.org.

@AlissaGary1 agary@alligator.org

UF didn’t meet every 2008 goal

Caia Reese // Alligator Staff

Dozens of dwindling citrus trees scatter the front lawn of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings homestead Saturday, April 15, 2023.

Rawlings

UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences extensions work to mitigate climate change

COUNTIES ACROSS THE STATE RESEARCH SOLUTIONS, EDUCATE PUBLIC

By Sophia Bailly Alligator Staff Writer

UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences spans across the state’s 67 counties, delivering environmental research and discoveries to local communities.

Each of IFAS’ roughly 375 extension agents encourage sustainable practices in everyday life — including ways to mitigate climate change.

The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 designated UF with land-grant university — making it one of 105 colleges and universities with land grants under the acts. In 1964, IFAS formed under the act. In 2021, IFAS received $155.6 million of the university’s $861 million fiscal year research funding budget.

IFAS has dispersed its climate change research to center on greenhouse gas emissions, ocean acidification and sea-level rise. Extensions take a local approach to educating Florida residents about climate change, whether it’s regarding forestry, farming or waterways.

Planting trees for survival

Ryan Klein, an environmental horticulture faculty member for IFAS in Gainesville, studies the urban environment to see how manmade developments typically destroy or displace flora and fauna.

“If we start losing large numbers of our trees … utility bills are gonna go up, air quality potentially goes down,” he said.

Planting trees helps maintain the carbon cycle to produce oxygen, but Klein said the ongoing effects of climate change — such as more sporadic wintertime cold fronts, harsher hurricanes and droughts — makes it more difficult for trees to survive.

Climate change can be simplified to mean hotter temperatures, more extreme weather and increased frequency and intensity of storms, he said. Each of these factors could make it more difficult for trees to sustain changing temperatures.

To account for this issue, Klein is searching for various tree species that can withstand Florida’s hardiness zones, which is a range of high and low temperatures a tree is adapted to survive in.

But maintaining the tree industry requires proper construction and development practices. The issue comes down to planning and policymaking at the local level, Klein said.

“Who’s in charge at any given time, and how strict do they want to be with some of these groups?” he said. “What codes and ordinances do they have on the books?”

Klein sent a statewide survey to about 3,000 green industry professionals last year asking what tree species are not currently grown or sold in Florida but might have beneficial properties to surviving in the state’s different hardiness zones.

Commercial industries prioritize growing trees consumers will buy, but consumers continue buying what industries produce. This cycle creates a “chicken or the egg” approach, Klein said, where certain tree species are overlooked.

“You have a large group of professionals in this industry that have their own experiences that may not line up with what’s commercially being marketed and sold throughout the state,” Klein said.

The research project is an ongoing endeavor, but Klein condensed the list of potential tree species to 20. Once six species are chosen, they will be planted in Quincy, Fort Lauderdale and Gainesville to account for a range of three hardiness zones. Klein’s goal is to find trees that have a high drought tolerance and are resilient to weather extremes.

Farming practices to feed the future

Sheeja George, a research coordinator at the North Florida Research and Education Center in Quincy, Florida, focuses on collaborating with farmers to encourage proper farming techniques.

Crop resiliency is critical to protecting farms and sustaining food production, she said. George focuses on making farms more resilient to the effects of climate change.

Weather uncertainties and extremes deteriorate the quality and quantity of water used for crop systems and rural farming. Making soil resilient and less dependent on water could help overcome the effects of droughts, inconsistent rainfall and freeze events.

Population growth requires increased food production, but this must be done with consideration to the natural resources available and current soil quality, George said. Florida’s population is predicted to increase to 33.7 million residents by 2070 — 14.9 million more people than 2010, according to the Florida 2070 project, published in 2016.

“We are at a time when we need more and more food,” George said. “Our population is increasing, so food is not going out of fashion anytime soon. Everybody needs to be fed.”

George outlined three principles for cropping systems that she directs farmers to follow: always keep soil covered, keep roots in the soil year long and don’t disturb roots.

George also works with IFAS to give the community science-based facts and break down information into digestible concepts. Her goal is to start a domino effect by implementing sustainable practices at a local or household level.

“I feel the responsibility of institutions like IFAS is to help the [laypeople] separate the information from the misinformation around climate change,” she said. “IFAS should never stop doing that. That’s our mission.”

Living Shorelines and soil resiliency

Ashley Smyth, an assistant professor in biogeochemistry at IFAS’ Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead, Florida, studies sediments and water quality. She documents how the resiliency of water ecosystems impacts humans on land.

Smyth takes sediment samples from seagrasses, salt marshes and mangroves into the lab and changes the temperature, light, nutrient load, salinity and humidity of the controlled environment. These adjustments simulate the effects of extreme weather or pollution.

“What we’re finding is that nature is pretty resilient,” she said.

Although the sediment tests have had strong results, Smyth said water quality concerns are growing. Algae grows faster when water is hot. An overabundance of nutrients can create pollution. So, as global temperatures rise, pollution becomes a greater risk.

Water carries nutrient loads, Smyth said, which are only enhanced in the face of extreme storms and sea levels rising. These events can cause saltwater intrusion, meaning saltwater infiltrates the freshwater systems humans rely on.

One way Smyth relays these concerns and information to Floridians is through the Climate Smart Floridians program, which teaches communities how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and translates lab research into power points for the public to review. Smyth worked with two other IFAS extension agents to create the program in 2020.

“It is really a unique diversity of players at the table,” she said. “You have to hear a diversity of opinions, and you have to think outside the box.”

IFAS’ climate change research frequently takes extension agents into local communities. Savanna Barry, a regional specialized extension agent in Cedar Key, Florida,

encourages sustainable practices through Florida Sea Grant and the Nature Coast Biological Station.

Barry works on Florida Living Shorelines projects, which use salt marshes, mangroves, oyster reefs and seagrasses to stabilize shorelines against erosion from weather and tides. Natural elements are incorporated into human property development to protect buildings and homes.

“If we have a wind that’s blowing onshore, in conjunction with high tide, we can see the saltwater coming up into parking lots and streets,” she said. “That can lead to costly maintenance issues for the cities.”

However, coastal development and infrastructure are ill-equipped to withstand the acceleration of rising sea levels. This leads developers and homeowners to build seawalls, which are artificial barriers made of concrete, masonry or sheet piles along shorelines to defend against erosion.

“That is really expensive, first of all, and then it has ecological consequences as well in terms of degrading our intertidal habitats,” she said.

