Change Text Size Change font size: Normal Text Medium Text Large Text

Conservation Forum 2012


America's Water Crisis Subject of Conservation Forum

Read the story in the February 3, 2012 issue of the Island Sand Paper.

Author Cynthia Barnett, author of "Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis" -- recently named one of the best science books of 2011 by the Boston Globe -- will be the featured speaker at the coverConservation Forum, presented by SCCF and the Everglades Foundation on January 31, 2012 at 7 p.m. at the Sanibel Community House. Following Cynthia Barnett's presentation, there will be a Q&A with the author plus SCCF's Natural Resource Policy Director, Rae Ann Wessel and Kirk Fordham, CEO of the Everglades Foundation. The event is free, with a reception and book signing following the talk. For more information, please call SCCF at 472-2329.

About Blue Revolution: A Water Ethic for America and Florida

Americans (and Floridians) see water as abundant and cheap: We turn on the faucet and out it gushes, for less than a penny a gallon. We use more water than any other culture in the world, much to quench what’s now our largest crop – the lawn. Yet most Americans cannot name the river or aquifer that flows to our taps, irrigates our food and produces our electricity. And most don’t realize their freshwater sources are in trouble. In her talk Blue Revolution: A Water Ethic for America & Florida, award-winning journalist Cynthia Barnett describes an illusion of water abundance that has encouraged everyone, from homeowners to farmers to utilities, to tap more and more. She proposes the most important part of the solution is also the simplest and least expensive: a shared water ethic among citizens, government and major water users

About the author and the new book, Blue Revolution

Cynthia Barnett is a long-time journalist who has reported on freshwater issues from the Suwannee River to Singapore. She is author of the new book Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis, which calls for a water ethic for America.

barnettThe Boston Globe describes Ms. Barnett’s author persona as “part journalist, part mom, part historian, and part optimist.” The Los Angeles Times writes that she “takes us back to the origins of our water in much the same way, with much the same vividness and compassion as Michael Pollan led us from our kitchens to potato fields and feed lots of modern agribusiness.”

Ms. Barnett’s previous book, Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S., won the gold medal for best nonfiction in the Florida Book Awards and was named by The St. Petersburg Times as one of the top 10 books that every Floridian should read. Mirage was also a “One Region/One Book read in thirty Florida counties.

Ms. Barnett, has worked for newspapers and magazines for 25 years. Her numerous journalism awards include a national Sigma Delta Chi prize for investigative magazine reporting and eight Green Eyeshades, which recognize outstanding journalism in 11 southeastern states.

She earned her bachelor’s in journalism and master’s in environmental history, both from the University of Florida, and was the recipient of a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where she spent a year studying freshwater supply.

Ms. Barnett lives in Gainesville with her husband and two water-loving grade-schoolers. For more information, please visit the author’s website at www.cynthiabarnett.net.

About the Q&A Panelists

Rae Ann Wessel, SCCF natural resource policy director, is a limnologist and marine scientist with 26 years of experience working in the environmental field in South Florida. For 19 years, she managed her own environmental consulting firm, Ecosystem Specialists, working both in the field and with regulations at the local, regional, state and federal levels. In 1994 Rae Ann assisted with coordination of a News-Press-sponsored community forum on issues related to the Caloosahatchee. The forum resulted in the creation of the non-profit Caloosahatchee River Citizens Association. Since that time, she has been involved with identifying critical Caloosahatchee issues and building support for sustainable solutions. In addition, she is involved in oxbow research, historical documentation, natural resource policy issues and education projects on the Caloosahatchee and its estuary. Rae Ann has developed and guides educational river cruises about the history, folklore, ecology and current issues related to this historic river.
Kirk Fordham is a veteran political operative, having worked on numerous House and Senate campaigns. He currently serves as chief executive officer of the Everglades Foundation, the only national organization dedicated solely to protecting and restoring one of the world's most unique natural ecosystems. Previously, Fordham worked as head of Rock Creek Strategies, his own public affairs and government relations firm. For 14 years, he served as a chief of staff and senior legislative staffer on Capitol Hill for three Members of Congress. In 2004, he was the architect of the successful fundraising effort for then-HUD Secretary Mel Martinez's winning Senate campaign. A graduate of the University of Maryland-College Park, Fordham is a native of Rochester, New York and now lives in Miami.

About SCCF and the Everglades Foundation

The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation is dedicated to the conservation of coastal habitats and aquatic resources on Sanibel and Captiva and in the surrounding watershed through environmental education, land acquisition, landscaping for wildlife, marine research, natural resource policy, sea turtle conservation and wildlife habitat management. Community support through membership dues and tax-deductible contributions, in addition to grants and staff-generated revenue, makes this work possible. Visit www.sccf.org for more details.

The Everglades Foundation is dedicated to protecting and restoring one of the world’s unique natural ecosystems, providing economic, recreational and life-sustaining benefits to the millions of people who depend on its future health. Through the advancement of scientifically sound and achievable solutions, the Foundation seeks to reverse the damage inflicted on the ecosystem and provide policymakers and the public with an honest and credible resource to help guide decision-making on complex restoration issues. For more information, visit www.evergladesfoundation.org.