Community Supported Agriculture, Energy Independence and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band Featured This Week On Sustainable Georgia

Sustainable Georgia celebrates the Autumnal Equinox and bemoans gas lines this week in a broadcast-online pinata bursting with good stuff, including Josephine Bennett's feature on Davis Farms, the Community Supported Agricultural(CSA) project in Roberta, Georgia. We talk about the indirect cost of oil (among other things) with Jay Hakes, Director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, about his new book A Declaration of Energy Independence. Keely Walker from GPB TV's Georgia Outdoors drops by to talk about their upcoming season premiere next week and give some trenchant facts about fire ecology. The Isla Earth feature covers ongoing developments in the attempt to find a greener form of jet fuel. And recycled music rolls out at the end of this week's program with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and their cover of Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me(The Ecology). Let us know what you think by posting here, or email to gogreen@gpb.org.

Sustainable Georgia This Week-Dam The Flint River Or Not?

On this week's program we take a look at a controversial initiative that would dam the Flint River as a possible solution for the Metro Atlanta's recent water woes. GPB Bureau Chiefs Josephine Bennett from WMUM 89.7 FM in Macon and John Sepulvado with WGPB 97.7 FM in Rome report to Melissa Stiers on Earth News. Among the high profile opponents of damming the Flint is former President Jimmy Carter, who weighs in. Additionally, we'll talk with Deborah Byrd from Earth & Sky, about their longtime "clear voice for science" feature heard on GPB Radio Monday-Friday at 9:04am and 3:04pm.
Our Shout Out goes out to the Altamaha Riverkeeper for all they do to keep a watch on this great South Georgia Resource, and a reminder that you can join them at their Clam Jam 2008 benefit on October 4. Recycled music features Sheryl Crow's song Gasoline, about a dystopian near-term future where we're all fighting over gasoline, a particularly pointed notion during a week in which Georgians are faced with the highest gas prices in the country, or empty pumps in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike's negative effect on refining capacity.

Correction to Olin Corporation Story Wrap Up In Sustainable Georgia Earth News

In my wrap up to Mary Ellen Cheatham's story on Sustainable Georgia's Earth News segment we mistakenly claimed the Olin Corporation's Georgia plant is in Appling, not Augusta. You can find out more about Olin's Augusta plant by going to their site here, which also links to Olin's website giving their own interpretation of the environmental impact of the mercury cell chlor-alkali process on the local environment, which differs from the views of Oceana, the advocacy group quoted in the story. GPB regrets the error.

Sustainable Georgia Is All Wet This Week

This week's edition of Sustainable Georgia gets all wet, including a story from GPB Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Cheatham about one of the last mercury cell chlor-alkali process chlorine manufacturing plants in America. It's located outside of Augusta, Georgia, and it discharges mercury into the Savannah River (pictured above). If you would like to follow up on this story you can read Oceana's report on mercury-based chlorine plants like the one in Augusta by clicking here.

If you are interested in following up on this issue with regards to the pending legislation, the proposed bill in the US House is House Bill 5580 the Missing Mercury in Manufacturing Monitoring and Mitigation Act , which has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Georgia Congressmen Nathan Deal and John Barrow both sit on that committee’s subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous materials. In the Senate this bill is Senate Bill 1818 and has been referred to the committee on Environment and Public Works, where Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson serves as a minority member. You can go to thomas.gov and enter HB 5580 or SB 1818 to check the bill's status.

We talk with Kathy Nguyen from WaterSmart, who has a few common sense ways for us all to save water.

In Georgia Earth News, Melissa Stiers has news about upcoming public hearings about opening up public access to Cumberland Island. You can make a public comment about that issue here.

Our shout out goes out this week to Georgia ForestWatch, who is doing what they can to save our majestic Hemlock Pines from the depradations of the Wooly Adelgid. If you want to help them save the trees, drop by their site.

Sustainable Georgia regularly features recycled music. This week we reach back into the Randy Newman catalog for Louisiana 1927, a song about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Aaron Neville's emotional version was the touchstone and theme to Katrina relief in 2005. We play the song this week to honor the memories of those lost in Katrina, and to acknowledge that the effects of development, levees, petroleum and gas extraction, and climate change may well make this rich cultural region unsustainable in the end.

We hope you enjoy the program. Hear it Saturdays at 12:30p, Sundays at 4:30pm and Tuesdays at 11:30pm on GPB Radio statewide. Hear Sustainable Georgia on demand by clicking here.

Sustainable Georgia Premieres On Radio, Web

Sustainable Georgia is on the air and on the web. The radio program debuts Saturday, September 6 at 12:30pm, right after the debut of Weekend Gazette on the GPB Radio Network across the state. Both programs repeat during the 4pm hour on Sunday, and Sustainable Georgia will re-air on Tuesday nights at 11:30pm. You can also download or stream the program on demand at gpb.org/gogreen.

This week's premiere features Georgia Earth News with Melissa Stiers (including a report on potential environmental impact and litigation over the deepening of the Savannah Harbor from Orlando Montoya), an interview about sustainable design with Georgia Architect John Cheek, a report on e-waste from Isla Earth, and a shout out to the Athens Town Stream Restoration Project. Our recycled music for the week is courtesy of REM.

We hope you enjoy the show, and we hope to hear from you as GPB's Sustainable Georgia moves forward. Thanks for stopping by.