Using natural habitats, such as oysters grading up into vegetated habitats or reefs made from rock, creates structural resistance to dissipate erosive forces before they reach human properties. Although seawalls might sometimes be necessary based on construction regulations and wave energy, Barry said, too many are taking the place of natural resources.

“The time period where seawalls were being built very quickly was probably before we knew what the ecological consequences of them were going to be,” Barry said. “Now, we’re stuck in that situation.”

@sophia_bailly sbailly@alligator.org

Students, faculty fear UF won’t meet 2025 carbon neutrality goal

EXPERTS SAY UF HASN’T MADE ANY MEANINGFUL EFFORTS TO REDUCE RELIANCE ON FOSSIL FUEL

By Allessandra Inzinna Alligator Staff Writer

Every student in their freshman economics class will learn: Supply needs to be met with demand. Supply of natural gas is no different. Florida consumes the fifth most natural gas in the country to fuel nearly 75% of the state.

In June 2021, the UF Board of Trustees approved the $235 million Central Energy Plant Project to build a combined heat and power energy facility on campus. Set to begin construction this year, it will be the university’s largest energy provider, relieving UF of purchasing 750,000 pounds of steam from Duke Energy every year.

UF is currently in the process of revamping its Climate Action Plan, an outline combating emissions on campus, including a goal to become carbon neutral in 2025, meaning a net zero release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The plant is anticipated to reduce UF’s carbon footprint by 25% by shifting the majority of UF’s electricity to on-campus production and reducing the distance it needs to travel, Senior Counsel attorney Colt Little told The Alligator in 2021.

“From the point that UF initially committed to carbon neutrality in 2006, the path towards that goal has always been a blend of emissions reduction, emissions mitigation, and offsetting actions,” Amy Armstrong, UF spokesperson for Business Affairs, wrote in an email.

The Central Energy Plant is anticipated to reduce carbon emissions by burning natural gas, a process that releases half as much carbon into the atmosphere as burning coal. However, instead of releasing carbon, natural gas mainly releases methane gas, which traps heat in the atmosphere at a more potent level.

The approval sparked protests among students, as some viewed it as a step backward for a greener energy policy. Others wondered what impact it would have on UF’s goal for a carbon-neutral campus by 2025.

Stephen Mulkey, a UF sustainability science lecturer, said he believes the only way for UF to reach its goal by 2025 is if it simply doesn’t count huge chunks of emissions. His expecta-

tions are so low that he has stopped paying attention, he wrote in an email.

“Both the UF and [Gainesville Regional Utilities] estimates are wildly unrealistic given the reality that there has been little meaningful effort to end reliance on fossil fuels,” he said.

GRU is doing as much as it can to produce renewable energy, said David Arreola, a former Gainesville city commissioner.

Gainesville is 55% powered by natural gas and 42% by renewable sources, a GRU spokesperson wrote in an email. Biomass supplies 41% of the city’s energy. In 2017, GRU bought a biomass plant that burns wood, which a GRU spokesperson said is sustainably sourced. In 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency declared the burning of biomass as carbon neutral, despite climate scientists’ concerns about the prospect.

Gainesville’s use of renewable energy dwarfs that of the state, which sits at 6% as of 2021.

“If the rest of the country could follow this model, we’d be reducing our carbon emissions by nearly half in the next decade,” Arreola said, “which is basically the pace that we have to start to set if we’re going to avoid climate catastrophe.”

UF announced four finalists to construct the Central Energy Plant Project: Gator Campus Energy, Gator Campus Utility Partners, Swamp Power Partners and Gator Energy Services.

“We are confident that UF can continue to make progress toward carbon neutrality with any of the solutions being considered to meet campus’ thermal energy needs through steam, hot water, and chilled water,” Armstrong said.

Jacob York, president of UF’s Green Building Club, said the university does a lot right when it comes to sustainability. However, he said, when it comes to lowering the campus’ carbon footprint, it isn’t doing enough.

“There are people within the university and university leadership that are really trying to do the right thing,” he said. “For various reasons, [they] may have their hands tied.”

UF should show leadership on climate and emissions, but Mulkey has never seen any evidence that the university has acted with this intention.

The Central Energy Plant is expected to begin construction this year.

UF students face environmental anxiety as threat of climate change looms

CLIMATE ANXIETY IS DEVELOPING TERM IN MENTAL HEALTH FIELD

By Ella Thompson Alligator Staff Writer

When Elise Turesson dives into the murky, duck-weed-covered water of Manatee Springs, she marvels at sunlight breaking through the surface. She’s found a love in diving, but not every experience is as rewarding.

Over time, the environment has declined, and the effects are noticeable.

“A lot of the damage has already been done,” Turesson said. “But it doesn’t mean that we can’t make a change right now.”

In 2020, the U.S. experienced 22 separate weather and climate disasters of which damage exceeded $1 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A total of 226 people died in the 2021 historic cold wave that struck Nebraska southward to Texas and left millions without power. Hurricane Ian, the deadliest hurricane to make landfall in Florida since 1935, killed 149 people, displaced thousands more and decimated city infrastructure in southwest Florida.

With forests on fire, hurricanes gaining strength and regularity and

other natural disasters becoming more frequent, members of Generation Z wonder: What does our future look like? What will be lost? What’s possible for the future?

Climate anxiety is defined as “heightened emotional, mental or somatic distress in response to dangerous changes in the climate system,” according to the Climate Psychology Alliance’s Handbook of Climate Psychology; or “a chronic fear of environmental doom,” as defined in a 2017 American Psychological Association report.

Turesson, a 20-year-old UF nutritional sciences sophomore and president of Gator Scuba, has been diving since she was 16 years old. Turesson is a dive master candidate for UF Scuba, UF’s scientific diver development program, and she dove every single weekend during the Spring semester.

She’s watched the coral reefs in Florida digress over time, Turesson said. Some corals in Florida are suffering coral bleaching — when coral expel algae and turn completely white — putting the corals under more stress and subjecting them to mortality.

“In Florida, if you’re diving in the ocean, the reefs are not as good as they used to be,” she said. “Over time, It just gets worse and worse.”

Florida’s freshwater springs, some within a one-hour drive of UF, are also degrading over time, Turesson said. But she feels they’re better preserved than the oceans.

She struggles with climate anxiety, she said, feeling like she can’t do enough to curb the planet’s deteriorating conditions.

“It’s upsetting to see people walk around and litter and just do things that are not helping and just hurting a lot for the environment, especially when you care so much,” Turesson said.

