Southern Bookman

October's extreme weather a disturbing alarm of climate change

San Francisco reached 94 degrees last week as Hurricane Helene pummeled the Southeast.

Earth's alarms keep sounding. Another hurricane, Milton, reminding us of John Milton's "Paradise Lost," rushes toward Florida. The Amazon's drying up, an ominous sign for the world.

Yet, climate change recedes as a presidential campaign issue. Both parties support continued drilling for oil, when the world's survival depends upon petroleum remaining deep beneath the ground.

Autumn's arrival in years past brought crisp temperatures. Now October comes with 100-degree readings in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Palm Springs. Wildfires are a common hazard of California life. Even cold cities like Chicago and Minneapolis suffer from extended heat waves.

Fall's exciting cool days seem fewer and fewer.

 

 

 

 

Asheville's devastation brings sorrow

Another city I love lies devastated by a hurricane.

Asheville, where I enjoyed many happy times in my youth, was devastated by Helene, still relentlessly destructive as a tropical storm when it blew through the idyllic city in the western North Carolina mountains.

Flood waters cover Asheville's downtown streets, where art, music, food and literature flourished before the storm's rampage. Helene's high winds and flooding destroyed the nearby Biltmore Village's charming shops and restaurants. Some of the area's resort towns disappeared altogether.

For years, I've mourned New Orleans, Houston and Lake Charles following hurricanes. I never thought I'd weep in the same way for Asheville.

Climate change should be major issue of Democratic campaign

I'm amazed each morning at the number of 100-degree readings in The New York Times' list of American cities' weather forecasts.

Large areas of the Southwest, Southeast and Northwest bake in soaring heat that has lasted for weeks.

Here in Atlanta, cool mornings have arrived, giving hope for a pleasant autumn. The afternoon temperatures still rise into the mid-80s.

To meet the power demand from data centers, Georgia Power seeks to build new reactors fueled by oil and natural gas, after spending billions on new nuclear plants.

The always compliant Republican Public Service Commission has given preliminary approval to Georgia Power's plan, without an estimate of the eventual costs, according to the AJC.

Ga. Power and parent company Southern Co. make enormous profits, yet keep receiving rate increases from the PSC. 

Some of those data centers will serve companies building solar panels and electric vehicles. In Georgia Power's reactionary view, more fossil fuels will be required to complete the shift to a carbon-neutral economy.

Climate change has received little mention at the Democratic National Convention outside of President Biden in his farewell address citing his far-reaching but still inadequate environmental legislation.

With GOP candidate Donald Trump vowing to eviscerate climate change policies, the election will determine the world's future.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris should reaffirm Biden's commitment to ending the nation's dependence on fossil fuels, with plans to limit the environmental costs.

 

Atlanta area's wildnerness imperiled by data centers

Waiting for my doctor to arrive in the examination room, I marveled at the view through the window.

Atlanta's tree canopy stretched for miles toward the South. I felt a rush of pride that we really are a city in a forest.

While the city of Atlanta strives to protect its trees with stringent laws, the metro area's explosive growth has led to much loss of wilderness.

Throughout the country, the destruction of habitat threatens a range of animal species with extinction.

In undeveloped areas of metro Atlanta and Georgia, the spread of data centers is disrupting communities.

Data centers, which house computer servers for corporations, occupy vast amounts of land, consuming massive amounts of power and groundwater. Along with storing online data, the computer warehouses power technologies like artificial intelligence.

A Microsoft data center in south Fulton County will sprawl over 2.1 million square feet with a capacity of 324 megawatts of energy, ranking among the largest such projects in the Southeast, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article Thursday.

The details of the project in Union City were outlined in a Development of Regional Impact filing on Tuesday, the AJC's incisive reporter Zachary Hansen disclosed.

Data center construction in metro Atlanta has increased by 211 percent since 2003, Hansen reported. That makes the Atlanta metro area the fastest growing data center market in the country, according to the real estate services firm CBRE.

Microsoft has targeted Atlanta's southside for data center development, Hansen said, with expenditures of at least $171 million this year to acquire more than 480 acres in the area, including the Union City site.

Joni Mitchell in a song lamented "they paved paradise, put up a parking lot."

Now paradise is disappearing to the constant hum of computers' electric brains.

