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Audubon Florida Climate and Energy News Roundup Today we share an opportunity to meet some climate entrepreneurs as well as news about the importance of natural areas in absorbing impacts of storm surges and flooding, how sea level rise might impact Marco Island, the latest heat wave, and more.

Sit Down with Florida’s Leading Climate Entrepreneurs Join Audubon Florida for a panel discussion in our Climate Entrepreneur series, where Audubon Florida Executive Director Julie Wraithmell sits down with our first suite of entrepreneurs. From strategic land restoration to artificial reef installations, to next-gen renewable energy tech and sustainable communities, entrepreneurs are meeting the threats of a changing climate while pioneering innovative business models and creating thousands of new jobs. In Audubon Florida’s new series, Climate Entrepreneurs share how their Florida businesses are forging a new climate economy—one which strengthens both our financial and environmental resilience. The panel discussion is scheduled for Tuesday, July 26 at 6pm ET on Zoom.  Do you know a Climate Entrepreneur in your Florida community? Nominate them for consideration in our future Climate Entrepreneur events! Register for the event.

A New Study Looks at Parks and Natural Areas to Absorb Impact of Storm Surge and Flooding From WUSF Public Media “A new study is looking at ways to protect communities in the Tampa Bay area from future flooding. It focuses on three areas, but its lessons can be used for other flood-prone areas. It's a concept called resiliency — helping people and communities prepare for expected sea level rise and more intense flooding. But instead of relying on pouring more concrete for sea walls, they're using existing green space… A symposium held Thursday at the River Center in downtown Tampa highlighted findings from three design charrettes that convened teams of planners, urban designers, landscape architects, engineers, and hydrologists, along with elected officials, municipal staff, residents and local stakeholders.” Read the entire article.

Sea Level Rise and What it Means for Marco [Island] From Coastal Breeze News “On the upside for Florida, Governor DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1954 into law in 2021, which is a comprehensive legislation promoting a coordinated approach to Florida’s coastal and inland resiliency. It means protecting our inland waterways, coastlines and shores which serves as invaluable defenses against sea level rise. On the more local level, cities and counties can join a collaborative effort to address effects of climate change such as sea level rise, hurricanes and coastal erosion. According to Savarese, we have the Southwest Florida Regional Compact, which is an agreement between municipal and county governments across Charlotte, Collier and Lee Counties with the aim to ‘develop a regionally consistent approach to the impacts of climate change and to advance local and regional responses to, and preparations for, economic and social disruption projected to result from the impacts of climate change.’” Read the entire article.

Factual Climate Change Reporting Can Influence Americans Positively, But Not For Long From NPR Public Media “Media coverage of climate change can influence Americans to adopt more accurate beliefs about the environment, but the information doesn't stay with them for long, according to a new report. After reading accurate articles about climate change, Americans may see it more as a problem that impacts them and lean toward supporting the government's climate change policies… But those changes are quickly reversed when participants are exposed to articles that doubted climate change… ‘What we found suggests that people need to hear the same accurate messages about climate change again and again. If they only hear it once, it recedes very quickly,’ Wood said. And that creates a new challenge, he said: ‘The news media isn't designed to act that way.’” Read the entire article.

As Heat Wave Wanes, Possible July Storm Threats Come into Focus | WeatherTiger Hurricane Forecast From the Tallahassee Democrat “On Earth, there are 86,400 seconds in each day, give or take one additional millisecond during El Niños and one fewer during La Niñas. Around this week’s summer solstice, the sun is up in Florida for roughly 50,000 of those seconds, for 45,000 of which, it is basically a McDonalds fry lamp broiling everything in sight. Meteorological summer includes all of June, July, and August, but June 21st, the year’s longest day, marks the beginning of astronomical summer. In 2022, Florida’s summer has already been both astronomical and retrograde, and not just because a rare pre-dawn alignment of five planets is delighting skywatchers and changing the numbers beneath scratch-off ticket foil. Rather, the state remains in the grip of a massive heat wave and will be for a few more days.” Read the entire article.

A Week of Highs: See Where Climate Change Made Heat Worse in America From the Washington Post “Last week, 96 percent of people in the contiguous United States experienced nighttime temperatures more likely to occur due to human-caused warming. The findings come from a Washington Post analysis of data provided by the nonprofit Climate Central, which released the world’s first tool to show how climate change is affecting daily temperatures in real time. Overnight temperatures, as opposed to daytime temperatures, were boosted the most by climate change. While more and more people are increasingly exposed to warmer nighttime temperatures, which are potentially more dangerous to the body, last week’s number stands out.”   Read the entire article.

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