Big Sugar

Big Sugar, Lake Okeechobee, and Florida’s Water

Recent years have seen voter mandates to the Florida Legislature to deal with Everglades protection, dramatic videos of Summer time green slime outbreaks on both of South Florida’s coasts, and considerable infighting in the Legislature over whether or not to deal with the growing crisis in South Florida’s water flow.

A. Read these online stories and view the video as background prior to participating in his Forum. Do not participate in the discussion without having this background knowledge.

· Big Sugar Hires 64 Lobbyists in Tallahassee

· Bittersweet: The Sugar Industry in South Florida

· Florida Legislature Passes Everglades Restoration Bill – May 2017

· Lake Okeechobee: A Time Warp for Polluted Water

· What is Eutrophication? (video)

· U.S. Sugar Corporation home page

B. Now answer the following questions in your posting and number your responses B1 and B2 (worth 12 points).

1. How has cartoonist Doug MacGregor used the cartoon at the top of this page to illustrate the current status of the quality of South Florida’s water flow? That is, how has he used the map, colors, shapes, etc. to tell this story? (6 points)

2. Describe whether or not you think the illustration is accurate in its depiction. Use your textbook readings or the above articles/video to support your description. (6 points)

C. After you have posted, you must respond to at least one of your classmates right there on the discussion thread. This is worth 2+2 = 4 points.

In your response posting, you must include

1. a reply to your classmate;  note, a response includes a significant statement/commentary/additional example on the classmates’ post that adds something significant to the conversation…not just “good job” or “I like your post.” (this is worth 2 point) and

2. your own “beautiful question” – that is, a well thought out question that shows knowledge and understanding beyond an obvious question. Beautiful questions are clear, specific, relevant, and invite an open-ended response (i.e. not a yes/no question). They may be in response to another classmate’s question (you can’t reply to yourself ) or to something that they have written in their original post. Your beautiful question is worth 2 points.

Refer to your Weekly Schedule of Assignments or Online Course Calendar for due date.