"My name is Adam Rivera. I am an advocate for Environment Florida, the statewide, citizen-based environmental group. For over twenty-five years, Environment Florida has advocated for clean air, clean water and open space. Today, I’m the proxy for Green Century Equity Fund, an environmentally responsible mutual fund.
"Thank you for allowing me to share some concerns with you today, on behalf of ten thousand ordinary citizens who could not be here, regarding the Lowe’s Superstore proposed to be built in protected wetlands near the Florida Everglades. Lowe’s has asked Miami-Dade County Commissioners to alter our Urban Development Boundary, which has protected the Everglades from sprawling development since the 1980s, in order to accommodate your project.
"Environment Florida and those we represent strongly oppose your proposed Superstore. We urge you to drop your proposal because the Everglades is far too valuable—and far too close to the brink of destruction—to put at risk.
"The Everglades is vitally important to us. Its vast expanses of sawgrass and sky are an cherished part of our natural heritage and part of the very fabric of South Florida’s identity and culture. Its fabled diversity of life and subtle complexities are an endless source of fascination and recreation that can be found nowhere else on Earth—even as many species that only call the Everglades home approach extinction, due to human actions. The Everglades supplies us with and cleanses our drinking water, and even serves as a barrier against tropical storms. It’s been said: 'The Everglades is a test. If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet.'
"Sadly, the Everglades is a test we’re dangerously close to failing. Over half a century of pollution and development have disrupted natural water flows, harmed wildlife and destroyed half of the Everglades' unique, species-rich wetlands. Projects like the Lowe’s Superstore bring us closer to cementing the fate of the Everglades.
"The Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Miami-Dade County Planners, sixteen local municipalities and over 100 community organizations opposed the Lowe’s Superstore from the outset. The Florida Department of Community Affairs, Florida’s final word on development issues, rejected the Lowe’s Superstore. This month, a Dade County judge found that County Commissioners were wrong to alter the Urban Development Boundary and approve your proposed development. Still, you have not backed down.
"If you will not listen to them, please listen to the several thousand Floridians who signed a postcard or a petition that I brought with me today, asking Lowe’s to drop this proposed Superstore. Will you join us in the effort to rebuild and restore the Everglades, rather than persisting with an unpopular, unwise development that pushes the Everglades closer to the point of no return?
"Thank you."