Institutions like California Institute of Integral Studies offer climate psychology certificates, which are designed as additional training for professional counselors. The EcoPsychology Initiative is another company that provides climate anxiety training and certificates. A certificate is not required to provide treatment, currently.

Brittany Rivers, a 37-year-old licensed mental health professional

in Gainesville, joined the Climate Psychology Alliance in August 2022.

It’s a term that’s still being defined clinically, Rivers said, though it has more of a focus on the fears around the human-caused impacts of climate change.

The term is used synonymously with eco-anxiety, a term relating to how a certain weather event may impact someone’s living environment and livelihood. Climate anxiety can be a subset of eco-anxiety, Rivers said, which is more expansive.

Much of the anxiety Rivers sees involves the unknowns about the future, especially in young adults.

“It’s a natural reaction to a threat,” she said. “A major threat.”

Guilt is another reaction many may have to climate change, but it’s only helpful to a certain degree, Rivers said. The emotion can quickly turn into inaction and may not be helpful.

“It’s important to think about what is accessible to you in your life and what is sustainable for you,” she said. “We’re looking for things that can give you kind of a sense of self-efficacy [that] helps you feel like you are doing something that matters.”

Therapy is all about finding a balance that works for the patient, Rivers said. However, climate anxiety is a new topic and doesn’t

have a standard procedure; it isn’t in “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition,” the handbook that mental health professionals use to diagnose disorders.

Sixty-seven percent of Gen Z is somewhat or extremely anxious about the impact of climate change on their mental health, compared to only 42% of baby boomers, according to an APA poll.

Mental health professionals go about treatment in different ways, but common themes include giving space to process emotions, finding spaces and groups that provide support to the patient and encouraging a reconnection to nature, Rivers said.

Grieving is another route some therapists may take. This process can help clarify what is meaningless and what is worth devoting time and energy to, she said.

“We might be spending a lot of time and energy trying to save something that has already been lost or trying to recreate a world that is not possible anymore,” Rivers said. “Grieving can help us to move through those losses to create new possibilities or to imagine new possibilities.”

Read the rest online at alligator.org. @elladeethompson ethompson@alligator.org

Gainesville solar plans in Archer shed light on nuances of renewable energy

WITH STATE APPROVAL, SOLAR PLANT COULD BE BUILT BY 2025

By Siena Duncan Alligator Staff Writer

After over a year of contract negotiations, the Gainesville City Commission has decided to temporarily halt plans to build a solar plant, called the Sand Bluff Solar Project, until it receives approval from a state committee.

The plant was meant to be built in Archer, a rural town about 13 miles south of Gainesville, by early 2025, supplying Gainesville with nearly 80% clean energy combined with the biomass plant, another controversial source of renewable energy the city bought in 2017. However, the state Joint Legislative Auditing Committee is reviewing the solar contract, as well as several other Gainesville Regional Utilities projects, due to the city’s $1.7 billion debt.

But stalling the plant might be for the best, Archer resident Scott Sloan said.

“I like the idea of renewable energy,” Sloan said. “But it has to be in the right spot and done in the right way.”

Sloan, 46, doesn’t understand why the plant needs to be built in Archer if it will be servicing Gainesville and the surrounding area.

Archer residents won’t benefit from it, he said. In fact, it might be harmful — property values can decrease when a solar plant is built near a residential area, according to a study from the University of Rhode Island.

This latest project is indicative of Gainesville treating Archer as a “waste basket,” Sloan said.

The original site for the GRU solar plant was in close proximity to a historic Black graveyard, but the Alachua County Commission voted against building the solar plant there last July, and the site was moved near Whitehurst Lodge and St. Joseph’s Church.

Gainesville needs to work to rebuild trust, Sloan said.

Sloan has also witnessed multiple plans to build solar plants fall through in Archer since he moved there in 2019. One of those was when Duke Energy, a large private utility company, attempted to build a solar plant a hundred feet away from his home in 2020.

The original site was also across the street from a historically Black church, Banks United Methodist Church. Sloan worked with the congregation and its pastor to push back against the project, and it was shut down.

Archer also experienced a second attempt from Duke Energy to build a smaller solar plant, but it was stopped by residents near the spot as well. Sloan sees this new GRU plant as following Duke Energy’s heels, he said.

“When you talk to people at the grocery store, the library or the post office, there’s an underlying tone in the conversation that Archer is a dumping ground,” Sloan said.

He was satisfied when he heard the City Commission had decided to move the new location, he said. But he’s still not sure how much he trusts it to make the right choices for Archer moving forward.

Sloan’s opinions are shared by other residents, too. In an Archer community Facebook group with 1,500 members, a post about the solar plant garnered over 20 comments from angered residents.

While Sloan is generally in favor of renewable energy projects, he doesn’t like this ongoing relationship between Archer and utility companies, whether private or public, he said. He thinks there are plenty of other alternatives for solar plants closer to Gainesville, such as suburban areas like Oakmont.

But compared to Archer, the people in Oakmont are in a higher tax bracket, he said.

“All those people over there have a lot of money, and they would certainly fight it,” Sloan said. “So, I would imagine that they’re looking for a place where they’re not going to get a lot of pushback.”

However, Mayor Harvey Ward thinks the company building the solar plant, Origis Energy, has done enough community outreach with the people surrounding the new site. He feels confident it will go over well, he said.

“What people a few miles away are thinking and feeling, I don’t know,” Ward said. “But I do know that folks who live directly around it seem to have said yes.”

Ward is open to the idea of expanding GRU’s coverage area to Archer, he said. He understands the town’s apprehension, but he’s comfortable with the amount of thought put into picking the new site after hearing from Archer residents.

He also thinks it’s likely the solar plant will move forward, given the long term financial benefits for the city — including more consistent prices, he said.

Gainesville residents do stand to gain from this solar plant, said Jonathan Scheffe, UF professor and solar researcher. The implementation of a solar plant for a municipal utility could steady electricity rates, because solar prices do not spike in the same way natural gas does.

Whether an oil company is able to find a new deposit or not,

the sun will shine regardless, Sheffe said.

“Solar has been proven to be a cheap technology to produce power,” Scheffe said. “You’re set for an extended period of time and can pretty much guarantee what those costs are going to be.”

This could be an improvement for GRU due to unsustainable price hikes in the past, Scheffe said. The regional utility has struggled with maintaining steady rates, resulting in protests.

However, Gainesville will still need to use an alternative resource even with enough solar power to provide electricity to the whole area, Scheffe said. The technology to store solar power in batteries once the sun goes down is still developing, an area Scheffe has chosen to specialize in with his research.

