Tiger Trainer Defends Animal Shows at Santa’s Enchanted Forest

Last month, sign-waving demonstrators massed in front of Tropical Park to try to dissuade customers from buying tickets to Christmas mainstay Santa’s Enchanted Forest. Their complaint? The live tigers and other animals used in shows at the theme park, which activists claimed are mistreated.  “These animals are forced to live…

Deadly “Kissing Bug” Has Infiltrated Florida

To quote our favorite Christmas movie Batman Returns, mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it, but a kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it. Especially if that kiss is from an invasive insect known as the Kissing Bug. The Center For Disease Control reports that the insect,…

Santa’s Enchanted Forest Protest Planned Over Animal Shows

It’s the happiest time of the year — except for the animals at Santa’s Enchanted Forest. At least that’s what a group of animal activists planning a protest against the venerable holiday theme park says. They believe Santa’s Enchanted Forest, which bills itself as the “world’s largest holiday theme park,”…

Gator-Kind Triumphs in Rematch Against Pythons

There have been may a classic battle fought in Florida. Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) vs Sonny Liston in 1964. The battles of the Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles in the early ’90s. The Rock vs John Cena at WrestleMania XXVIII.  But perhaps no face-off was quite as…

Florida Republican Warns Sea-Level Rise Is “Speculation or Personal Opinion”

Sea level rise shouldn’t be a controversial subject in a state subcommittee tasked with talking about Everglades restoration and water management. That’s exactly why two state representatives from South Florida began asking a Tallahassee bureaucrat earlier this week about climate change’s impact on the state’s projects. But this is Florida,…

Study: Global Warming Could Lead to Less Sex

If you’re a Miamian and you still don’t care about the threat that global warming poses to the very continued existence of our city perhaps there’s another way we could get yo care. Turns out a new study co-authored by researches from Tulane, UC-Santa Barbara, and the University of Central…

Dade County Needs 50-Year Sea-Level-Rise Plan, Democrat’s Letter Urges

In recent months, Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Gimenez has been facing mounting pressure from environmentalists to do more to prepare the county for the inevitable sea level rise. So far, Gimenez has listened. In September, he passed an almost $500,000-year budget to tackle sea level rise and a chief resiliency officer…

Miami’s Newest Sea-Level Rise Signpost: The Vizcaya Museum

For decades the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the Coconut Grove estate built as a “dreamlike vision in the midst of the jungle on the shores of Biscayne Bay,” according to the museum website, has served as one of Miami’s most iconic landmarks — a lush, leafy symbol of the wealth…

“Clean Energy Advocate” Carlos Curbelo Supports More Oil Drilling

Since he entered office in January, Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo has made headlines for his progressive stance on environmental issues. Representing Florida’s 26th Congressional District, which stretches from Miami to Key West, he touts clean energy, and has split from much of his party in advocating for steps to…

Proposed Museum Park Conservancy Could Give Miami a Signature Park

There’s no better real estate in Miami than the 30 acres of downtown waterfront space just south of the Pérez Art Museum Miami. But in its current iteration, the rectangular block known as Museum Park is pretty much a waste — an exposed, feature-less patch of shrubby grass that’s great…

Miami’s First Three Quarters of 2015 Are the Hottest in Recorded History

Have you walked outside lately? Like, anytime in the last four months?  Miami’s been pretty damned hot. In fact, a University of Miami scientist says, it’s been the hottest year to date in recorded history. Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the Rosenstiel School (and a passionate meteorologist: “I just…