St. Simons is one of only four Georgia barrier islands accessible by car. The others include Sea Island, Jekyll and Tybee islands. For many years I believed that these sanctuaries of nature were somewhat undiscovered. But clearly, that’s no longer the case and that is where my story begins.
Tag: Environment
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Decline in bald eagle’s live birth rate likely due to heavy rain this year, state reports
Georgia’s bald eagles are off their usual rates of reproduction in North Georgia this year, according to a new report from the state. Georgia wildlife managers attribute the dip to heavy rains recorded through March.
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Transit tax votes in November: DeKalb not likely to seek voter approval, Gwinnett advances planning
DeKalb County has no plans to ask voters this year to raise the sales tax to pay for transit expansion, according to DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond’s office. The decision leaves unfunded projects including the one to serve the area at Emory University.
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Little Five Points project to improve safety of pedestrians, bicyclists, vehicles
Little Five Points is to be a safer and more pleasant place to walk and bicycle upon completion of a project that got its start Monday with $290,000 in funding approved by the Atlanta City Council.
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Southern Co. governance, shifting sands of Democrats’ environmental agenda
Atlanta-based Southern Co. may be an early example of a power producer criticized by environmentalists for its pledge to comply with a provision of the Paris climate accord. Meanwhile, Joe Biden and the Democrats are trying to devise a climate platform to take on President Trump – one that satisfies the party’s centrist and progressive views on fossil fuels.
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Sea turtle nests at second-highest level in nine years at end of May, state reports
Sea turtles are nesting in near-record numbers along Georgia’s coast this season, continuing a trend that started about a decade ago as the sizable creatures stage a comeback.
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Okefenokee Swamp: More than 60,000 public comments in period ending Thursday
May 28, Thursday, is the deadline for public comments on the proposed sand mine at the Okefenokee Swamp, a proposal that has garnered attention from environmental advocates nationwide. More than 60,000 public comments have been submitted, the Georgia River Network announced in a morning email.
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Georgia Tech president: Fostering global collaboration, local action in 21st century
Georgia Tech President Angel Cabrera portrays a new e-learning program on sustainability as a result of the type of university-based global coalition needed to solve big problems in the 21st century.
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Looking to the future of experiencing nature, as seen at Blue Heron Nature Preserve
Atlanta’s Blue Heron Nature Preserve has started “Spread Your Wings,” a social distancing program with a broader purpose of expanding the preserve’s role as an urban ecology center oriented around a new three-mile trail system that traverses ridgelines across 30 acres in Buckhead.
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DeKalb County’s consent decree: New issues raised as motion to dismiss looms in federal court
As DeKalb County aims to squash in July a federal lawsuit that challenges the county’s efforts to stop polluting waterways, the environmental group that filed the lawsuit is making a new claim regarding sewage spills.
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Reports of Georgia’s first sea turtle nest of 2020 spreads far, wide as ‘good news’ story
The annual story about sea turtles starting their nesting season along Georgia’s coast has been picked up fairly widely and presented as a “good news story” this year as the nation looks to nature for a sense of rhythm in arrhythmic times.
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Tom Cruise could be filming on Space Station before rockets launch from Camden County
Tom Cruise might be filming a movie on the Space Station before the first rocket is launched from a proposed spaceport in Camden County, north of Jacksonville.
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Post pandemic: Views on sustainability, racial equity, just development practices
As the pandemic crisis passes, the new orders of life provide opportunities to improve conditions in terms of sustainability, racial equity in placemaking, and more just development practices. These are among the views expressed by the head of the U.N., a national author who examines Atlanta in an upcoming book, and a longtime urban planner now teaching at Georgia Tech.
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Fourth annual City Nature Challenge begins Friday, but isn’t a challenge in Covid-19 era
This year’s City Nature Challenge isn’t a challenge at all, but a shared opportunity for citizen scientists to watch and record species in an urban environment. Fernbank Museum is, for the second time, coordinating the event across metro Atlanta.
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Before Earth Day, before ‘Silent Spring,’ Rachel Carson introduced life’s synergy
Rachel Carson’s 1951 book can be argued as the impetus of Earth Day, which celebrates its 50th anniversary today and through the week with multiple digital gatherings. And the book is not “Silent Spring,’ published in 1962.
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Future of placemaking: Engaging places need affordable homes, mobility, authenticity
By Guest Columnists BILL TUNNELL, JERRY SPANGLER and TOM WALSH, leaders of TSW, a planning, architecture and landscape architecture firm
Recently we had the pleasure of celebrating our firm’s 30th anniversary. It was both gratifying and humbling to look back on three decades of designing buildings, communities and green spaces, and reflect on how fortunate we have been to participate in what has arguably been a revolutionary time period in building design and placemaking.
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BP disaster 10 years later: Lessons learned almost too much to bear amid COVID-19
Five recommendations could prevent another BP type of disaster from damaging the environment. Just five, if they were followed, according to a report released Tuesday by Oceana, the international ocean conservation group that has an office in Savannah and fights efforts to drill for oil off Georgia’s coast.
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Citizens’ letters question Atlanta’s proposed tree protection ordinance
Frustration among Atlanta tree advocates over the two-year process of writing even the draft version of a tree protection ordinance is bubbling up amid the coronavirus-related shutdown of public conversation – and the clock is ticking toward a final vote on a new city code.
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Residential solar – New state policy, federal incentives could make this a break-out year
By Guest Columnist PETER DYE, academic manager at Oglethorpe University and clean energy advocate
Solar power is on the rise for Georgia’s businesses, and more and more companies are jumping on board this trend due to falling costs and increased pushes for sustainability. Facebook is building a solar farm in Newton County to power its new data center. Agnes Scott College is using solar energy to offset the campus’ carbon emissions. Even Georgia’s beer is being brewed with help from the sun thanks to Terrapin Beer Co.’s recently installed solar rooftop.
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Federal environmental cutbacks concern watchdogs; Atlanta says consent decree on track
The federal cutbacks in environmental standards enacted during the coronavirus outbreak have drawn sharp rebuke from metro Atlanta watchdogs. The rollbacks include car fuel efficiency and monitoring of environmental enforcement actions.
