DOREEN DUPONT, M.D.
DOREEN DUPONT, M.D.
Doreen is a relentless advocate for the environment. She is a Director for the Florida State Democratic Environmental Caucus and a Director of the Environmental Caucus of Sarasota County Democrats. As a graduate of Al Gore's Climate Reality Leadership Training Corps, she lectures about it to other groups. Doreen has an extremely varied background. To read more: CLICK HERE.
Water Protections Endangered!
Environment Florida's State Director Jenna Stevens Interviewed
While we are all mortified by the pandemic, the racist police brutality and growing American fascism, as well being busy trying to get our great candidates elected, the US EPA has taken advantage of our distractions and has recently seriously rolled back water protections. This seriously affects FL’s fresh water supply.
I interviewed Jenna Stevens, Environment Florida's State Director https://environmentflorida.org/ about our new environmental catastrophe. Jenna talks about these sneaky roll backs and current pending federal legislation, HR 6745, the Clean Water For All Act.
This is my five minute local WWPR 1490 interview with Stevens on June 1.. https://archive.org/details/jenna-stevens-clean-water-for-all-act
Jenna Stevens Clean Water For All Act : Dr. Doreen Dupont : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
I ask all our Environmental Activists to listen to this interview and to call your congressional representatives to ask for support for HR 6745.
Letters to the editor would also be great.
The seas are rising !
Published in -- THE INVADING SEA BY DR. DOREEN DUPONT
THE SEAS ARE RISING, EXPENSIVE REAL ESTATE IS AT RISK AND OUR LEADERS NEED TO STOP IGNORING THE THREAT! February 24, 2020.
The talk about sea-level rise has been going on for years.
Some think storm surge is the main problem. After Hurricane Sandy, Donald Trump rejected the idea of building a barrier around Manhattan by saying, “Sorry, you’ll just have to get your mops and buckets ready.”
However, water surge from tropical storms isn’t the primary problem. The rising sea levels and high tides are the primary threat to coastal areas in the United States and around the world.
But many people don’t want to believe the inevitable: that higher tides will soon flood neighborhoods and cities just like they did in Key Largo last fall.
Nevertheless, most people seem to assume that before the sea fully invades, we will have some new magic technology to protect us.
That seems unlikely. In 2014, Business Insider estimated that $129 billion of real estate in Manhattan will be at risk of flooding merely from storm surge. The Army Corps of Engineers proposed a $119 billion sea barrier around Manhattan.
But Miami is the American city that faces the largest financial threat from rising water. All of South Florida, home to about 8 million people, is in jeopardy from the slow rise of the seas. And, of course, the region is extremely vulnerable to storm surge from more intense hurricanes that experts say the warming climate will generate.
Manhattan and Washington, D.C. are dry for now. President Trump seems to think that the nation’s financial and government capitals are safe for now. What he was ignoring is that the world’s ice sheets and glaciers are melting so quickly that many of the world’s major cities will be underwater sooner than most of us anticipate.
When is this incomprehensible catastrophe going to happen? Well, as melting accelerates, most scientists now understand that chronic flooding in major cities may happen within the next few decades.
The unchecked burning of fossil fuel has scientists estimating that by 2100 sea level may rise more than 6.5 feet, displacing 187 million people. This is not a mop and bucket scenario.
I recently spoke with Dr. Leo Hoffman, editor of the UK’s website Carbon Brief, about the scientific consensus of sea- level rise. Ocean currents may radically change, and melting permafrost may radically accelerate carbon and methane emissions.
Hoffman’s advice to people living on coastlines, “Either build defenses…or potentially move”.
In the UK there is much debate about inland flooding from increased rainfall. The Thames Barrier, built in the 1980s, is getting a massive workout to defend from storm surge.
A Dutch scientist has suggested damming the entire North Sea.
Such drastic and expensive projects would damage the environment, scientist say. However, the cost of doing nothing will be many times higher.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ wildly expensive plan to protect Manhattan may actually be a pittance compared to the flooding damage to United States real estate in the decades ahead.
Dr. Doreen Dupont is an At-Large Director of the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida, Chair of Environmental Activism of the Environmental Caucus of Sarasota County Democrats and an Al Gore trained Climate Reality Leader
“The Invading Sea” is the opinion arm of the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a collaborative of news organizations across the state focusing on the threats posed by the warming climate.
For article complete with suggested videos and other published articles of interest:
Dr. Doreen Dupont reports on UN COP25 Climate Conference
Listen to the recorded material at the end of this. Thank you Doreen.
Our own Dr. Doreen Dupont was accepted as a media representative to attend the United Nation's Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain from 12/1-12/13, 2019. She will be representing the WWPR 1490 AM radio station, broadcasting to Bradenton, Tampa Bay, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg, Florida.
From Doreen: I went to COP25, as credentialed press, with a purpose in mind; to bring pertinent, useful, information back to Florida. The advantage of attending as press was that I had almost limitless access to speakers.