 

 

Atlanta area's wildnerness imperiled by data centers

Waiting for my doctor to arrive in the examination room, I marveled at the view through the window.

Atlanta's tree canopy stretched for miles toward the South. I felt a rush of pride that we really are a city in a forest.

While the city of Atlanta strives to protect its trees with stringent laws, the metro area's explosive growth has led to much loss of wilderness.

Throughout the country, the loss of habitat threatens a range of animal species with extinction.

In undeveloped areas of metro Atlanta and Georgia, the spread of data centers is disrupting communities.

Data centers, which house computer servers for corporations, occupy vast amounts of land, consuming  massive amounts of power and groundwater. Along with storing online data, the computer warehouses power technologies like artificial intelligence.

A Microsoft data center in south Fulton County will sprawl over 2.1 million square feet with a capacity of 324 megawatts of energy, ranking among the largest such projects in the Southeast, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article Thursday.

The details of the project in Union City were outlined in a Development of Regional Impact filing on Tuesday, the AJC's incisive reporter Zachary Hansen disclosed.

Data center construction in metro Atlanta has increased by 211 percent since 2003, Hansen reported. That makes the Atlanta metro area the fastest growing data center market in the country, according to the real estate services firm CBRE.

Microsoft has targeted Atlanta's southside for data center development, Hansen said, with expenditures of at least $171 million this year to acquire more than 480 acres in the area, including the Union City site.

Joni Mitchell in a song lamented "they paved paradise, put up a parking lot."

Now paradise is disappearing to the constant hum of computers' electric brains.

 

 

Looking forward to the deer's daily arrival

Each afternoon, deer come to our backyard.

Sometimes, a single buck struts by, headed to the wooded area on the other side of the yard. Lately, a mother and a small spotted fawn appear.

The strange animals sometimes pause to eat the grass or rest before heading up the ridge to the woods. When I tap the window, they raise their heads in alarm, sometimes galloping away.

Their arrival before dusk coincides with that of a cardinal who perches on a chair besides the patio table. The beautiful red bird stays there for a few moments, as if remembering being there before. At last, it flies away.

Over the years, we've observed foxes and rabbits taking the same path as the deer. They have disappeared, along with the woodpeckers that used to tattoo the trees. One once pecked holes in the eaves of the house. 

Like others, I sometimes think of the deer as pests. But I look forward to their visit each afternoon.

 

 

Extreme heat sounds alarm on climate change

Another nuclear summer has arrived.

A high of 99 degrees is predicted for Atlanta Wednesday, once a rare occurrence even in July or August.

As Saporta Report columnist Tom Baxter pointed out this week, this is a more intense heat than in the past.

Each morning, I'm amazed at so many temperatures above 100 in The New York Times' listing of weather forecasts for cities across the nation.

Phoenix and Las Vegas don't yet reach the highs of Mideast cities like Baghdad or Tehran, where readings often break the once unimagined threshold of 120 degrees. Our American desert and Southern cities will get there in a few years if current patterns continue.

Soaring heat killed recently killed hundreds of Muslims making their Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Elite pilgrims had access to air conditioned tents and water stations. Those not so privileged died in the heat.

Daily weather conditions increasingly indicate long-term patterns of climate change, as Baxter pointed out.

The South's punishing summers will drive many to Northern states, whose climates will turn moderate.

Southern governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis deny that climate change exists, as extreme weather imperils the region's future.

If action is not taken soon, rising sea levels and soaring sea levels will make much of the South and the Southwest uninhabitable.

As life-threatening weather becomes an every-day reality, the GOP wants to increase petroleum production, spewing more CO2 and methane emissions into the already overloaded atmosphere.

A Trump victory in the presidential election will place the nation on a path of no return. Biden's re-election will offer the possibility of shifting from a petroleum-based economy to alternative sources of power.

The election will decide the future of humanity.

 

 

Columnist Dick Yarbrough's solitary campaign to protect the Okefenokee Swamp

Popular columnist Dick Yarbrough's battle to save the Okefenokee Swamp from a potentially devastating mining operation contrasts with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's recent silence on the issue.

Yarbrough, whose column appears in the Neighbor newspapers in Atlanta and elsewhere across the state, recently published a passionate open letter to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp imploring him to stop the Twin Pines Minerals corporation's proposed mining operation on Trail Ridge near the swamp.