The Sand Bluff Solar Project does come with a 12 megawattper-hour battery storage system. The amount will cover transitions from renewable to non-renewable energy at night and during overcast days. But the vision of Gainesville powered by solar energy completely will have to wait for science to catch up, Scheffe said.

“I think there’s enough solar resource to provide power to the city of Gainesville,” Scheffe said. “It’s just a matter of figuring out how to store it effectively.”

However, Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut is apprehensive about the idea of building the solar plant — or any large-scale GRU projects, she said. Given the current situation where it’s already struggling with debt, she doesn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize GRU’s finances further.

Chestnut originally made a motion not to approve the Sand Bluff Solar Project last March during a City Commission meeting, but it failed. She expressed her objections there too, citing concerns about the fact that Origis Energy is legally allowed to redact parts of its contract with the city until it agrees to work with the company.

She thinks it might result in another infamous deal like the 2017 biomass plant purchase, which plunged GRU further into debt, Chestnut said.

“I’m interested in the predictability, the cost and the accountability,” she said. “I have a fear right now voting for anything that is going to be that long term.”

The state’s Joint Legislative Auditing Committee will be able to view the contract in full now that the City Commission has approved its involvement with Origis. The commission will discuss the contract April 20.

Rivers

Gainesville environmental science teachers enlighten next generation

TEACHERS DISCUSS IMPORTANCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE CURRICULUM

By Aubrey Bocalan Alligator Staff Writer

In the classroom of an environmental science teacher one will see many things. Lab coats. Goggles. Maps. Skeletons of animals tangled in nets.

John Pettit sees the future.

“I feel like I am going to be influencing our next generation of leaders,” he said.

Pettit, 58, has taught environmental science at Buchholz High School for nearly six years, and around a third of his curriculum focuses on climate change.

The list of Florida state standards for science classes under environmental science include 39 items, 14 of which are specifically related to climate change, according to CPalms, a database of standards and resources created by Florida State University. Teachers are required to tailor lessons to topics like the costs of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases.

Environmental science is solely focused on the relationship between humans and the environment, but other core classes like Earth science do include standards related to climate change, such as causes and the impact the ocean plays in global warming.

While not everyone in class is always rapt with attention, including climate change in Pettit’s lessons hasn’t been met with significant pushback from students or parents over the years.

He doesn’t see himself as a “doom and gloom” guy. He tries to address hard science first, but at the end of the day, he said, he also tries to encourage his students to see the possible ways for them to effect change.

“I point out with my kids a lot of times: ‘Unfortunately, your generation is going to have to fix what my generation did, but that’s OK,’” Pettit said.

Before he was a teacher, he did economic

development work all across Asia. He traveled to the snowy mountains of Nepal, the rainforests of Thailand and the savannas of India working to improve poverty and the well-being of large populations. He has seen the negative effects of human activity on the environment in a variety of places.

He often references these experiences in class to tie what his students learn to reality.

“When I talk about poverty and population, it’s not a theoretical with me,” Pettit said. “Pictures that I’ll put up on the screen of where we’ve been and what we’ve done, it’s more tangible.”

Besides teaching about how climate change impacts rising seas and the loss of biodiversity due to human activity, Pettit said there are four main elements to environmental science: poverty, population, pollution and petrochemicals.

When he was still in the field, he worked on addressing poverty and the strain an increasing population has on the natural environment. Now, as a teacher, he focuses on teaching students about pollution and petrochemicals, like how oil and waste

spills have large-scale environmental impacts.

One of Pettit’s students, 17-year-old Angela Gao, has taken her environmental education a step further.

Since the sixth grade, Gao has worked on independent research in the field of environmental engineering. She works mostly with biochar, a charcoal-like carbon formed when organic materials like wood or grass are heated up to extremely high temperatures with low-oxygen.

Gao hopes to refine a way to use biochar to reduce and prevent pollution, she said.

Biochar is porous, so it’s used to soak up pollutants in soil, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Growing up in Florida, it gives you a firsthand sort of look into some of the effects of climate change and global warming,” she said. “We have so many aquatic ecosystems, so that’s how I really got my start in this.”

Her class with Pettit was the place where she realized the research she was doing had the potential to make an impact and help the environment, she said.

However, she said, she feels like the current curriculum needs to expand on this aspect more.

“We could get more people sort of aware of the interactions between humans and the environment and just how critical it is at this point in time,” Gao said. “We need to be addressing these sorts of issues.”

She has several suggestions for ways Alachua County Public Schools can spread more awareness on the topic, she said, including making environmental science a required class or hosting annual sustainability assemblies. Gao wants to see more of her fellow students working together to help the planet, she said.

Another Buchholz student, Morgan Smith, 18, was also greatly impacted by her environmental science class. She was always aware of environmental issues, but taking the class her freshman year really opened her eyes, she said.

“Change needs to happen,” Smith said.

Edward Hunter is an environmental science teacher from Gainesville High School. He agrees more students need to take a stand.

“They need to know not just what’s going on … that the climate is changing, the planet is warming, that these consequences are starting to happen,” Hunter said. “But we need to have them on board in terms of making changes in their own lives.”

Like Pettit, Hunter has never received backlash for his curriculum from students or parents. He also has never been told there isn’t anything he can’t teach, he said.

In his class, he covers general environmental science topics like water pollution, renewable and non-renewable resources, global warming and other consequences of climate change.

“The situation is tiptoeing up to a really critical pivot point,” Hunter said. “People need to understand that everything we do is important.”

Pettit also shares this belief.

While ACPS teachers rarely receive pushback on climate change teachings, Pettit has seen a change in the overall attitude of society. What people once believed to be a hoax is now seen as hopeless, he said.

“We’ve shifted from ‘It’s a hoax’ to ‘There’s nothing you can do about it, so, don’t worry about it,’” Pettit said. “My main push to my kids [is] we all have to do something.”

That is why he shifted from the field to a classroom. He believes his students have the power to make the world a better place. He would retire or go back out to the savannas and rainforests if it didn’t feel like he was helping, Pettit said.

“If it didn’t,” he said, “I would leave tomorrow.”

But he knows it does.

“That’s the power of environmental science,” Pettit said. “It’s not a few of us doing a lot — it’s a lot of us doing a little that’s going to make the big difference.”

@aubreyyrosee abocalan@alligator.org

Gainesville youth join fight to preserve natural resources

By Claire Grunewald

Alligator

Staff Writer

In the fight against climate change, young Alachua County residents are on the frontlines, focused on defending their future.

