If you look out your window right now, chances are you’ll spot a Sabal palmetto, the scientific name of the cabbage palm, the state tree of Florida and South Carolina. Now imagine the landscape without these icons of the tropics.
Americans go to the polls next week to select our next president. Interest is high in a contest featuring the first major party black presidential candidate, the worst financial crisis since the great depression, and the country bogged down in two far off wars.
As parents ferry boxes to residence halls and map-clutching students wander wide-eyed around the University of Florida, the start of fall semester always brings a contagious feeling of optimism and excitement.
State policymakers at this week’s 2008 Climate Change summit in Miami will focus on renewable energy in Florida. The meeting is important and timely.
With the economy faltering, state and federal cutbacks threaten to slow scientific progress. As many commentators have noted in recent months, that is not a welcome trend for a nation facing the leveled plane of a globalized economy.