Atlanta: Watching the Trailer For The Bigger Movie
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.23.07
Val Perry of the Lake Lanier Association walking from his dock last week.
In our interview with Ted Nordhaus, he suggested that it is hard getting through to people who "aren't particularly interested in sacrificing their lifestyles and aspirations in the name of the planet." In Atlanta right now, we are seeing the trailer for the movie that we will all be watching, where people won't sacrifice their lifestyles for anything even if disaster is staring them in the face. As noted in earlier posts, they have been going through the worst drought on record over the last year; yet according to the New York Times,
For more than five months, the lake that provides drinking water to almost five million people here has been draining away in a withering drought. Scientists have warned of impending disaster.The response to the worst drought on record in the Southeast has unfolded in ultra-slow motion. All summer, more than a year after the drought began, fountains sprayed and football fields were watered, prisoners got two showers a day and Coca-Cola’s bottling plants chugged along at full strength. On an 81-degree day this month, an outdoor theme park began to manufacture what was intended to be a 1.2-million-gallon mountain of snow.
By September, with the lake forecast to dip into the dregs of its storage capacity in less than four months, the state imposed a ban on outdoor water use.
Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia declared October “Take a Shorter Shower Month.” And Saturday, Mr. Perdue declared a state of emergency for more than half the state and asked for federal assistance, though the state has not yet restricted indoor water use or cut back on major commercial and industrial users, a step that could cause a significant loss of jobs."
The Times notes that officials have no idea how to plan for the anticipated doubling of the population over the next 30 years, or how to control real estate developers.
“It’s been develop first and ask questions later,” said Gil Rogers, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center. ::New York Times
Some people need a good bite in the ass before they realize that it is in their interests not to screw the environment.
Is there a functioning government anywhere in this country?
Natural disasters may be "an act of God" but doing nothing is an act of man.
If the "officals" think the population is going to double over the next 30 years, they still don't understand what "no water" means.
Sounds to me like the army corps of engineers are pretty stupid! Quit sending so much water down stream! I am no an engineer, but I am a thinker!
As for the drought, it has been happening all over the world since the beginning of time. Atlanta was just due for theirs now.