Gainesville K-12 student programs and clubs across Alachua County Public Schools are leading initiatives to teach young people about the importance of preserving the environment.

Around 70% of people ages 16 to 25 are extremely or very worried about climate change, according to the World Economic Forum. This age group was the most worried about climate change out of all those surveyed.

Students like Morgan Smith, an 18-year-old Buchholz High School senior, wanted to educate her peers about sustainability and ways to reduce the impacts of climate change and formed Earth Club last year. The club now has over 70 members.

“We noticed that there was a lack of awareness within our school community, and we just

wanted to spread awareness about the environment within Buchholz,” Smith said.

The club organizes and participates in community cleanups and events, such as creating DIY recycled terrariums to encourage students to be more environmentally friendly. These initiatives have created a positive impact on her community, said Ashley Arthur, a 17-year-old BHS senior.

“We’re able to get hands on at the school and … keep our own school clean, and then, further that out to keeping our actual community clean,” she said.

Most members like Adalyn Kippers, a 17-year-old BHS senior, realized their awareness and passion for preserving the environment through education.

Growing up in North Central Florida, Kippers said she spent time enjoying Florida’s diverse network of beaches and freshwater springs.

“Seeing them very littered and not super taken care of made me realize that there’s a lot of problems,” Kippers said. “Not only in

our community, but globally.”

Jake Stalvey, an 18-year-old BHS senior, realizes the impact his generation can have on educating previous generations on environmental issues.

Climate change directly impacts younger generations, he said.

“I think it’s more of a learning curve for the older generations,” Stalvey said.

Most club members, like Chiemela Onwuchekwa, a 16-year-old BHS junior, worry about the global impacts of climate change — such as Venice, Italy, sinking — and how it could impact their futures.

“There are places that are actively suffering on a daily basis,” he said. “Although in Gainesville, we’re not seeing a huge impact like in Venice, it’s still a very present issue.”

Similar to BHS, Gainesville High School’s Student Government Association students have implemented several sustainability initiatives over the years. This past year, the organization created a pop-up thrift shop to

promote buying less fast fashion.

Celeste Flory, Colleen Anderson and Gerald Phillips — all 17-year-old GHS SGA members — are just a few of the students who have led the school’s movement to live more environmentally conscious.

“We’re not the first kids to want to make an effort on this,” Anderson said. “Hopefully we won’t be the last.”

Flory, one of the students behind SGA’s sustainable movements, worked on creating more opportunities for her school to recycle by decorating recycling bins and encouraging every classroom to recycle.

Besides sustainability projects, GHS SGA students believe it’s important for their peers to understand environmental issues and take action against them.

“It’s time for younger generations to expand our knowledge and try to help out whenever we can,” Phillips said.

Outside of schools in West Gainesville, NKwanda Jah, executive director of the Cultural Arts Coalition, implements hands-on

opportunities through summer programs for East Gainesville students to learn about the natural environment and how to conserve it for the past 33 years.

The Environmental Ambassadors’ five-week summer program teaches youth ages 8 to 20 ways to preserve the environment. Jah’s program specifically focuses on youth of color in East Gainesville, she said.

“We definitely need to have more people of color learning,” Jah said.

The coalition created science clubs at elementary schools in East Gainesville for the past 10 years to promote higher test scores, after noticing the schools were lacking compared to others in the county, Jah said.

The coalition also transformed a bus that takes science activities to different communities.

“Sometimes, we have to really get stern about getting the kids to get off the bus because they’re enjoying themselves so much,” Jah said.

Gabriella Aulisio // Alligator Staff AP Environmental Science Teacher John Pettit sits in front of his illustration of climate change he made earlier in the day as an example for his students at Buchholz High School Tuesday, April 4, 2023.

K-12 student programs prioritize fighting climate change, learning about environment

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CULTURE Gainesville artists create with environmental consciousness

ARTISTS RECLAIM ITEMS, USE SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS AS PART OF CREATIVE PROCESS

By Zarin Ismail Avenue Staff Writer

Stacks of worn-out skateboards sit in Thomas Phillips’ studio, waiting to be broken down and resculpted into something new. Within a couple of weeks, he can transform a set of skateboards into items like fighting action figure sets, safety goggles or swords.

“Some people were just throwing them away,” he said. “I didn’t like the waste.”

Phillips, 35, is one of many creatives in Gainesville who have taken sustainability into account by upcycling used items into art pieces, trading materials or promoting a connection to nature. As global temperatures continue to rise, some artists have begun centering their creative processes around preventing environmental ruin to slow climate change.

Phillips’ wife, Yolanda Phillips, 43, is also an artist who makes jewelry and dolls out of metal. The couple work together to manage the company BrokeDeck Creations with a passion for repurposing.

Yolanda likes creating with metal because it can be melted and reshaped into any form, she said, making it a sustainable medium for art creation.

“When I create something I don’t like,” she said, “I just melt it down and create it into something else.”

Thomas grew up skateboarding and working in construction, he said, and he saw the boards’ potential as construction material. He decided to upcycle them into a collection of art pieces ranging from hair combs to knives, he said.

He often doesn’t buy anything new for his work and uses skateboards as his primary material, Thomas said. But preparing — or breaking down — the skateboards for his projects takes time and energy.

“It holds you back … the energy of breaking it back down into reusable material,” he said. “But that’s the point and the joy of it.”

Whenever Thomas needs extra materials, he goes to The Repurpose Project’s Reuse Store, which sells items not accepted by traditional thrift stores — like scrap wood and wire.

The Repurpose Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a circular economy, opened the Reuse Store to redirect usable items that would otherwise be at a landfill to art and education initiatives.

Sarah Goff, co-founder and executive director of The Repurpose Project, started the effort after observing how used merchandise not taken into thrift stores would get thrown away, she said.

“Having access to interesting material is such an important thing to help artists create and express themselves,” Goff said.

By establishing a place for these overlooked objects, she said more can be repurposed than discarded.

From time to time, she said she feels climate grief — a sense of loss people have when thinking about climate change — despite her efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.

At one point, she said, protecting the environment felt hopeless because the damage seemed irreparable.

However, climate grief was one reason Goff started The Repurpose Project, she said.

“It made me think about how important a local circular economy will be when we start experiencing more extreme weather conditions and climate crisis conditions,” Goff said.

Valeria Rosich, 24, is a botanical artist who makes jewelry using real flowers, leaves and seeds.

She preserves the plants and incorporates them into rings, earrings or necklaces that people can buy from her business, Flores De Miel. She started Flores De Miel with a mission of getting people to establish a physical connection to nature, she said.

