Georgia

Sprawling Atlanta seeks new routes to the future

The City in the Forest hopes to get back to its roots.Despite its reputation as a city of wall-to-wall subdivisions, office complexes, and shopping centers, Atlanta’s not a complete stranger to matters of green. At the time of its mid-19th century founding, in the woods at the end of a railroad line, it was called […]

Yes, according to a new ‘artisanal’ restaurant in Atlanta

A press release heralding a new restaurant in Atlanta crossed my email inbox recently. Everything seemed pretty standard at first: Holeman and Finch Public House, opening April 14, intends to serve “food and drink … with unrivaled quality and care.” The chef evidently revels in “whole-animal preparations” and plans to make his own “charcuterie such […]

Water wars!

The Georgia legislature, perhaps driven slightly around the bend by the drought battering its state, is attempting to claim part of the Tennessee River, which it claims is rightly Georgia’s based on the original border drawn between the states in 1818. Chattanooga, Tenn., says, um, no, we’ll keep the river, thanks. Can a shooting war […]

Georgia governor eases water-use restrictions

Despite an ongoing drought, and despite a recent court ruling that removes Atlanta’s right to much of a heavily relied-upon water source, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is lifting a near-total ban on garden watering and swimming-pool filling in the state. “Swim, kids, swim,” said Perdue, who didn’t announce a start date for the eased restrictions. […]

Soviet-induced water crises push Eastern European nations to consider solutions

The following is a guest essay from Eric Pallant, professor of environmental science at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., and codirector of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Integrated Water Resources Management. He is reporting from the National Disasters and Water Security conference in Yerevan, Armenia.

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October 19, 2007

I have to hand it to NATO for dishing out money to sponsor Advanced Research Workshops on environmental security. And I must congratulate Armenia for organizing Natural Disasters and Water Security: Risk Assessment, Emergency Response, and Environmental Management. It shows recognition on the part of both parties that security involves more than advanced weaponry. Conference Director Dr. Trahel Vardanian, in a wide-wale pinstripe suit, does not speak English -- but he must have realized how valuable it would be to host this international meeting. Armenia is a country in transition.

At street level, it seems as if half the city is torn asunder by cranes and bulldozers busily replacing the old Soviet cement-block architecture with sparkling new parks, scalloped stone boulevards, broad-windowed import shops, and new Armenian cement-block high-rises. I see 30-year-old Soviet Ladas and glossy new Nissans side-by-side. Young women in tight jeans and heels, gossiping in Armenian, skitter past old women in babushkas and heavy grey sweaters. Their grandmothers are still selling sunflower seeds on the sidewalk.

Yerevan woman selling bread on the street. (Photo: Eric Pallant)

Georgia declares state of emergency due to drought, anger at species protections

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) declared a state of emergency in 85 of the state’s 159 counties due at least in part to anger at endangered-species protections for critters downstream that the governor says take up too much water. The governor asked President Bush to issue a federal disaster declaration that would provide low-interest loans […]

Georgia lawmakers propose suspending endangered-species protections during drought

Lawmakers in Georgia have introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress to suspend Endangered Species Act protections in times of extreme drought, arguing it would help average folks and businesses cope with the serious water woes now plaguing parts of the U.S. Southeast. Georgia’s congressional delegation rallied around the proposal, calling it a “common sense” […]

GA state legislature tries to figure out whether climate change is real

Wow. Via the indispensable Aunt Phyllis, this is old school: On Tuesday the Georgia legislature held a hearing called "Climate change: fact or fiction?" Listen to these blasts from the past: “In the media, we hear the gloom and doom side,” said Rep. Jeff Lewis (R-White), chairman of the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee […]

A few random observations before getting back to work

Well, here I am, back from a nine-day vacation in the South, sunburned, mosquito-bitten, jet lagged, and generally dazed. Rather than wading through the 300 or so emails demanding my attention, how about a few vacation observations? I split my time between big-city Atlanta and the sort of not-quite-rural, not-quite-city, not-quite-suburb nether regions that, it […]