An animal rights group is accusing The Florida Aquarium of animal cruelty violations after a former employee said sharks and rays were intentionally deprived of food. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Foundation is asking law enforcement to investigate the death of a nurse shark in November and alleged malnourishment of Atlantic stingrays last… Read more »
“For over the past 10,000 years, Earth has been the Goldilocks planet, not too hot, not too cold, as the temperature has been steady, fluctuating by only about 1°C. So, everything the human species has done has been within a very narrow, and almost perfect temperature range (Source: Richard Alley, professor of geosciences, Penn State University,… Read more »
A newly-published scientific paper describes a massive coral disease outbreak in Florida that is “arguably one of the most lethal ever recorded on a contemporary coral reef.” The lead author of the study, William Precht, is the director of marine and coastal programs at the environmental consulting firm Dial Cordy and Associates, based in Miami…. Read more »
Last summer heavy rains led St. Petersburg to dump millions of gallons of stormwater mixed with untreated sewage into Clam Bayou and Tampa Bay – the dangerous fecal bacteria in the water led to closed beaches and waterways; but new research led by biologists at the University of South Florida on a sewer line break that… Read more »
Some local groups are joining with events across the country, uniting to demand labeling of genetically engineered food in what’s called March Against Monsanto. The guest on WMNF’s MidPoint was Christine Wall, she’s helping to organize Saturday’s March Against Monsanto – Tampa. It’s from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at Gaslight Square Park in downtown Tampa. Listen… Read more »
One question that remains six years after the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is how the use of dispersants affected the Gulf ecosystem. To find out, Thursday morning WMNF News interviewed David Hollander, a professor of chemical oceanography at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science. He was chief scientist on several… Read more »
Ken Ilgunas says his new book is about coming to terms with climate change and figuring out what our role as individuals should be in confronting something so big and so out of our hands. It’s about taking a few months of your life to look at your country from a new perspective. Ultimately, it’s… Read more »
BY Rob Lorei Today on Midpoint we speak with Dr. Frans de Waal, one of the world’s top primatologist and author of The Bonobo and the Atheist:In Search of Humanism Among the Primates, which explores the primate origin of morality and empathy in humans. Today he talks about how understanding primate behavior and social organization gives us… Read more »
There has been a lot of talk about the recent COP 21 agreement in Paris, where almost 200 countries came together and agreed to cut emissions and the global temperature to under 2 degrees Celsius. We thought it would be great idea for us to speak with Dipti Bhatnagar , climate justice and energy coordinator… Read more »
Sarasota and Manatee Counties are experiencing a red tide bloom, but it’s not certain yet whether it will become severe or spread to the north or south — a lot depends on weather. For an update, WMNF News spoke with Dr. Vince Lovko. He manages the phytoplankton ecology program at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota…. Read more »
This Saturday, October 24 USF St. Pete will be hosting The Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading from 10 AM – 4 PM. It is truly an extraordinary opportunity to meet and hear a plethora of authors – and there is a Q and A after each presentation so you can ask your own questions. The… Read more »
On Friday and Saturday at St. Petersburg College in Seminole, dozens of policy-makers, scientists and residents talked about a growing concern in Pinellas County: sea-level rise. A University of Miami geologist who spoke Friday, Harold Wanless, had some alarming things to say about the magnitude and speed of sea-level rise. My guest on the phone… Read more »
As humans continue to burn fossil fuels and cut down forests, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have skyrocketed far beyond historic levels; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began measuring carbon dioxide levels more than 400 parts per million for the first time in 2013. Atmospheric CO2, along with other greenhouse gasses, is causing… Read more »
A month ago heavy rains led St. Petersburg to dump millions of gallons of untreated sewage mixed with stormwater into Clam Bayou. That’s an estuary shared by the city, state and the neighboring city of Gulfport. But the Mayor of Gulfport, Sam Henderson, says it’s an ongoing problem — Clam Bayou is still closed because… Read more »
There are at least three major ways that skyrocketing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are affecting the oceans and species, like humans, that depend on them; you probably already know about soaring temperatures and about rising seas, but scientists discussed the third – ocean acidification – at a roundtable panel Wednesday in Sarasota. Higher concentrations… Read more »
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman has returned from what he called a “very worthwhile trip” to Cuba. During a press conference at City Hall Tuesday afternoon, Kriseman said he was blown away by the beauty and the arts in Havana. The St. Petersburg delegation met for two hours with the deputy director for American affairs… Read more »
The Tampa Bay Estuary Program announced Thursday that it will be getting $2 million from Clean Water Act fines to fund seven local projects; the money is from a settlement with TransOcean and other companies and results from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. It will fund a restoration project… Read more »
Today on Radioactivity, Host Rob Lorei speaks with local activist Amos Miers, who was with the group Resist RNC, about a recent Tampa Bay Times story reporting that during the RNC, a multi-agency undercover police operation infiltrated and assumed leadership position within protest groups. Then we look at whether recent torrential rains and flooding in Tampa… Read more »
How can we protect ourselves from shark attack?
The science of weed: interview with National Geographic cover story author
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