I interviewed (left) Dr. Leo Hickman, Director and Editor of the UKs climate change fact finding organization Carbon Brief. He had moderated a forum on Tipping Points, ie: when will it be too late to stop the projected dramatic rise in sea level and when will it happen. Dr. Hickman explained that scientists really don’t know when, and fear it may already be too late to stop. His advice for us...prepare infrastructure now to defend from sea level rise... or move. Our federal and state legislators better hear this.
Later on I interviewed Ecology Professor Dr. Pablo Marquet, of The Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile (right). He was speaking at a forum on coastal development. His advice to FL, do not develop coastlines; they are critical to our natural water supply and they contribute greatly to carbon sequestration. Coastal development will make Florida suffer more, and sooner. Maybe we need to target local commissioners with this information.
Enjoy my five minute WWPR 1490 Tampa Bay podcasts with Dr. Hickman and Professor Dr. Marquet and share appropriately. https://archive.org/details/tippingpointscop25dr.hickman
https://archive.org/details/developingcoastscop25professormarquet
Doreen's Docket#1 -- Coal Rolling
Advocating for Clean Air
PHOTO OF COAL ROLLING PROTESTORS IN COLORADO
INCIDENCES OF COAL ROLLING OUR RALLY ATTENDEES IN SARASOTA
The Environmental Caucus of Sarasota County Democrats has had a presence at the bay front with SarasotaStudents4Climate since March, 2019. Weekly, vehicles have driven by spewing black smoke on us. August 1, 2019 Sarasota Police Officers told me, Dr. Doreen Dupont, that there is a loophole in Florida legislation that prohibits the police from stopping this heinous action. They directed me to the Clean Air Act and to the offices of our legislators to complain and advocate for change.
After much research, with the assistance of Rep. Vern Buchanan's Chief of Staff, Sally Dionne, we found that the Clean Air Act leaves states to set standards for vehicle exhaust emissions and that Florida hardly has any standards. In fact FL 2019 statute S316.2935 is all that we have.
S316.2935 prohibits anyone from selling their vehicle if they, or their agents, have altered certain original parts. Altering your exhaust system is not illegal. Intentionally displaying visible exhaust is not prohibited. Car dealers do not have to certify that exhaust systems are functional, only that certain specified original parts, are still intact in the car.
As a measure of functionality, vehicles on the road are prohibited from emitting visible exhaust only if the duration is greater than five seconds and there are circumstances where diesel powered vehicles are exempt.
Harassing other vehicles, and protestors, with toxic smoke is not illegal. Harassing, and distracting, vehicles driving on the road is not illegal. Fumigation of protestors with toxic emissions is not illegal. Abusing FL's Air Quality is allowed due to a loophole in S316.2935.
NEXT STEPS IN CREATING AN AMENDMENT TO EXISTING BILL
DOREEN'S BILL--HELP GET IT PASSED!
Endorsed by our caucus, The Environmental Caucus of Sarasota County Democrats, Doreen wrote a bill to amend S316.2935 to close the loophole. Throughout September Doreen has been visiting our rep's offices to lobby for the bill. On September 9, 2019 Doreen presented the bill to the Sarasota County Legislative Delegation, accompanied by our chair, Barbara Klein, and Board member Adrienne Miceli Trask. October 2, the bill , which I call “Coal Rolling – Amending S316.2935”, was presented to the Manatee County Legislative Delegation.
What this bill does is insert a clause that makes any nuisance display of vehicular exhaust as a moving violation, punishable as Careless Driving. While other states categorize such display as criminal, in Florida, this would be non-criminal, subject to points and fines.
Reference S316.2935 https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2017/316.2935
Proposed Amendment to 316.2935
Substitute Subsection (4)
No person shall operate either a gas powered, or diesel powered vehicle, in a manner to willfully emit transient visible emissions from the exhaust pipe to intentionally harass pedestrians or other vehicles on public roads or streets of this state.
Relabel subsection (4) as (5)
Substitute subsection (7)
Any person who violates subsection (4) shall be charged with Careless Driving pursuant to provisions in S 316.1925 punishable as provided in chapter 318.
Relabel subsection (7) as (8).
Tell our Florida reps: #CloseTheLoophole in S316.2935, protect our air, protect our right to free speech, and keep our roads safe. Coal Rolling should be Careless Driving.
Margaret.good@myfloridahouse.gov
newt.newton@myfloridahouse.gov
tommy.gregory@myfloridahouse.gov
stewart.linda.web@flsenate.gov
will.robinson@myfloridahouse.gov
James.Buchanan@myfloridahouse.gov
EMAIL OR CALL THE REPRESENTATIVES ABOVE.
More on Dr. Doreen's Efforts Concerning Air Quality
Dr. Doreen addressed a Lee County, FL delegation and the video of her presentation on air quality including coalrolling is the following youtube url: https://youtu.be/8p65kc2nkT
Also click below for a link to a news report on steep decline in our air quality.
