Category Archives: Georgia

Videos, Solar Energy Forum @ CSC 2012-12-01

Solar Energy Forum at Center for a Sustainable Coast, Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, 1 December 2012 Here are videos of Saturday’s Solar Energy Forum at the Center for a Sustainable Coast (CSC) in Savannah, with

We will probably post more later on the presentations by Paul Wolff and Robert Green, and the ensuing questions and answers. Meanwhile, here’s a video playlist of the entire event:

Videos, Solar Energy Forum
Solar Energy Forum, Center for a Sustainable Coast (CSC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, 1 December 2012.

-jsq

Georgia statehouse and the anti-sustainability astroturf talking points (aka “Agenda 21”)

Somebody wrote me a week or two ago:

I saw in todays paper Chip Rogers and other Senate leadership was changed yesterday. Thank goodness!

Well, don't cheer too soon. According to Jim Galloway in the AJC 15 November 2012,

"Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers of Woodstock withdrew his re-election bid and endorsed Ronnie Chance of Tyrone, the governor's floor leader, for the position."

Ronnie Chance is not only also ALEC, Chance is the other ALEC state Senator who put both the charter school amendment and the multi-year amendment on the ballot. Is this leadership "change" improvement? Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.

Why must we get fooled again? When will the people of the state of Georgia get tired of government by astroturf and elect some legislators who will represent the people?

-jsq

Arctic sea ice melting faster than expected —WMO

A major source of the water for the sea level rise already affecting Savannah and Jacksonville is melting Arctic Ocean sea ice. WMO Press Release No. 966: 2012: Record Arctic Sea Ice Melt, Multiple Extremes and High Temperatures,

“Naturally occurring climate variability due to phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña impact on temperatures and precipitation on a seasonal to annual scale. But they do not alter the underlying long-term trend of rising temperatures due to climate change as a result of human activities,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

“The extent of Arctic sea ice reached a new record low. The alarming rate of its melt this year highlighted the far-reaching changes taking place on Earth’s oceans and biosphere. Climate change is taking place before our eyes and will continue to do so as a result of the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which have risen constantly and again reached new records,” added Mr Jarraud.

30 years of Arctic sea ice 15 September 1982 vs 16 September 2012

The Arctic reached its lowest annual sea ice extent since the start of satellite records on 16 September at 3.41 million square kilometers. This was 18% less than the previous record low of 18 September, 2007. The 2012 minimum extent was 49 percent or nearly 3.3 million square kilometers (nearly the size of India) below the 1979—2000 average minimum. Some 11.83 million square kilometers of Arctic ice melted between March and September 2012.

WMO noted other effects of climate change outside the arctic, including:

Continue reading →

How to implement trash, health, and safety?

Disposal of solid waste (trash/garbage) is a matter of community public health and safety and providing such service is the responsibilty of the local governing bodies. How should trash health and safety responsibly be implemented?

We cannot be left in a situation where residents are either “forced to buy” service from a provider, or have no option but to burn their trash. The government can levy a tax, but they cannot say that residents are forbidden to buy a service from an independent provider.

Such a ruling is

  • unfriendly to those who currently own, or want to start a waste collection business in our county,
  • unfriendly to the residents who are counting on the government to follow the state-legislated goals to
    “protect the health safety, and well-being of its citizens and to protect and enhance the quality of its environment” ,
  • unfriendly to the environment as trash ends up on the side of the road or polluting the air by being burned and leaves us to face a new problem on a different day.

Residents in the unincorporated areas of the county who want curb side collection, for the most part, already purchase it. Those of us using the collection centers do so because it is our preference.

The county should (in my opinion) create a special tax district for waste disposal (it already makes special lighting districts) and tax the residents for the maintenance of the collection centers.

-gretchen

Board of Health members

Here is a list of the members of the Lowndes County Board of Health:

Board Members

William R. Grow, MD, FACP
District Health Director
Mark Eanes, MD
Chair, Physician
Mary Margaret Richardson, EdD
Vice Chair, Licensed Nurse
Randy Smith, DDS
Secretary, Consumer Advocate
Sheila Warren
Advocate for Needy,
Underprivileged or Elderly
Richard Raines
Lowndes County Commissioner
John Gayle
City of Valdosta Mayor
Wes Taylor
Lowndes County Schools
Superintendent
Continue reading →

Who implements trash, health, and safety?

As we’ve seen, solid waste is a matter of public health, safety, well-being, and the environment, according to Georgia state law. Whose responsibility is it to protect the environment and the public health, safety, and well-being from solid waste?

Many health and safety issues are handled through the health department, Diagram of the waste hierarchy including the Georgia Department of Public Health, and the South Health District (Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Tift and Turner Counties). Particularly, water quality (septic tanks, well water), food safety, cleanliness of hotels, motels, restaurants, swimming pools and so on are the responsibility of the local health department, such as the Lowndes County Health Department.

However, disposal of solid waste (trash/garbage) is handled by the local municipality or governmental body (county).

The EPA has a variety of documents available about solid waste.

So does the state EPD, as enabled through Georgia Legislation: Existing Rules and Corresponding Laws.

So, where does this leave us? See next post.

-gretchen

Trash, health, and safety

Solid waste is a health and safety issue, according to Georgia law.

