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Florida is such a weird state. Their main income is tourism by a lot, yet the government keeps hurting their main money-maker by not taking care of their beache

Florida is such a weird state. Their main income is tourism by a lot, yet the government keeps hurting their main money-maker by not taking care of their beaches and environment and, I guess, trying to be more like Texas. When the deepwater horizon oil spill happened, they didn't really clean the beaches or water that well and just dumped more sand on top of the oily film to hide it before the summer tourist season. For years afterwards, you'd always find tarballs and oil spots in the sand just a few inches down.

quantified 2y ago
Did that actually hurt the tourism?
- saxonww 2y ago
  It did dip right after, but tourism by number of visitors picked up again shortly after. See e.g. figure 10.2 in https://repository.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:539161/datastream/PDF/view https://repository.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:539161/d.... The Governor's office would like you to know that tourism is record breaking, has never been better, and Florida is amazing.
- emilamlom 2y ago
  I don't know the actual statistics, so I can't say for sure. From what I remember, it did hurt tourism but people quickly forgot about it. The fishing/shrimping industry locally took a major hit though as far as I know. Even not considering the moral/ethical responsibility to take care of the environment, it seems incredibly risky to the state's main form of income to not take it seriously.
FrustratedMonky 2y ago
Yeah, without clean beaches and water, why am I vacationing there?
- dotancohen 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - incredible1 2y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanics_and_Latinos_in_Florida https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanics_and_Latinos_in_Flori... The "South American" population in FL is relatively small compared to other groups, especially Caribbean. I know it's going to come off as nitpicking, but the distinction is clear.
    - dotancohen 2y ago
      The population may or may not be small relative to other groups (I don't know), but their impact on Florida culture is substantial. At least in the Miami area and surrounding counties.
      - incredible1 2y ago
        [dead]
- cjrp 2y ago
  Disney’s the main draw for Europeans
  - likeabatterycar 2y ago
    Where else can you walk from Germany to Mexico?
    - rbanffy 2y ago
      The places lost a lot with the translation.
  - rbanffy 2y ago
    We have the whole Mediterranean for beaches, so I guess it’s that. There is the Disney park in Paris, but I gather it’s much smaller. Legend says they had staffing problems because, according to company regulations, staff must always greet guests with a smile and Parisians just couldn’t do that.
paxys 2y ago
Not too surprising. After many decades of sensible policies which got the state to where it is today Florida is now in its "kill the golden goose" stage. In another decade or so the economy will mirror the rest of the deep south.
likeabatterycar 2y ago
> they didn't really clean the beaches or water that well and just dumped more sand on top of the oily film Is there a particular technical solution you had in mind? The world's largest bottle of Dawn soap? It was one of the worst disasters ever, they were writing the book as they went along. Sometimes the repair is worse than the event (e.g. poisoning the sea life with cleaners or dispersants). Sand is inert, so it may have been the least risky method. In fact, if you spill motor oil in your driveway, the initial recommended cleanup method is to cover it with sand or cat litter and let it soak up the oil...
- emilamlom 2y ago
  I'm not an ecologist, so no, I don't have a particular technical solution in mind. I'm going off of memory from living there at the time. That said, I would expect any oil company operating so close to shore to have a proper disaster preparedness plan. As I remember it, BP drug their feet fighting over who was responsible for the cleanup which made it end up being worse than it potentially could have been.
  - wakawaka28 2y ago
    There's only so much a company or anyone else can prepare for in advance. I don't recall much hesitation in trying to deal with the spillage. BP didn't do everything right, and I heard they harrassed some whistleblowers. Some of the chemicals they used to clear up the oil were themselves toxic. But seriously what can you expect anyone to do about such a huge disaster. It's literally an ocean-sized cleanup problem in response to a freak accident.

quantified 2y ago

Did that actually hurt the tourism?

saxonww 2y ago
It did dip right after, but tourism by number of visitors picked up again shortly after. See e.g. figure 10.2 in https://repository.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:539161/datastream/PDF/view https://repository.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:539161/d.... The Governor's office would like you to know that tourism is record breaking, has never been better, and Florida is amazing.
emilamlom 2y ago
I don't know the actual statistics, so I can't say for sure. From what I remember, it did hurt tourism but people quickly forgot about it. The fishing/shrimping industry locally took a major hit though as far as I know. Even not considering the moral/ethical responsibility to take care of the environment, it seems incredibly risky to the state's main form of income to not take it seriously.

FrustratedMonky 2y ago

Yeah, without clean beaches and water, why am I vacationing there?

dotancohen 2y ago
[flagged]
- incredible1 2y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanics_and_Latinos_in_Florida https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanics_and_Latinos_in_Flori... The "South American" population in FL is relatively small compared to other groups, especially Caribbean. I know it's going to come off as nitpicking, but the distinction is clear.
  - dotancohen 2y ago
    The population may or may not be small relative to other groups (I don't know), but their impact on Florida culture is substantial. At least in the Miami area and surrounding counties.
    - incredible1 2y ago
      [dead]
cjrp 2y ago
Disney’s the main draw for Europeans
- likeabatterycar 2y ago
  Where else can you walk from Germany to Mexico?
  - rbanffy 2y ago
    The places lost a lot with the translation.
- rbanffy 2y ago
  We have the whole Mediterranean for beaches, so I guess it’s that. There is the Disney park in Paris, but I gather it’s much smaller. Legend says they had staffing problems because, according to company regulations, staff must always greet guests with a smile and Parisians just couldn’t do that.

paxys 2y ago

Not too surprising. After many decades of sensible policies which got the state to where it is today Florida is now in its "kill the golden goose" stage. In another decade or so the economy will mirror the rest of the deep south.

likeabatterycar 2y ago

> they didn't really clean the beaches or water that well and just dumped more sand on top of the oily film Is there a particular technical solution you had in mind? The world's largest bottle of Dawn soap? It was one of the worst disasters ever, they were writing the book as they went along. Sometimes the repair is worse than the event (e.g. poisoning the sea life with cleaners or dispersants). Sand is inert, so it may have been the least risky method. In fact, if you spill motor oil in your driveway, the initial recommended cleanup method is to cover it with sand or cat litter and let it soak up the oil...

emilamlom 2y ago
I'm not an ecologist, so no, I don't have a particular technical solution in mind. I'm going off of memory from living there at the time. That said, I would expect any oil company operating so close to shore to have a proper disaster preparedness plan. As I remember it, BP drug their feet fighting over who was responsible for the cleanup which made it end up being worse than it potentially could have been.
- wakawaka28 2y ago
  There's only so much a company or anyone else can prepare for in advance. I don't recall much hesitation in trying to deal with the spillage. BP didn't do everything right, and I heard they harrassed some whistleblowers. Some of the chemicals they used to clear up the oil were themselves toxic. But seriously what can you expect anyone to do about such a huge disaster. It's literally an ocean-sized cleanup problem in response to a freak accident.