“Grief comes from not feeling connected

to nature,” Rosich said. This disconnect she sees in the community causes her sadness, she said. Because people aren’t connected to nature, she said, they’re isolated from any environmental harm resulting from climate change.

Rosich eases her climate grief by sharing her art with the community. Because people treasure jewelry, she said, she hopes people will also treasure nature by wearing her botanical jewelry.

Samm Wehman, a 32-year-old painter, promotes her values for animal welfare and wildlife conservation to the community by painting animal artwork and custom pet portraits for people.

She doesn’t see making art with reclaimed materials as a limit to her creativity, she said. Rather, repurposing objects for artwork can make an artist stand out, she said.

Wehman paints on fan blades, as she was drawn to the shape and texture of them, she said.

“Rather than just painting on a traditional material,” she said, “people see a fan blade with art on it — they know it’s mine.”

After displaying her fan blade artwork at art shows and festivals, now anyone who knows of her gives her fan blades they no longer need that she can use for her projects, Wehman said.

The search for materials can be time-consuming when creating upcycled art, Wehman said, but artists who don’t have the time or money to get materials can consider Buy Nothing, a project that promotes a system of exchanging and sharing items at no cost.

Alachua County residents can post about items they need, are willing to share or want to give away on a Buy Nothing Facebook

group.

Wehman believes artists should try to reflect on how their creative processes impact the environment and make a difference when possible, she said. In turn, people may recognize this effort and embrace more eco-friendly art, she said.

“If all of us make a tiny dent of a difference,” Wehman said, “it’s all just going to make a difference.”

@zarintismail zismail@alligator.org

Gabriella Aulisio // Alligator Staff Samm Wehman poses with her original artwork made from recycled material inside her tent at the Springs Arts Festival at Sante Fe College Sunday, April 2, 2023.

Gabriella Aulisio // Alligator Staff

Artist Thomas Phillips and his wife, Yolanda, sit with their baby in front of their house, which doubles as an art studio, Friday, March 31, 2023.

Gabriella Aulisio // Alligator Staff Artist Thomas Phillips removes the paint from pieces of broken skateboards that will be repurposed to make woodbots in his studio Friday, March 31, 2023.

As the climate changes, so does Gainesville

For most students, Gainesville is only a four-year blip in their lives.

A city known as a college town that revolves around the University of Florida, Gainesville is a place for students to pass through. After getting their hands on a diploma, the majority of graduates will relocate to other areas in Florida, like Miami or Orlando.

But a few will choose to stay and call Gainesville their home — just like my dad did 23 years ago after completing his dermatology residency at UF.

When he realized he wanted to be his own boss, he decided to open a dermatology practice off of Tower Road called Gainesville Dermatology.

That decision has defined the past 20 years of my life.

Born in UF Health Shands Hospital, I grew up bleeding orange and blue.

I’ve attended more football games than I can count. I can fill a whole photo album exclusively with pictures I have posed with Albert and Alberta. I skipped down Sorority Row every Halloween as the sorority sisters handed out candy.

I watched Tim Tebow lead the Gators to a national championship in 2008 and even met him at a local restaurant when I was 6. I learned UF’s fighting song and chants as soon as I could talk.

I strolled along the damp shores of Lake Alice with my sisters before watching the bats fly at sunset. I marveled at the 13-foot alligators sunbathing at Paynes Prairie. I ran the same shaded paths through Haile Plantation every cool summer morning for cross country practice.

I shrieked in delight every time I saw the same family of deer that lived near my neighborhood off SW 91st Street. I got my first taste of nature photography using my little pink Sony point and shoot as I walked the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens.

And then, I saw destruction left and right as Gainesville began to expand at an exponential rate.

The beautiful park I played on as a kid in Tioga Town Center is now an apartment complex. The dense forest across from my high school is now a gas station and a Dollar General. The cliffs I would climb to gaze over The Quarries are now replaced by $1 million homes.

An expansive field off Newberry Road that I watched firework shows on growing up is now a sprawling, multi-hundred home neighborhood. The winding path I ran on in the forest behind Tioga is barren, ready for a shopping complex. The hundred-yearold oak tree I drove by on the way to my childhood basketball games was chopped down, replaced by a blinding white sidewalk. The sports complex I first kicked a soccer ball, threw a football and swung a bat on is unrecognizable.

Places I grew up with — places that defined me and built me to be the nature-loving, outdoor going, multi-sport playing girl I am — are no longer there.

Climate change physically affects people in many ways, whether through rising sea levels, droughts or decreasing crop yields. It can’t be ignored that people are losing their homes and going hungry.

But practices that contribute to climate change, such as deforestation and gentrification, also cause emotional damage to people as they watch the things they love get destroyed.

I have been proud to call Gainesville my home for more than 20 years of my life, but it scares me to think of what else could be destroyed before I can graduate from UF myself.

Gainesville has many unique outdoor activities to offer and many magnificent places to see. I urge the community to go experience these spots for yourself — because it may not be long before the next housing complex takes its place.

Gabriella

Merriam-Webster defines the idiom “whistle past the graveyard” as “to act or talk as if one is relaxed and not afraid when one is actually afraid or nervous.”

When it comes to climate change here in Gainesville, it often seems like we’re whistling past the graveyard.

It’s easy here, on high ground roughly 60 miles from either coast, to rest easy and imagine that the real effects of climate change are not today’s problem.

Our community is filled with wellinformed neighbors who understand with great clarity that climate change is happening, that it is dangerous and that it is caused by human activity. But it remains difficult, while in the moment, to visualize how it will impact our lives and our homes at some future date.

The truth is that we are already living with the effects of climate change right here in Gainesville.

Storms and “rain events” have already become more severe, and temperatures formerly reserved for late spring arrive earlier and stay later every year.

This places unplanned stresses on our stormwater, transportation and electric utility infrastructure, keeps our emergency services on higher alert and busier than we would have expected and forces our personal utility bills higher as we spend more time indoors to avoid extreme temperatures.

Homeowners in Gainesville already see drastically increased costs of home insurance as insurers spread the cost of sea-level rise in coastal communities across the larger inland risk pool.

As circumstances become more severe, we will almost certainly see more migration from South Florida and other

coastal areas in larger numbers, which will likely increase housing costs in Gainesville with demand continuing to outstrip supply.

However, don’t believe that our city is entirely sleepwalking through this climate emergency.

While we built our city out in a carcentric, suburban model like nearly every other post-war southern city, cementing our dependence on driving back and forth all day long, Gainesville has a higher-than-normal transit ridership for a city our size.

