fbpx
❄️ How Antarctica inspired this Miami artist
x

❄️ How Antarctica inspired this Miami artist

Do you know your home's elevation above sea level? Click the GIF to learn more.
(📹: Alexa Caravia/The New Tropic)

Meet this Miamian: Xavier Cortada

WHAT HE’S DOING: Xavier Cortada wants to make climate change impossible to ignore, no matter how hard you might try. He’s created the Underwater Homeowners Association, a participatory art project with a canvas the size of Miami-Dade County.

He’s reprinted his Antarctic ice paintings as yard signs and added numbers to them to indicate how many feet of melting glacial water must rise before your home is underwater.

Xavier invites folks to display the yard signs on their property and all over Miami-Dade County so people have to confront the issue everyday.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED: FIU students created a web app to help you figure out your home’s elevation.

Hear more from Xavier Cortada in our video profile.

Feeling some FOMO?

A few of our members just won tickets to the two-day CLEO Institute Symposium this weekend.

The event features lectures and presentations by major names like climate scientist Michael Mann, Chad Frischmann, the vice president of Project Drawdown, and dozens of others!

But the only way to see that giveaway, and others like it, is by becoming a member! We do great giveaways, exclusive content, and play fun games for prizes with our members.

If any of that sounds like something you wanna see, consider joining for just $10 a month. Get the deets here.

What Miami is talking about

If you’ve been following the Earth Week Challenge we mentioned earlier this week, then you may know today is “Trashy Thursday.”

Today’s challenge asks folks to reduce the waste they create, because Miami’s been pretty trashy for a while. Excess trash has had a damaging and deadly impact on marine life, and in some cases the trash problem has been so bad you can see it from space.

Andrew Otazo is at the frontline of efforts to clean up the 305, specifically trash in Key Biscayne’s Bear Cut Preserve. In the past few years, he’s removed nearly four tons of trash from the preserve, and he wants some help.

In a Your View on our website, he says Miami needs a wake-up call, and suggests that residents can play a part even if they don’t grab gloves and trash bags.

A few of his tips: Ask your favorite local businesses to switch to compostable products. Bring your own bags to the grocery store. And ask your bartender or barista to keep the straw when they make your drink.

Read more about his mission, and his tips, on our website.

In other news…

Another big event is moving from Downtown Miami as the idea to bring a Formula One race to Biscayne Boulevard has been scrapped. Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens are the newest potential location for the event. (Miami Herald)

Miami Beach leaders seem focused on taking the 305 back to the prohibition days. Mayor Dan Gelber has circulated a flyer for a Memorial Day party to illustrate the kind of wild partying the city wants to curtail. One little issue? The advertisement is for a party that’s not even happening in the city of Miami Beach. (Miami New Times)

If you remember the drama over ballot signatures and counting mail ballots from last November’s election, we’ve got good news. Earlier this week, state lawmakers continued discussion on a bill that would give elections workers more time to count mail ballots, and voters more time to fix signature issues. (Tampa Bay Times)

That’s all for today

Make it a great Friday Jr., folks!

– The New Tropic

Archived Newsletters