Annual Meeting Featured Presentation Drying Up. The Fresh Water Crisis in Florida FSSSP annual meeting featured presenter, John Dunn, laid out a new and enlightened way to do water management, an issue and function becoming more and more essential to Florida’s future. John didn’t mince words at the beginning of his talk and made it clear that our water problems here are critical and parallel what’s happening around the globe. John was quoted as saying that though his presentation “begins in a minor key….the key of the blues……near the end, it transposes to a major key…..the key of optimism.” Our environmental needs help fast but there are encouraging signs that a new, enlightened way to do water management in Florida, called the Soft Path approach, may offer a promising solution. The Soft Path or Low Impact approach to managing water is one that utilizes green infrastructure and conservation methods, while protecting and restoring Florida’s natural hydrology. Furthermore, there are resourceful people working on the problem who are looking for and finding smarter ways to handling our most important resource. He kept meeting attendees engaged and informed by showing up to 70 slides which changed every 30 seconds to illustrate both the problems and solutions at the forefront of his presentation.
Dunn’s presentation is based on his recently published book, Drying Up. The Fresh Water Crisis in Florida, The book, which is written in a magazine style of writing, provides lots of detail on the subject. According to John, it “provides a primer, especially for those new to the state, about Florida’s water problems issues and solutions. The good news is that there are resourceful people looking for and finding smarter ways to handling our most important resource” The book, published this year in February, has received these two awards: The Florida Historical Society Stetson Kennedy Award for Environmental Writing about Florida, and The Florida Book Award’s, Bronze Medal for Florida Non-Fiction. To order the book: John M. Dunn is a current resident of Ocala and a retired veteran high school teacher. He is a native of Miami, has been a professional writer all of his adult life and a regular contributor to Florida Trend Magazine for 26 years. He has published over 350 articles for more than twenty periodicals, such as Europe, Overseas Life, Sierra, Off Duty, New Shelter, the Rotarian, LadyCom, the Executive Review, Florida Trend, Business Florida, the Ocala Star Banner, UF Today, and the St. Petersburg Times. |