Environmentalists fear the mining operation would seriously damage the Okefenokee's water levels and wildlife. Yarbrough emphasized that the mine could ruin a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site for the extraction of a material commonly used in consumer products.

The former Olympics public relations executive skewered the Georgia Legislature for not taking action to halt the Alabama company's plan to mine titanium dioxide, a whitening substance used in toothpaste, paint and other products.

Georgia's Environmental Protection Division has issued draft permits for  the Twin Pines' project.

Yarbrough expressed his ire at Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, who opposed legislation to halt the mining operation.

"Those are decisions that shouldn't be made by political entities," Gooch lamely asserted, to Yarbrough's consternation.

As Yarbrough battles Twin Pines, the mining proposal has disappeared from the AJC, which thoroughly covered the issue during the legislative session, including Gooch's controversial statement.

No AJC updates have appeared on the status of the EPD permits, or  investigative reports on the company's contributions to Georgia political leaders.

Unlike Yarbrough, AJC columnists haven't spoken out in support of the Okefenokee. Nor has the newspaper taken any new editorial stands against the mine.

Yarbrough stands alone in seeking to save the Okefenokee.

Writer Erik Reece follows author Harry Middleton's fly-fishing quest

Writer Harry Middleton like French philosopher Simone Weil found spiritual enlightenment from blue-collar work.

Middleton, whose devoted fans revere his books on fly-fishing, worked as a garbage man in suburban Birmingham on his last job. He died in 1993 at age 44, suffering a heart attack while swimming with his family. 

Battling severe depression throughout his life, what he called "the gut-bucket blues," Middleton went into a tailspin after his firing as a columnist for Southern Living magazine. He previously wrote for Louisiana Life magazine.

A graduate of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., and recipient of a master's degree in western history from LSU, Middleton in his last days also worked as a factory janitor and grocery store stocker.

In his book "The Bright Country," Middleton expresses affection for his fellow sanitation workers and gives a heart-rending account of futilely seeking treatment for his depression. He rivals Weil as a writer who seeks spiritual fulfillment in everyday work.

Middleton's most fervent praise comes from fly-fishing acolytes who consider him one of the best chroniclers of the sport as a mystical quest.

The little-known writer receives an overdue homage in the current issue of "Garden & Gun" magazine, which consistently publishes compelling articles on Southern culture, branching out to places outside of the region that have a Southern connection.

Writer and University of Kentucky professor Erik Reece's "Deep Creek Communion" follows the paths traveled by Middleton in the  book "On the Spine of Time: A Flyfisher's Journey Among Mountain People, Streams & Trout," which details a fishing trip Middleton took across the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Published in 1991, "On the Spine of Time" describes Middleton's encounters with colorful characters and presents philosophical reflections on the journey from Abrams Creek on the park's western boundary to Big Creek on the East.

In the Garden & Gun article, Reece and his cousin Tye return to the places that Middleton visited. Reece cites relevant passages from "On the Spine of Time" and gives his own vivid impressions of the park's natural beauty. Gorgeous oil paintings by artist Gordon Allen illustrate the article.

I imagined Harry's spirit guiding Reece and his cousin toward their "deep communion."

 

Metro Atlanta population rises to sixth largest in United States

The commutes are getting even longer in metro Atlanta. 

Adding nearly 70,000 new residents from 2022-2023, the 29-county Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metropolitan area is now the sixth largest in the United States, overtaking Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., according to Census Bureau estimates.

Metro Atlanta now boasts a population of 6,307,261, which is projected to keep rising.

Only the Dallas and Houston metro areas, ahead of Atlanta in the national rankings, grew faster in the country, the Census Bureau said.

According to projections, Dallas, Houston and Atlanta will one day jump in tandem over  longtime No. 3 Chicago. No. 1 New York and No. 2 Los Angeles appear out of reach of the burgeoning Sun Belt metropolises.

Atlanta's huge metropolitan area stretches to exurban counties like Meriwether, Morgan, Newton, Rockdale, Cherokee, Forsyth and Fayette.

Many who prefer a suburban lifestyle commute nearly 100 miles to jobs in the inner city and close-in counties, clogging the interstates.

Maybe those commuters will one day be driving electric vehicles. For the near future, all of those new residents will be spewing more carbon emissions into metro Atlanta's atmosphere.