Tag Archives: Economy

Humans are the cause, and it’s time for people to become the solution –Danielle Jordan for SAVE



LTE in the VSU newspaper, The Spectator, today. -jsq

To the Editor,

Climate change is the defining issue of our time.

Ninety-seven percent of scientists agree that
humans are the cause. S.A.V.E.
believes that it’s time for people to become the solution.
Globally,
we are feeling the impacts of record-setting temperatures, most
notably in the extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels.


Recent

chemical (W.VA) and

coal ash spills (N.C.) add to the urgency
of moving beyond fossil fuel. Yet here on our campus there’s a
remarkable disconnect between the classroom and the board room.
Shockingly, the VSU Board of Trustees includes science deniers,
oblivious to the threat of climate change—and to the academic
integrity of this institution of higher learning.



Recently,

the Board dismissed S.A.V.E.’s

request that VSU rid its portfolio of fossil fuel holdings.
Board Chairman,
Wayne Edwards,

a financial analyst, cast doubt on



the study that accompanied our request.
But we ask you, who knows more about climate, a team of
2,000 scientists from 154 countries who have compiled data from more
than 9,000 studies, or a stock broker? Our point is that serious
decisions at this institution are being taken by people who lack the
proper credentials.

Chairman Edwards

dismissed socially responsible investing as Continue reading →

Moody Family Housing Environmental Assessment published

Spotted first by Michael G. Noll in the VDT yesterday,
the document promised by
Col. Ford
the previous evening.
A quick search finds nothing about the

Nelson Hill Wells,
and no mention of VSU or any of the professors there who have

expressed
concern and asked for access to the site to conduct an independent study.



USAF ANNOUNCES AN

ENVIRONMENT ASSESSMENT

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy
Act and Air Force regulations, the Air Force Civil
Engineer Center (AFCEC) has completed a Revised Draft
Environmental Assessment (EA), Finding of No
Significant Impact (FONSI), and a Finding of No
Practicable Alternative (FONPA) to evaluate the
consequences of the following stated proposed action:

The revised Proposed Action would involve the
construction of 11 housing units for senior leadership on
a 15-acre parcel on the base and 90 units on an
approximately 60-acre parcel located northwest of the
city of Valdosta, GA on Val-Del Road (the Val-Del
Parcel). This represents a reduction Continue reading →

Air Force has the environmental assessment for Moody Family Housing



Last night I chatted briefly with Moody’s
Col. Ford, before he spoke at the
Lake Park Chamber Annual Awards Dinner.
He said he had been able to get on the site of the proposed Moody Family
Housing about a year ago.
I mentioned the

Nelson Hill Wells
and he said they had spent a lot of time already investigating
water issues, and now the Air Force has received the environmental assessment.
Perhaps it includes the missing piece this time,
and maybe there’s a way for the public and local professors
to provide input.




Colonel Edward Ford is commander of the 23d Mission Support Group at
Moody AFB, Ga. He leads a group of more than 1,450 military and
civilian members providing support and services to a population of
28,000 active duty, retired military and family members. His group
maintains an installation with more than 830 buildings and more than
17,500 acres, including an adjacent bombing or strafing range. He is
responsible for ensuring the readiness of support forces to mobilize
and deploy to build, secure, and sustain air base operations at
austere bare base locations anywhere in the world.

The 23d Mission Support Group also retains responsibility for civil
engineering, environmental compliance, Continue reading →

Nelson Hill Wells

Seen today on

Recent clear cutting in north of Lowndes County:



In the Northwest and Southwest of the most westerly boundary line of
Nelson Hill Subdivision there are two well sites that had been
previously deeded to Lowndes County for Deep Wells for Lowndes
County Water Supply due to the problems at that time with the Well
at Stone Creek location. However the test bore water samples came
back with negative results due to surface water contamination
entering the aquifer from all the fractures in the fragile lime
stone basin and active sinkholes in that area, there is a sinkhole
less than half of a mile south from where the test bores were done
and it’s probably 90 feet deep. All this boarders the subject site
Moody Housing.

So let’s look on the west side of the
remainder of the Nelson Hill site,

parcel 0071 006B.
There are two cutouts, each about 50 feet square or 2500 square feet or 0.057 acre.
Trying to select those in the online tax assessors maps, we get:

No data found for Continue reading →

Maybe VSU should join this band of Fossil-Free Foundations

Maybe that’s what the VSU Foundation wants to tell SAVE

when they dine Monday:
VSU gets it (even if Harvard doesn’t) that fossil fuels are a bad investment and solar is where the profits, students, and investors are.

Diane Cardwell
wrote for DealBook 30 January 2014,

Foundations Band Together to Get Rid of Fossil-Fuel Investments,



Seventeen foundations controlling nearly $1.8 billion in investments
have united to commit to pulling their money out of companies that
do business in fossil fuels, the group announced on Thursday.

The move is a victory for a developing divestiture campaign that has
found success largely among small colleges and environmentally
conscious cities, but has not yet won over the wealthiest
institutions like Harvard, Brown and Swarthmore.

But the participation of the foundations, including the Russell
Family Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America and the
John Merck Fund, is the largest commitment to the effort, and stems
in part from a push among philanthropies to bring their investing in
line with their missions.

“At a minimum, our grants should not be undercut by our
investments,” Continue reading →

GA bill for solar financing

What electric utilities fear most:
bipartisan support for distributed rooftop solar financing.
You can call your legislator and support HB 874,
the Solar Power Free-Market Financing and Property Rights Act of 2014.

Dave Williams
wrote for the Atlanta Business Chronicle 28 January 2014,

Ga. Republican unveils solar bill,



Georgia property owners would be able to contract directly with
solar energy installers to finance the installation of solar panels
under legislation introduced in the General Assembly Tuesday.

The bill would let property owners lease solar panels instead of
having to buy them with cash up front, said Georgia Rep. Mike
Dudgeon, R-Johns Creek, the bill’s sponsor.

“We want to make it clear Continue reading →

SAVE to dine with VSU Foundation Monday



The VSU Foundation has invited SAVE to dinner Monday.
No agenda is known, but the Foundation gets four attendees
and SAVE gets two.

Foundation attendees are to be:

The two attendees from

Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.),
each apparently twice as heavyweight as a Foundation Trustee,
will be: Continue reading →

The trash problem could be worse: north of Naples



They call it the Triangle of Death because of the cancer clusters.
No, not Waycross: near Naples, Italy,

Jim Yardleyjan wrote for NYTimes 29 January 2014,

A Mafia Legacy Taints the Earth in Southern Italy,

“The environment here is poisoned,” said Dr. Alfredo
Mazza, a cardiologist who documented an alarming rise in local
cancer cases in

a 2004 study published in the British medical journal The Lancet.


“It’s impossible to clean it all up. The
area is too vast.”

He added, “We’re living on top of a bomb.”

Maybe it’s not that bad Continue reading →

Variances 2 x 4



Two Lowndes County variances,
and four Valdosta ones.

Here’s

the agenda:

Valdosta -Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin,
Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator 		Carmella Braswell,
Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563 (229) 671-2430

AGENDA

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

2:30 p.m.

Continue reading →