Category Archives: SAVE

Divest VSU of fossil fuels –petition

The

divestment movement has come to VSU,
thanks to
Danielle Jordan and
SAVE!
-jsq



Petition:

Divest Valdosta State From Fossil Fuels


To: VSU Administration and VSU Board of Trustees

We are asking Valdosta State University to:

  1. Disclose information on its investments

  2. To divest its holdings from fossil fuels within 5 years

  3. Freeze any new investments in the fossil fuel industry immediately


Why is this important?

As climate change progresses, we become more aware of the hazardous
consequences that manifest in relation to a warming planet. We
understand that in order to combat the issue, we have to alter our
daily practices. However. the lobbying power of the major fuel
companies has diminished the voices and power of individuals within
our political system. Subsequently, policy has been written to favor
the interests of the companies benefiting from the exploitation of
our environment.

We are asking Valdosta State to distance itself from this industry
and pursue alternatives, knowing that if we wish to address climate
change, a collaborative effort must be made. By joining this
movement, we can create a more ethical campus and move in the
direction of sustainability.

Today: VSU SAVE Earth Day


Flyer: Earth Day Every Day
Students Against Violating the Environment (SAVE) is having
an Earth Day event
5:00pm until 8:00pm today, Friday 26 April 2013 on the VSU front lawn.

Come celebrate Earth Day with us! The event is open to campus and the
community. There will be raffles, information tables, speakers, food,
and live music. Don’t miss it!

Here’s their

facebook event and

Flyer.

-jsq

Biomass down for now: next?



Congratulations to all who worked against the biomass plant:
today was the deadline on its most recent extension,
so it’s gone for now.
Congratulations to WACE and SAVE and NAACP and New Life Ministries
and everyone else who was involved, especially Natasha Fast, Seth Gunning,
and Brad Bergstrom, who were working against it before almost anyone else.

Congratulations to those who were instrumental even though they were not
exactly or originally biomass opponents, especially

Ashley Paulk,
who came out and said what needed to be said,
and

George Bennett, who
was willing to admit in public that he was one of the earliest
proponents of the biomass plant but new knowledge caused him to think differently.

A big shoutout to the
VSU Faculty Senate,
the only traditional non-activist body that went on record as opposing
the biomass plant with an actual vote before the extension deadline.
The VSU Faculty Senate did what the Valdosta City Council, the Lowndes County Commission and the Industrial Authority Board would not.
Go Blazers!



A special strategic mention to Kay Harris and David Rodock of the
Valdosta Daily Times, who came to realize they were not being told the
whole truth by the Industrial Authority.
The VDT even

gave a civics lesson on how to stop the biomass plant.

And a very special mention to the people who did the most to make the
name of biomass mud in the public’s eye:


Brad Lofton, Col. Ricketts, and the VLCIA board.
Without their indoctrination sessions and paid “forum” and stonewalling,
people wouldn’t have been turned against that thing nearly as fast!

Yet it ain’t over until it’s over.

According to

David Rodock in the VDT today:

Continue reading →

VSU Faculty Senate passes anti-biomass resolution

Karen Noll reported on WACE’s facebook page that
the VSU Faculty Senate passed a resolution Thursday 19 May 2011 that
biomass will not be considered renewable for VSU’s climate commitment goal.

Why?

Because
leading medical associations have identified woody biomass
incineration as increasing risks of
“a variety of illnesses, some life-threatening”,
because biomass incineration
produces more CO2, NOX, and fine particulates than existing coal plants,
and because it
“may lead to
unsustainable forestry practices and a net increase in global greenhouse
gas emissions”.

Who proposed this?

Continue reading →

Earth Day 2011 Tomorrow





When:
Friday, April 22, 2011, 5:00pm to 9:00pm


Where:
Drexel Park, Patterson St. and Brookwood Drive, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia

Who:
Hosted by S.A.V.E., Students Against Violating the Environment


Why:

Come out and enjoy your evening to celebrate the Earth! There will be
food, games, live bands, speakers, and fun! Bring your friends and family
and enjoy an evening in the park!

We are also collecting canned for to donate to those in need!

The usual LAKE photographers can’t make it, so please take pictures
and videos and post them to the Internet.
Send links to information@l-a-k-e.org and we’ll post some on the blog,
or you can post them directly on the

LAKE facebook page.

-jsq

Think of our future —Jocelyn Holmes @ VCC 7 April 2011



Please help us identify this speaker.

Update 4:10 PM 21 Apr 2011: Bobbi Anne Hancock has the answer: “Jocelyn Holmes. VSU student and active member of S.A.V.E.!”

Here’s

the video:




Think of our future @ VCC 7 April 2011

Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Biomass protesters @ VCC 7 April 2011

You’ve

seen them before
and here they are again:
biomass protesters, this time outside Valdosta City Hall, 7 April 2011.


Old and young,

Continue reading →

When the biomass plant is cancelled —John S. Quarterman

What will happen to the spirit of activism when the biomass plant is cancelled?



I applaud the activism of

the many and varied biomass opponents!
Let me repeat my prediction: the biomass plant will never be built.
That’s no reason to stop doing what you’re doing.
You know opposition is having an effect when

VLCIA repeatedly denies it.

You might be surprised how many other people think this plant will
never be built.
Ashley Paulk told me

Continue reading →

Let’s see these “many” biomass opponents

So what’s the evidence that these

biomass opponents are many, as the VDT says?
We could review letters to the editors in the VDT,
but let’s look at the visual evidence LAKE has recorded.

With no pro-biomass demonstrators anywhere to be seen.
Sure, a few people show up at government meetings to speak for the
biomass plant, but by my tally they are indeed very few,
and most of them are either former employees or board members
of the Industrial Authority.
Yes, LAKE has posted videos of
them, as well:

Ken Garren,

Nolen Cox.

Crawford Powell.
Or watch the people at the microphones during the
6 December 2011 VLCIA biomass “forum”
and see what you think the ratio is.

My opinion is

the same as I posted last month:
“Black and white, young and old, conservative and liberal, college professors and unemployed”.
Come see for yourself

today outside Valdosta City Hall starting at 5PM.

-jsq

Valdostans protest biomass –VSU Spectator



Molly Duet

writes in the VSU newspaper today:

Protestors wearing respirator masks held signs reading “Biomass? No!”
in front of the Valdosta City Hall building on Thursday. Members of
the Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy, the VSU student organization
Students Against Violating the Environment, and other concerned Valdosta
citizens showed up to protest the construction of the Wiregrass Power:
Biomass Electric Generating Plant.

“We already have solar power resources in place that we could be using
and I feel like money should be directed towards that,” Ivey Roubique,
vice-president of the Student Geological Society, said. “It wouldn’t
be good for the community and even though I’m in college here it
still matters.”

The Spectator article quotes from two speakers for whom LAKE
happens to have video, linked below.

Continue reading →