The Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment is a ballot initiative to stop the raiding of conservation funds and return to protecting important habitat areas.

In recent years, the funding that was intended for protecting important streams, wetlands, forests, and beaches has been diverted away from conservation. In fact, the Florida state legislature has cut conservation spending by nearly 98 percent. Florida, known for its breathtaking habitats and intriguing creatures, now spends less than one dollar per Floridian on conservation. We need to act now to restore funding to preserve our conservation legacy for the next generation before it’s too late.

Right now we have a chance to secure funding that will protect water quality and restore wildlife habitats by making sure the Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment appears on Florida’s 2014 state ballot. The Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment would amend the state constitution to safeguard conservation money—dedicating funds to help fish and wildlife habitats, protect water quality, restore the Everglades and much more.

Help build support for conservation!

• Facebook: Spread the word by sharing this photo of an adorable manatee! Remind your friends to sign the petition when they see a volunteer on Election Day.
• Don’t have Facebook? Send your friends an electronic postcard of a roly-poly manatee. Help support the Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment and encourage your friends to sign the petition on Election Day.
• Volunteer: We need 50,000 more signatures by November 31st to get the Amendment reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court. With millions of Floridians headed to the polls on November 6, it may be our best chance at gathering the signatures needed. We know that with enough dedicated volunteers, we can reach our goal of 50,000 signatures. Sign up today!

I write this from Venice, Louisiana, a few days after the explosion at British Petroleum’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil rig set off a massive oil spill in the Gulf. Looking at the scale of the ecological disaster, I am frustrated, saddened and angry. BP has been long on promises and short on responses. Though two decades have passed since the Exxon Valdez spill occurred in Alaska, the oil industry and the various governmental enforcement agencies don’t seem to have learned much.

With a huge volume of oil flowing in the Gulf of Mexico unabated, we clearly have an epic catastrophe unfolding. The greatest coastal wetland system in America is at the height of spring wildlife nesting season. It now faces what may be the largest oil spill in the nation’s history. It is hard to imagine a more dire situation.

BP and the other oil giants have at various times testified before congressional committees that deep, offshore oil could be developed without harming the environment. But the reality I am experiencing here on the ground in Louisiana is revealing their rhetoric as little more than spin.

As of this writing, there are no reliable predictions when the flow of crude will be stopped or where the oil slick is headed next.

What will happen to this oil? Some of the lighter constituents will volatize into the air where, in combination with other pollutants, it will increase haze and ground-level ozone. When my colleagues and I flew through that haze over the oil slick, the air burned our eyes and throats. And scientists are warning that pollutants could linger for generations in the Gulf Coast’s soil and water.

Last summer, on the 20th anniversary of the Exxon spill, I traveled to Cordova, Alaska, a once-peaceful fishing village that became ground zero for the 1989 disaster when the supertanker ran aground on Bligh Reef, spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound. On that trip, I met with scientists who were part of a team that took 9,000 samples from holes dug along the impacted shoreline. They found oil in half of them, and they told me that crude oil and its breakdown products will continue to enter the food chain for years to come.

Of the 31 impacted species of wildlife studied there, only a third is fully recovered. And the once-plentiful pigeon guillemots and Pacific herring remain absent from the Sound. What does the future hold for Gulf Coast wildlife?

Coastal Louisiana produces 40 percent of the nation’s oysters. Oysters are filter feeders that are known to ingest and concentrate pollutants in their systems at levels 1,000 times higher than those found in ambient waters. Oil-impacted oyster beds may be off-limits for years to come, and there are long-term ramifications of low-level contamination on such species as bluefin tuna, bottlenose dolphins, sperm whales and manatees, as well as on humans who consume tainted fish and shellfish.

Unlike the formerly pristine Prince William Sound, coastal Louisiana has seen its share of environmental insults. Canals dredged by the oil industry have carved up the once-vast coastal wetland system. The canals accelerate saltwater intrusion, destroying the protective cypress forests and replacing brackish and freshwater wetlands with degraded salt marshes. Withdrawing oil and natural gas has further deflated the region, causing millions of acres of marshes to subside. Coupled with sea-level rise caused by global warming, Louisiana is losing the equivalent of about two football fields of land every hour.

For those of us who care about the viability of the ocean and of our world, this is our “Avatar moment.” We must challenge those who continue to pollute and destroy our world before it passes a point of no return.

We support President Obama’s freeze on new coastal drilling, because it is time to reassess America’s energy priorities. This is not just about making oil platforms safer—this is about moving to an entirely new energy platform.

Oil companies have deployed 700 lobbyists in Washington and spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising to persuade us that their drilling operations are completely safe. They have successfully stalled congressional action on clean energy alternatives and persuaded politicians to put oil company profits ahead of real energy reform. Now the bill is coming due. The hidden costs of our oil dependency are no longer invisible.

Helping Gulf Coast Wildlife: For information about the wildlife species threatened by the oil spill and updates on National Wildlife Federation activities relating to the region, please visit www.nwf.org/oilspill.

Whether they hibernate, have thick fur coats or take shelter, animals are masters of surviving the cold weather. Here are a number of interesting animals and the fascinating things they do to survive harsh conditions.

1. Japan’s macaques monkeys keep warm by taking hot baths in volcanic springs.
2. Polar bears (or “solar bears“) soak up the sun with their black skin, which is covered by a coat of  clear hair that conducts the sun’s heat. Not to mention they also have a handy 4 inches of fat to
   insulate them.
3. Animals will also flock to warmth created by humans, such as pigeons in Chicago that huddle around the Eternal Flame and manatees that seek out warm water discharge from power plants.
4. Aside from having blubber, penguins avoid losing energy and heat when they exhale by using special nasal passages to reclaim the warm air.
5. Some honey bees huddle together to make a winter cluster in order to keep warm.
6. Bees aren’t the only ones that huddle together, even bats and ladybugs will huddle for warmth in a safe place.
7. Various plants depend on snow to trap heat and insulate them from cold winds.
8. Seals have a special set of blood vessels that function to conserve heat.
9. Occasionally some fish will use a natural anti-freeze to keep from freezing in low temperatures.
10. When water is scarce, wild bactrian camels will eat snow.

Despite all these adaptations you can still do your part to help wildlife survive the winter in your own backyard. Here’s a few bird feeding tips.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day. (Believe me, this beats (ha!) me showing you some exposed wildlife hearts which I considered doing)

ADVISORY: The following facts make great date conversation.

1. The heart of a blue whale is as big as a car.
2. Frogs and lizards have three chambers whereas birds and mammals have four.
3. The human heart beats roughly 35 million times a year.
4. Octopuses have three hearts.
5. Dogs have a larger heart to body mass ratio than all other mammals.
6. Scientists have re-created the heart of a rat and it even started beating!
7. Pythons grow bigger hearts at mealtimes.
8. A blue whale’s heart beats six times a minute (next to a human’s 70 times)
9. A manatee‘s heart rate slows down by half during a long dive.
10. A giraffe depends on it’s powerful heart that weighs up to 12kg so that it can fight the force of gravity up that long neck to the head.