To encourage ridership, we’ve eliminated fares for everyone 65 or older and younger than 18.

We’ve worked hard to take advantage of every federal funding opportunity to transition our bus fleet from diesel power to electric buses.

We are also committed to empowering cyclists and pedestrians with wider sidewalks, separated bike lanes and off-street paths across the city.

Gainesville has a long-term commitment to the Arbor Day Foundation, and this week we will honor that with a proclamation recognizing our 41st year as a “Tree City,” which not only makes our city more pleasant to live in, but it also helps fight climate change.

In 2018, we partnered with Alachua County to preserve more than 700 acres, now known as Four Creeks Preserve, inside our city limits.

Perhaps most important, Gainesville is both blessed and burdened with our own electric generation utility.

For nearly a century we made electricity exclusively by burning fossil fuels like every other flatland utility, which means we contributed to the problem as much as anyone else. But a little over a decade ago, our community decided we needed to meet climate change head-on, invested in a different

model and built a renewable biomass electric generation plant.

It wasn’t inexpensive, but today, because of that decision, about 30% of all the power we generate is renewable, and the fuel is locally-sourced.

By the way, in Florida — a state more impacted by climate change than most — the average for renewable energy production is a frightening 4%.

For about three years, we have been working with a corporate partner to create a utility-scale solar installation (a solar farm, in other words) that would provide almost 75 megawatts of battery-supported solar power to our users, bringing us closer to 50% renewable energy production in Gainesville.

We’ve had many snags along the way, and right now, we are in critical discussions with members of the Florida Legislature about the future of that project.

If it goes through, we could be further contributing to the climate change solution in our city by early 2025. If not, we will keep looking for other avenues to provide solar power at scale.

While it might feel like nothing is happening in Gainesville to fight climate change, I assure you that at city hall, we are working on it every day.

The people of our community expect us to find solutions and to not whistle past the problem. I am fully aware that climate change is today’s problem, and the time to fight is right now.

I hope you’ll engage with me and with all your elected officials on this critical subject. As your mayor, it is always at the top of my mind.

Harvey Ward is the mayor of Gainesville.

Aulisio is a photographer at The Independent Florida Alligator.

Harvey Ward Gainesville Mayor

Gabriella Aulisio @gabriellaulisio gaulisio@alligator.org

Gabriella Aulisio // Alligator Staff

The Collective at Archer starts construction to expand their apartment complex to the YMCA Sports Complex, overtaking the basketball courts and recreation fields, Friday, April 14, 2023.

Courtesy to The Alligator

Gabriella Aulisio (center) poses with her flag football team, The Steelers, at the YMCA Sports Complex fields on Archer Road in 2008.

Swampy games only intensify

FOOTBALL, from pg. 1

This change could affect the future of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, as well as how studentathletes are taken care of and looked after in regard to heat-related illnesses.

Florida tied for its hottest game played in The Swamp Sept. 15, 2018. The temperature was 96 degrees, which is tied as the hottest home game in Gators’ history.

Dangerous temperatures, such as the 2018 game, could become much more common in the future if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t taken seriously, Keellings said.

Projections show the number of days over 95 degrees per year could reach 40 to 50 days as soon as the 2030s, according to The Climate Explorer, an interactive toolkit managed by NOAA. The heat serves as an advantage on the field for the Gators, but health risks could soon outweigh the draw of The Swamp.

As temperatures rise, fans and student-athletes alike will need to be more careful and take precautions at games, Keellings said.

The advantage of being more adjusted to the heat than opponents may benefit Florida, but if temperatures were to reach a point where it's unsafe to compete, then, eventually, some alternative would need to be examined, he said.

“There's some competitive advantage

FEATURE

here,” Keellings said. “But there's also the risk of players getting seriously unwell or dying if we expose them to these kinds of conditions.”

While a costly alternative, one solution to deal with rising temperatures would be to make Ben Hill Griffin an indoor stadium.

Teams in the National Football League have begun to move toward stadiums that are either completely indoors or have retractable roofs — with 10 of the 32 stadiums now featuring domes or roofs. In Major League Baseball, seven teams have stadiums with retractable roofs, including the Miami Marlins, who use the roof to battle higher temperatures.

Keellings is unsure whether this is a worthy solution, but he said data projecting climate change in Gainesville will almost certainly increase heat exposure for student-athletes and fans at games.

“The science is clear that moving forward, there’s going to be more hot days,” Keellings said

Player safety is and will continue to be one of the most important things to keep in mind as temperatures increase.

Heat-related illnesses such as heatstroke are a major concern for medical staff because of Florida’s hot and humid conditions, said Dr. James Clugston, the primary care team physician with the UF Athletic Association.

Heatstroke is “a condition caused by the body overheating, usually as a result of prolonged exposure to or physical exertion in high temperatures,” according to The Mayo Clinic. It’s the most serious form of heat injury and can occur if the body reaches a temperature of 104 degrees or higher.

Clugston hasn’t seen an increase in heat-related illnesses at UF, he said, but acknowledged it could be a rising issue elsewhere.

His staff is always on the lookout for heatstroke and other related illnesses due to the warmer temperatures in Florida and the Gainesville area, Clugston said. He hopes there will actually be fewer cases of heatstroke because of the precautions put in place by his staff.

Clugston and his medical team work to ensure the health and safety of the student-athletes, he said.

Factors that go into how his staff monitors student-athletes include making sure they are acclimated to the weather, keeping them hydrated and monitoring their level of exertion, among other things, Clugston said.

“Even if it’s getting hotter, we still could have fewer cases if we have these preventive measures in place,” Clugston said.

One of the most crucial things to do, he said, is to watch for signs of heatstroke. The biggest difference between heat fatigue and heatstroke is a mental status change, where the studentathlete is unable to talk with you.

The Gators aren’t the only team who needs to deal with the heat. The rate of exertional

heat illness in male high school football players was over 11 times that of all other high school sports combined, according to a 2013 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Clugston emphasized how important it is to also know how to check temperatures. He noted rectal temperatures are the most reliable, and it’s crucial to make sure his staff is trained to know how to use it.

Staff should monitor student-athletes to prevent heatstroke from happening, Clugston said, but it's important to know what to do if they occur. His team has tubs filled with water and ice if student-athletes need to cool down quickly, he said.

“You have to have the ability to cool onsite,” Clugston said. “If you can’t do that and you have to rely on EMS to come get them and transport them to a hospital, you’ve wasted precious time for cooling the athlete down.”

