The CLEO Institute

The CLEO Institute At CLEO we provide Climate Leadership Engagement Opportunities to solve the climate crisis. Join us!

The CLEO Institute is the only 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Miami solely dedicated to climate change education, engagement, and advocacy.

Have a climate idea? Let’s help fund it. 🌱Are you 15–24 and ready to turn your climate idea into action? Through the Cit...
09/06/2026

Have a climate idea? Let’s help fund it. 🌱

Are you 15–24 and ready to turn your climate idea into action? Through the City of Miami’s Youth Climate Action Fund, young people can apply for $1,000–$5,000 micro-grants to support projects that reduce heat risk, flooding, waste, and more.

The CLEO Institute is proud to serve as a Project Sponsor. When you apply, select CLEO as your sponsor to connect your project with a climate organization that can help support your work and share your story. Note: the project must be completed within the City of Miami boundaries.

Apply by October 2, 2026. Visit miami.gov/YCAF to learn more and apply.

Join the NAM Climate and Health Learning Collaborative: Southeast + Islands webinar, co-hosted with the Global Consortiu...
09/04/2026

Join the NAM Climate and Health Learning Collaborative: Southeast + Islands webinar, co-hosted with the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, on Thursday, September 10. This session will showcase innovative climate and health educational resources, as well as foster peer-to-peer learning among health professionals, communities, and others in the region.

Experts will share strategies to address regional climate and health concerns and build capacity for action. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn and connect—register today with the link in bio: http://nam.edu/event/southeast-islands-learning-collaborative

Hurricanes don’t care about politics. But Florida’s ability to prepare for them depends on the resources we invest in.As...
09/03/2026

Hurricanes don’t care about politics. But Florida’s ability to prepare for them depends on the resources we invest in.

As cuts to climate and hurricane-related research threaten to weaken the information communities rely on to prepare, The CLEO Institute’s CEO, Yoca Arditi-Rocha, is warning about what’s at stake in a recent article published by The Fulcrum Press.

“Hurricanes don’t care about politics, and they don’t care who you vote for; they don’t care about geographies, and they truly respond to physics,” Arditi-Rocha said. “And Florida is one of the most hurricane-exposed states in the nation. So our ability to protect lives and to protect our communities, our property, and our economy should be of all everybody’s best interest.”

From emergency management and local planning to infrastructure investment, insurance risk assessments, and public communication, research helps Florida understand and prepare for the risks ahead.

“When research slows, the ability to anticipate future risk also slows.”

Read more about what these cuts could mean for Florida’s hurricane preparedness with the link in bio: https://cleoinstitute.org/2026/09/federal-cuts-to-research-have-impacted-hurricane-season-how-is-florida-fighting-back/

09/02/2026

A bittersweet milestone for beluga whales this . Belugas are highly social, intelligent marine mammals adapted to traveling, communicating and living within a vast ocean environment. Animals with this level of intelligence, social complexity and natural range should not spend their lives confined for human entertainment;  and we’ve seen the consequences close to home. Decades of advocacy and mounting animal welfare concerns preceded the closure of the Miami Seaquarium last year, where Lo**ta the orca spent more than 50 years in captivity and died before a planned move to a seaside sanctuary could happen.

Now, 30 belugas have been relocated from Canada’s shuttered Marineland after the facility said it could no longer afford their care and warned they could face euthanasia. Their relocation secured their immediate future, but most have simply moved from one form of captivity to another.

Their story should push us beyond emergency rescues toward stronger protections, an end to keeping cetaceans for entertainment, and viable sanctuary options; so animals never again face death because the businesses responsible for them fail.

Wildfires in Canada, flash floods in Arizona and a collapsing glacier in Nepal might seem like drastically different eve...
09/01/2026

Wildfires in Canada, flash floods in Arizona and a collapsing glacier in Nepal might seem like drastically different events on the surface, but they’re not.

Climate weirding is showing up in different ways around the world, as a warming planet changes the conditions behind our weather and pushes some extremes further.

Swipe to connect the dots.

🔥 Beyond the Heat Wave: Understanding Chronic Heat Risk in FloridaHeat isn’t just an extreme weather event. Ongoing heat...
08/31/2026

🔥 Beyond the Heat Wave: Understanding Chronic Heat Risk in Florida

Heat isn’t just an extreme weather event. Ongoing heat exposure can impact our health, our communities, and how we prepare for the future.

Join The CLEO Institute, presented by VoLo Foundation, for a virtual conversation during Florida Climate Week exploring the growing threats of chronic heat in Miami, including the underexplored vulnerabilities, risks, and public health lens.

