Tag Archives: Students Against Violating the Environment

Solar SAVE goes to SGA about fossil fuels @ VSU




SAVE‘s fossil fuel

divestment request made the
front page of

The Spectator at VSU,
and Danielle Jordan of SAVE was pullquote about fossil fuels
in another front page story, about solar panels on the Odum Library.
The student government didn’t vote to support SAVE’s request, but
many senators said they didn’t understand the subject and the student
government asked to get educated
about

fossil fuels and divestment.

Jordan Barela and Von Kennedy
wrote for The Spectator 24 October 2013,

Solar panels bring green energy to Odum,

VSU is moving in a greener direction.

A solar canopy was recently built behind Odum Library.

“We cannot address climate change without decreasing our dependency
on fossil fuels and solar is one way we could change that.”

—Danielle Jordan

The canopy is a 10 kilowatt solar array. The canopy produces energy
that goes directly to Odum Library, and does not go to the Georgia
Power grid.

Construction of the solar canopy began in September, and was
finished earlier this month.

“It is exciting,” Danielle Jordan, president of Students
Against Violating the Environment, said. “We cannot address
climate change without decreasing our dependency on fossil fuels and
solar is one way we could change that.”

The solar panels were manufactured by Continue reading →

Fossil Free Valdosta




Fossil Free Valdosta, a facebook page just launched by
members of

S.A.V.E. (Students Against Violating the Environment),
under VSU’s new solar canopy:

A student campaign calling on Valdosta State University to freeze
any new investments in the fossil fuel industry immediately and
divest within the next five years.


You can help divestment by

signing their petition.
That will help

VSU stop wasting investments on fossil fuels while solar stocks skyrocket.
And that will help

undermine the political power of the fossil fuel industry.
After all,
all our investments are political, and

there’s nothing neutral about investing in climate wreckage.

-jsq

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

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

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

Far more citizens are concerned about the plant –VDT

In the VDT,

Friday 25 March 2011:



“THUMBS DOWN: To area officials who continue to refer
to the opponents of the biomass plant as a “fringe” group.
Far more citizens are concerned about the plant
than officials would like for the
public to believe. Thankfully, the city council allowed them to speak
at Thursday’s meeting, but the issue is not going away until their
health concerns are addressed.”

A year ago the VDT was solidly in the pro biomass camp.
Guess they didn’t like being fed misinformation,
any more than the rest of us did.


And that was before the VDT said

VLCIA illegally made up a document.

Rumor has it that

there’s going to be another demonstration
today outside Valdosta City Hall starting at 5PM.

-jsq

VDT says VLCIA illegally made up a document

Today’s editorial in the VDT is

Another Industrial Authority misstep
refers to the VDT
article
and
editorial
of Sunday, and continues:



The reporter who conducted the interview with Industrial Authority Project
Manager Allen Ricketts has been subsequently repeatedly contacted by
Ricketts for what he deems “false reporting.” According to Ricketts,
the timeline was never official and was only something the Industrial
Authority threw together to appease the Times when given an official Open
Records Request. Ricketts is apparently unaware that legally he cannot
produce a document that does not exist to comply with said request. If
he knowingly did so, as he now claims, that is a clear violation of the
Open Records Act.

Presumably that would be the “Project Critical Path time-line is attached”
that wasn’t actually attached to

documents returned for an open records request of 17 February 2011.
Hm, since VLCIA did supply such a document to the VDT,
presumably it is now a VLCIA document subject to open records request,
even though it was not what VLCIA told VDT it was.

Back to the VDT editorial:

Continue reading →

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 →

The right of students to breathe clean air –Erin Hurley of SAVE @ VCC 24 March 2011

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.

Here’s

the video:




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….”

-jsq