According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources copy of the GEORGIA COMPREHENSIVE SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ACT OF 1990 AS AMENDED THROUGH 2004,

O.C.G.A. § 12-8-21. Declaration of policy; legislative intent

a) It is declared to be the policy of the State of Georgia, in furtherance of its responsibility to protect the public health, safety, and well-being of its citizens and to protect and enhance the quality of its environment, to institute and maintain a comprehensive state-wide program for solid waste management and to prevent and abate litter, so as to assure that solid waste does not adversely affect the health, safety, and well-being of the public and that solid waste facilities, whether publicly or privately owned, do not degrade the quality of the environment by reason of their location, design, method of operation, or other means and which, to the extent feasible and practical, makes maximum utilization of the resources contained in solid waste.

Emphasis added on the parts about health, safety, well-being, and the environment. Those are the goals of this legislation, stated twice in the first paragraph. Georgia being a home rule state, the implementation of these goals is now left to the local governing bodies. More on that next.

-gretchen

Savannah and Jacksonville most vulnerable to rising sea level

Savannah and Jacksonville are among the east coast cities most vulnerable to rising sea levels due to climate change, a study finds. Savannah, Georgia’s main seaport, with storm surges, hurricanes, and waves on top: what will that look like?

Suzanne Goldenberg wrote for the Guardian today, US coastal cities in danger as sea levels rise faster than expected, study warns: Satellite measurements show flooding from storms like Sandy will put low-lying population centres at risk sooner than projected,

A study published last March by Climate Central found sea-level rise due to global warming had already doubled the risk of extreme flood events — so-called once in a century floods — for dozens of locations up and down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

It singled out the California cities of Los Angeles and San Diego on the Pacific coast and Jacksonville, Florida, and Savannah, Georgia, on the Atlantic, as the most vulnerable to historic flooding due to sea-level rise.

Sandy, which produced a 9ft storm surge at Battery Park in New York City, produced one example of the dangerous combination of storm surges and rising sea level. In New York, each additional foot of water puts up to 100,000 additional people at risk, according to a map published with the study.

That study projected 6 inches rise at Fort Pulaski by 2030 (minimum 3 inches) and 13 inches by 2050 (maximum 24 inches). But projections have gotten worse since then:

Sea level changes measured and projected The latest research, published on Wednesday in Environmental Research Letters, found global sea-levels rising at a rate of 3.2mm a year, compared to the best estimates by the IPCC of 2mm a year, or 60% faster.

So that would be more like 9 inches by 2030 and 20 inches by 2050.

Add to a higher base sea level bigger storms like Hurricane Sandy, and Savannah and Jacksonville have a problem. Sure, Savannah is Continue reading →

Who’s behind the anti-sustainability astroturf talking points (aka “Agenda 21”)

ALEC’s “our state legislators” are promoting the anti-sustainability astroturf talking points at the Georgia state capitol. But ALEC doesn’t seem to be the source of those talking points. Who is? Follow the money: who stands to benefit the most by obstructing public transportation, fuel efficiency, and renewable energy? The fossil fuel companies, especially big oil.

Lloyd Alter wrote for Treehugger 29 June 2012, Exposing the Influence Behind the Anti-Agenda 21 Anti-Sustainability Agenda, first pointing out that most people never even heard of Agenda 21:

…a recent survey showed that most people never heard of it and Few have heard of Agenda 21 and only 6% oppose it only 6% say they are against it. so why are politicians from State governments up to the National Republican Party and Presidential candidates like Newt Gingrich make such a big deal of it?

“People don’t wake up in the morning sweating bullets about the United Nations.”-Robin Rather

Robin Rather of Collective Strength, who commissioned the survey, says “I genuinely believe the Agenda 21 phenomenon is highly manufactured. It’s not out there in the mainstream.”

There are a number of leads back to big oil, starting with one of the main conduits of the talking points, the John Birch Society, one of whose founders was Fred Koch, founder of Koch industries, a diversified multinational that has large fossil fuel components. His sons David and Charles founded Americans for Prosperity.

When he is not out on the public speaking circuit, Tom DeWeese is President of the American Policy Center, the loudest mouthpiece of the anti-Agenda 21 crowd.

Alter digs into APC board connects to big oil, Continue reading →

TV station gets it: Territoriality Law prevents solar in Georgia

Local TV is getting it about solar in Georgia, and what’s holding it back!

WSBTV.com posted 20 November 2012, Georgia law keeps power customers from saving with solar energy

Supporters say it could save some people big on their electric bills, but leasing solar panels in Georgia isn’t worth it because of a current state law.

Critics believe it gives Georgia Power a solar monopoly and prevents consumers from saving money.

Jeff Sain installed solar panels on his Dunwoody house because his electric bill was nearly $600 a month in the summer. With solar his Georgia Power bill plummeted.

“The first month’s power bill, I saved 91 percent on my power bill,” Sain said.

Purchasing solar panels required a big outlay of cash. Sain spent $32,000.

But companies in 14 states now offer systems that can be leased with no upfront costs. However, you get less in savings because you have split it with the leasing company providing the equipment.

“Typical savings if you lease panels as people do in other states will be 30 to 50 percent of your power bill,” Consumer advocate Clark Howard said.

The main law that prevents us getting financing for solar like in Continue reading →