The longer student-athletes are competing in above-critical temperatures, the more damage will occur, he said. The faster medical staff can deal with heatstroke on site, the better the outcome.

Heat-related illnesses could only become more prevalent as temperatures increase. There will be more emphasis on protecting the athlete than ever, as The Swamp begins to feel more like a desert.

@JacksnReyes jacksonreyes@alligator.org

UF University Athletic Association pushes for greener buildings

Heavener Football Complex became first LEED Platinum certified at hletic facility in U.S.

By Kyle Bumpers

Alligator Staff Writer

UF built a new $85 million, 141,000 square foot student-athlete complex in 2022. The facility came equipped with zero gravity chairs, chill recovery pools, underwater treadmills, weight rooms, film rooms, dining spaces and more. But it differs from the 2009 building it shares a name within one area — sustainability.

UF funneled $21 million into the South West Stadium Expansion of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 2009. Florida then announced a threepronged facilities master plan to add a new hub for Florida football and other UF student-athletes along with other buildings around the campus.

The 2009 rendition of the football complex earned a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum certification, the highest level in the LEED ratings — the most widely used green building rating system in the world, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Heavener became the first athletic facility in the U.S. to receive a platinum level certification in 2009.

Now, the new complex — the James W. “Bill” Heavener Football Training Center — is only anticipating a LEED Gold certification, assistant athletic director of facilities Bill Smith said.

When UF invests $4 million or more on constructions and renovations, the project is required to reach at least LEED Gold certification or equivalent, according to UF’s sustainability goals.

“There are other sustainability aspects that we conducted in the new facility that are not factored in LEED that promote the health and wellbeing of our athletes, which is also a top priority for us,” he said.

The Heavener is open to all student-athletes across 21 sports and was built to prioritize operational efficiency and the student-athlete experience, Smith said.

Florida views sustainability as more of a way of thinking than a short definition, Director of UF’s Office of Sustainability Matthew Williams said. The school defines the concept as how it makes decisions that will deliver the best outcomes, he said.

“What do we do as a campus right now that allows UF, and the

environment and community we live within, to be successful and thriving for a minimum of another 170 years?” Williams said. “Decisions made with that lens are how we make progress toward sustainability.”

The university uses green building ranking systems like LEED and Green Globes, which certified Condron Ballpark, to apply constants to its sustainability efforts.

LEED certifications are determined on a points scale — the more points, the higher the ranking. On the current version of the ranking system, the maximum number of points is 110, and different totals signify certification level.

Buildings become LEED certified at 40 points; silver needs 50 points; gold clocks in at 60; and platinum is awarded for 80 or more points. LEED assesses its checklists and creates new versions as its sustainability goals evolve.

The 2009 Heavener Complex was registered under version 2.2. The complex was evaluated in terms of water efficiency, sustainable sites, energy and atmosphere, material and resources, indoor environmental

quality and innovation; it earned 52 of 69 possible points.

The 2022 facility was inspected under LEED version 4 — which looked at location and transportation, integrative process and the existing categories. LEED also adjusts the criteria under each category with new versions.

The Heavener Football Complex was the final stage of UF’s facilities master plan. Smith attributed the plan to the hope of providing a roadmap for the planning and execution of enhancing the facilities for the student-athletes, staff and fans, Smith said.

Florida’s new facilities get permitted under the Florida Building Code. All new construction and major renovations go through a green building certification, Smith said.

“Each facility is different, and we tailor the focus based on building type and needs,” he said.

UF sustainable building coordinator Dustin Stephany said he had a part in the demolition of the Florida Ballpark, the construction of Condron Ballpark in a new location and the planning and building of the Heavener complex. The goal with

the new complex was to give UF a space that better supports the needs of the student-athletes, Stephany said.

Instead of replacing the LEED Platinum certified expansion, UF kept the old Heavener Football Complex and added the new training center in a new location, he said.

“At one point, we have to say, ‘OK, yes, we would love to have platinum here,’” he said. “‘It's going to cost this much — how do we retain that value?’”

He pointed to the building as a potential recruiting tool to bring in top athletes. But athletes may not value sustainability as much as he does, he said.

Stephany didn’t believe there was a realistic way to obtain the platinum level, he said.

The complex is anticipating 60 points, and UF has the option to pursue three more points. Even if the facility maximized the amount of points it earned, it likely would have capped at 76 points, Stephany said, which would have been short of the 80 needed for platinum.

“Back then, to be the first LEED

SEE FEATURE, PAGE 16

UAA pushes for greener buildings

FEATURE, from pg. 15

certified platinum project in the state, there was a lot of ambition to be a leader in this area,” Stephany said. “I don't feel like we need to continue to push that envelope because we already are the leader.”

The only U.S. university with more green building certifications is Harvard, which is a private university, he said.

UF’s building and design standards have kept the school consistent in its sustainability approach, Stephany said. However, Florida’s athletic facilities, including the Football Training Center, are yet to incorporate one potential game-changer: solar energy.

The cost of solar is decreasing, and the cost of utilities is increasing, he said, so there’s more payback from renewable energy technology. The university has accounted for this by starting a campus-wide movement: solar-ready buildings.

Condron Ballpark, which was completed in August 2020, earned the equivalent to LEED Gold certification. Florida opted to get the stadium certified by the Green Globes ranking system, and its three-globe certification gave it the highest Green Globes certification of any stadium in the U.S.

“This was just our way of kind of expanding outside of LEED,” Stephany said. “We wanted to open up and see if we could develop

a more sustainable building without getting some of the headaches that were associated with version four.”

LEED received pushback due to what some in the industry viewed as unrealistic expectations, Stephany said. The green building rating system opted to create version 4.1, which provided the option to substitute credits and meet criteria under version 4.1 while going through registration under version 4, he said.

Version 4 made it more difficult to reach LEED Gold without incurring significant costs, and the UAA wanted to explore other green building certifications. UF opted to get Condron Ballpark assessed by Green Globes instead of LEED.

The latter assesses facilities remotely, but Green Globes sends people to inspect them in person and offers more flexibility when meet-

ing criteria, Stephany said.

Bahar Armaghani is a LEED fellow, an instructional associate professor of sustainability and the built environment and the director of the UF Green Building Learning Collaborative. She worked on most UAA projects as a project manager before her career transition.

She became involved with the United States Green Building Collaborative and LEED certifications and thought it would be a good idea for UF to adopt the practice, she said. The use of LEED certifications raised UF’s expectations above those of normal building codes, Armaghani said.

Read the rest online at alligator.org/section/sports.

@BumpersKyle kbumpers@alligator.org