Featuring:

Dr. Mayra Cruz, Environmental Science & Policy Researcher, University of Miami
Dr. Joanne Pérodin, VP of Programs, The CLEO Institute

📅 October 5th, 2026
⏰ 10–11:15 AM
💻 Virtual

Register through Florida Climate Week with the link in bio or https://floridaclimateweek.org/virtual-events/

What does the ocean have against you? 🌊 Join genCLEO for The Ocean Hates You, a stand-up comedy show from comedian and f...
08/27/2026

What does the ocean have against you? 🌊 Join genCLEO for The Ocean Hates You, a stand-up comedy show from comedian and former marine biologist Forrest Shaw, coming to both USF campuses!

Expect jokes about the ocean, marine life, climate change, and some of the ways humans have managed to make things worse. Plus, there’ll be marine trivia, audience participation, and free food. No science background required.

📍 USF Tampa
September 22 | 7–9 PM

📍 USF St. Petersburg
September 23 | 7–9 PM

Best of all? It’s completely free.

Come hang out, eat some food, learn some weird ocean facts, and laugh about the state of the planet. We will also discuss how to make a difference by casting a ballot in the upcoming midterm election. Not registered in Florida? We got you! We can register you under 2 mins at the event.

Free comedy. Free food. Marine trivia. See you there!

Link in bio to RSVP. 🔗

08/26/2026

This is your reminder that protecting nature is protecting ourselves! 🩵 It can be easy to get lost in the constant stream of bad news. The destruction, the loss, the endless reminders of what we’re doing wrong.

But there is still SO much good.

Recent surveys by the UN Development Programme show that over 70% believe environmental and climate degradation as a major threat to their countries. In the past 5 years green sea turtle populations have risen enough for their global conservation status to improve and California saw a record return of 30,000 endangered coho salmon. Beyond wildlife, Amazon deforestation has fallen to multi-year lows, wind and solar are supplying a growing share of electricity in major economies, 45.5% of all EU electricity in Q1 2026! The High Seas Treaty officially became international law, creating a framework to protect biodiversity across international waters that cover roughly two-thirds of the world’s ocean. And in a landmark victory for the Rights of Nature movement, Spain’s Mar Menor lagoon became the first ecosystem in Europe to receive legal personhood,

Amid all the reasons to worry about our climate and the environment, it’s worth remembering that a better world is possible and most of us are fighting the good fight!

We’d love to see your wildlife moments!
Tag and use our hashtag to be featured.💚

Video captured by Olia 🇨🇦 Vancouver, Canada

Long before the National Park Service existed, these lands were already worth protecting. 🌲On August 25th, 1916, that co...
08/25/2026

Long before the National Park Service existed, these lands were already worth protecting. 🌲

On August 25th, 1916, that commitment became official when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act, creating the National Park Service.
Today, the NPS protects more than 400 sites across the country, preserving forests, wetlands, waterways, wildlife, historic places, and cultural landscapes for generations to come.

On , we’re celebrating the places that connect us to nature, history, and one another. And we’re remembering that protecting them is a responsibility we all share.

Explore. Learn their histories. Leave no trace. And keep fighting to protect the places that make this country unique. 🏞️

Follow The CLEO Institute for more ways to get involved!

National Park Service NPCA

“You should have seen these reefs back in the day.” It’s a phrase heard again and again by people who’ve spent time bene...
08/24/2026

“You should have seen these reefs back in the day.” It’s a phrase heard again and again by people who’ve spent time beneath the surface. In South Florida, many remember reefs overflowing with life, massive elkhorn and staghorn corals, schools of reef fish, dolphins, hammerheads and seemingly endless long-spined black sea urchins. Today, much of that abundance exists primarily in memory and a warming ocean is partially to blame.

Average sea surface temperatures outside the polar regions hit 21.1°C (70°F), the highest ever recorded. The record arrived in August, months after global ocean temperatures typically peak. El Niño is contributing to the spike, but it is occurring on top of decades of human-driven warming.

For coral reefs already dealing with disease, pollution, development, overfishing and the loss of critical species hotter oceans add yet another enormous pressure. And what happens beneath the surface does not stay beneath the surface. Healthy reefs, mangroves, marshes and other coastal ecosystems support fisheries, livelihoods, biodiversity and coastal protection.

Address

Address 2937 SW 27th Avenue, Ste 301
Miami, FL
33133

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+13055735251

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