The Blue Path to Florida's Water Future

THE VISION:
On the Blue Path, Floridians discover new ways to live with water
and recognize that a healthy environment is essential for a prosperous economy.

New Exhibit Emphasizes Ethics

Travels on the Blue Path

by Lucinda Merritt
Painting: Johnny Dame
exhibit, ethics

THE EXHIBIT: TRAVELS ON THE BLUE PATH

On view 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday

Ground floor hallway on the east side of the Seagle Building

408 W. University Avenue

Gainesville, Florida

(outside the offices of the Alachua County Environmental Protection Department)

BACKGROUND: THE BLUE PATH

In fall 2010, Florida’s Eden mounted an exhibition called The Blue Path at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, drawing heavily on information in Cynthia Barnett’s book Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. That exhibition, which used art, photography, and graphic design to convey scientific information about Florida’s water, proved so popular that the museum held it over into the early part of 2011.

To encourage attendance at that exhibition and its accompanying programs, we invited people to “discover The Blue Path.”

TRAVELS, THE NEW EXHIBITION

Now that Floridians have discovered The Blue Path, we are encouraging them to step onto that path and to begin traveling it. Travels on the Blue Path, our new exhibition, expands many of the concepts introduced in 2010 and benefits greatly from the ideas presented by Barnett in her second book, Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis, that was published in fall 2011.

Travels uses the theme of “myth versus reality” to lead viewers on a journey showing how people have interacted with water in Florida since Ponce de Leon landed on our shores in 1513. Again using art, photography, and graphic design, Travels seeks not only to inform viewers but also to inspire and encourage them to become part of the solutions to our water problems.

ETHICS AND BLUE REVOLUTION

North Florida has the largest concentration of freshwater springs on the planet, but those springs—our canaries in a coal mine—are in danger. Many springs have dried up, others are in the process of drying up, and many are experiencing problems with pollution and algae growth that are clouding their once crystalline waters. We are experiencing a drought, but that is not the sole explanation for our water problems. Dr. Robert Knight of the independent nonprofit Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute tells us that the Floridan Aquifer—which supplies our clean drinking water—is being drained at the fastest pace in recorded history.

Clearly, many years of oversight by state agencies have not been able to solve our most pressing problems of water quality and water quantity—yet all these agencies have scientists on staff and science is frequently invoked in assurances that they will “get the water right.”

Here at Florida’s Eden, we believe that having a discussion about the ethics and values involved in our water use decisions is an essential step toward finding solutions to our problems. Science alone cannot make decisions for us, cannot tell us what we should do; for that, we need to consider our ethics and moral values. So we support Cynthia Barnett’s call for a new American water ethic that she presents in Blue Revolution, and we are encouraged by the examples she uses of new ways that people all over the world have found to deal with water.

Another missing element in water-related discussions is the collective will of the people. Our hope is that, through Travels, we can inspire people to civic action and encourage new discussions about the ethics of water use that will help us find a clear way forward to solutions for the problems we face now.

A NEW VISION FOR FLORIDA: A BLUE-GREEN ECONOMY

At Florida’s Eden, we believe the idea that our economy is more important than our environment is a myth. We know that we must maintain a healthy environment in order to support our own health.

Travels conveys the message that a healthy environment and a prosperous economy are intertwined—not mutually exclusive—and promotes the vision of a new blue-green economy based on creativity, innovation, discovery, and education (see ECONOMY & ENVIRONMENT).

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR PLANS FOR TRAVELS

We are actively seeking funding to create portable clones of Travels on the Blue Path that can circulate throughout North and Central Florida and serve as anchors for community discussions and public programs.

To find out more or to make a donation in support of this project, contact Lucinda Merritt at wordwitch@windstream.net, 386-454-0415.

SPONSORS OF TRAVELS

Many thanks to Central Florida Office Plus, the Alachua County Environmental Protection Department, Jellyfish Smack Productions, and Florida Defenders of the Environment, whose sponsorships have made it possible for us to produce Travels on the Blue Path.

JOIN THE BLUE PATH DISCUSSION

We invite you to travel the Blue Path with us by joining the discussion on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TravelsOnTheBluePath

The first nine months of our lives

we live in it.

It is our beginning

as it is the beginning of everything.

It is elemental.

Thus we desire to return to it.

Thus we hold it sacred…

We are most comfortable near it,

or beside it, or in it.

It is the greatest gift we have.

It is boundless.

It belongs to us.

-Janisse Ray, from the poem “Water” in A House of Branches

The Florida Constitution, Article II, reads:

SECTION 7. Natural resources and scenic beauty.—

(a) It shall be the policy of the state to conserve and protect its natural resources and scenic beauty. Adequate provision shall be made by law for the abatement of air and water pollution and of excessive and unnecessary noise and for the conservation and protection of natural resources.