Mass tourism and foreign investment have begun to raise questions about whether outsiders are loving Costa Rica too much – and whether too many local people have been left behind.
Bonny Matejowsky/WUFT News
Air conditioning has long been a fact of life in Florida, the nation's hottest state. Rising temperatures make it increasingly a matter of life and death
(Via Florida Memory)
As North Florida’s timber industry faces hurricanes and mill closures, some landowners turn to a copper-colored side hustle: pine straw. Are the human and environmental costs worth it?
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the civil rights movement events of 1963, 11 students – seven from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications in Gainesville and four from the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University School of Journalism & Graphic Communication in Tallahassee – spent their 2023 spring break reporting from across the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.
Chemical fertilizers help feed the world – at increasingly steep costs to people and the planet. University of Florida and University of Missouri student journalists spent 16 weeks reporting the story of fertilizer from the discovery of nitrogen and phosphorous to their manufacture in supersized chemical plants along the Mississippi River to the promise of future solutions to help us rethink food production and chemical waste.
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Growing native plants and eradicating invasive ones is a challenging part of restoration projects. Even when done well, artificial sites don’t perfectly replicate nature. -
Each project is different, but one Polk County site offers a window into the challenging but rewarding process of restoring damaged land.
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The Federal Crop Insurance Program costs the government an average of $9 billion annually. Climate change could raise its price tag by up to a third by 2080. -
When Bethanne Blinder moved to Micanopy from Gainesville in 2015, she became one of many community members to get free uncooked food from a local pantry. She could make her own meals with it at home, but she noticed that many other people could not. -
The Homeless Voice, based in Hollywood, serves three main purposes: educating the public about homelessness and poverty, providing temporary employment for those without jobs, and raising additional shelter funds. -
Pine straw provides nutrients to the forest floor as it degrades. Landowners must replace what they take. -
Pine producers looking to diversify their streams of revenue have a "gimme": the dead needles that cover the forest floor. -
Crews disproportionately made of young, Mexican men bale pine straw by hand. They're not always fairly compensated. -
After six years of fierce hurricanes and searing summer temperatures, Florida’s residential real estate industry worries that weather patterns influenced by climate change may have wilted the state’s reputation as an idyllic place to live and work. -
Many Pinellas County business owners and workers say they are ready to welcome snowbirds and vacation-seeking visitors. Changes in tourism trends in the state’s coastal playgrounds will be revealed in the coming months and years, especially during peak tourism season. -
As hurricanes ravaged Florida in 2024, home insurance costs have surged, putting a strain on the state’s residents. -
Mickey Disgdiertt awakes at 4 a.m. each day with the same mission: Feeding feral cats near his house not far from Hogtown Creek Headwaters Nature Park in Gainesville.
