Nuclear power is a gamble we don’t need to take. Studies show that the
UK can meet its energy needs and tackle climate change without resorting
to nuclear power or burning fossil fuels – all that is lacking is the
political will.
And the U.K. is way north of Georgia.
Georgia gets a lot more sunlight and has plenty of wind off the coast.
All that is lacking here, too, is the political will.
If Atlanta won’t lead, why not Valdosta and Lowndes County?
Erin Hurley provided the very model of how to give a speech:
I’m the president of
Students Against Violating the Environment at VSU.
I’m here representing
200+ members of SAVE, that consists of students, faculty, community members.
We are deeply concerned with environmental issues and
we are networking together to make this city a more humane and
sustainable community
for future generations.
As a student, I feel I have the right to be able to breathe clean air
at the college I attend.
With this biomass plant possibly being built here,
the future for generations to come are in jeopardy, and we want to protect our fellow and future students’ health.
Please take into consideration the future health of this university
and its community,
and don’t sell grey water to the proposed biomass plant.
Erin Hurley, President of
SAVE, Students Against Violating the Environment, speaking at
Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 March 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
She said who she was, who she represented, how many, what they were for, what they wanted, quickly enough that attention didn’t waver, slowly and loudly enough to be heard, and briefly enough to transcribe, with pathos, logic, and politic. Even the mayor looked up at “As a student….”
Such publicly owned networks can offer services that incumbents don’t,
such as the 1Gbps fiber network in Chattanooga, Tennessee, run by the
government-owned electric power board. And they sometimes have more
incentive to reach every resident, even in surrounding rural areas,
in ways that might not make sense for a profit-focused company.
According to this map of
Community Broadband Networks
by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance,
quite a few small cities in south Georgia have municipal cable networks:
It’s an opportunity for those of us who are not currently
searching for our next meal to help those who need jobs,
and thereby to help ourselves, so they don’t turn to crime.
Like a burned-over longleaf pine, we can come back from this recession
greener than ever, if we choose wisely.
Switchgrass seemed like a good idea five or ten years ago,
but there is still no market for it.
Not just strictly organic by Georgia’s ridiculously
restrictive standards for that, but also less pesticides
for healthier foods, pioneered as nearby as Tifton.
That’s two markets: one for farmers, stores, and farmers’ markets
in growing and distributing healthy food, and one for local
banks in financing farmers converting from their overlarge
pesticide spraying machinery to plows and cultivators.
Similarly, biomass may have seemed like a good idea years ago,
but with Adage backing out of both of its Florida biomass plants
just across the state line, having never built any such plant ever,
the biomass boom never happened.
Meanwhile, our own Wesley Langdale has demonstrated to the state
that
In a long-running email discussion that started with a post
by Valdosta City Council member James R. Wright about switchgrass
for biomass, Councilmember Wright wrote two messages on Saturday,
26 March 2011, each asking questions of Dr. Michael Noll.
The first one contained this paragraph:
Economic development is a high priority on the mind of many people. If
you read the local paper you will see page after page of foreclosures,
failing businesses, and unemployment at a all time high. Please explain
to me how we can address these problems through energy needs?
Karen Noll of WACE, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy,
asked the Valdosta City Council not to sell wastewater
to the proposed Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant.
She presented
“500+ signatures from community members and organizations”
asking for that.
She also said
“…furthermore a response to our request each
member of the council is expected before the next council meeting.”
WACE, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy, at
Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 March 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Saturday I heard somebody bragging about how fast the Internet is in Atlanta.
That would be maybe a tenth of the speed it is in Tokyo.
But still blazing fast compared to the broke-down wagon in a muddy ditch
speeds we get in south Georgia:
I wrote that article more than a year ago, and Internet speeds in rural
Georgia have not improved much if at all.
This isn’t just about playing Farmville.
It’s about communicating with your relatives,
about competing in business,
Continue reading →
It’s Sunday, so let’s see what a local preacher thinks about the
biomass plant.
Mayor Fretti asked if there were any Citizens Wishing to be Heard,
and a preacher said, “yes”.
No, not Rev. Rose.
He last spoke to the Valdosta City Council back on 10 February,
and left in disgust.
Besides, the Council
thinks people are frightened of little old him.
This time, 24 March 2011,
Angela Manning, minister of the 1500-member New Life Ministries
in Valdosta near the proposed site for the Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant,
read from the Valdosta City Council’s own mission statement and
asked,
Black and white, young and old, conservative and liberal,
college professors and unemployed:
dozens of them demonstrated against biomass
outside the Valdosta City Council meeting, 24 March 2011:
Dr. Cristóbal Serrán-Pagán y Fuentes reminds us we don’t need a biomass plant
because:
We have plenty of sunshine here.
You’d think the Valdosta City Council would know that, since
only about a month ago
Mayor Fretti assisted groundbreaking for Wiregrass Solar LLC.
Maybe it takes somebody from Spain to remind everyone.
Spain, which is a leader in solar power in the world.
Spain, which is actually north of Georgia.
Protesters outside the
Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 March 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Nuclear power is a gamble we don’t need to take. Studies show that the UK can meet its energy needs and tackle climate change without resorting to nuclear power or burning fossil fuels – all that is lacking is the political will.
It’s an opportunity for those of us who are not currently
searching for our next meal to help those who need jobs,
and thereby to help ourselves, so they don’t turn to crime.
Like a burned-over longleaf pine, we can come back from this recession
greener than ever, if we choose wisely.
