May Marks the Beginning of Smog Season

The Clean Air Campaign blog has a good post from a few days ago to kick off Smog Awareness week. There is a lot of great info so I suggest you check the post out but here is a summary.

• The One Ton Challenge helped keep 3600 tons of pollution out of metro Atlanta’s air.
• Rainfall this year is expected to be above normal according to the Farmer’s Almanac. That will definitely help pollution levels.
• Atlanta ranks #23 out of the 25 top cities for Ozone pollution according to the American Lung Association’s State of the Air report released today. L.A. was #1. The report also ranked for Year-Round Particulate pollution. Atlanta came in at #17 on that front. The final ranking was Short-Term Particulate pollution where Atlanta didn’t make the list.
• Last smog season had almost 30 days with unhealthy levels of ground level ozone and/or particle pollution.

Kudos to the Clean Air Campaign for its initiatives at engaging individuals and businesses to help create a healthier environment.

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PeachBites

EPD Says Air Will Be Cleaner When New Coal Plant is Built

GPB News

"The state's top environmental regulator for air pollution says the air in eastern Georgia will be cleaner if and when a coal plant is built near Sandersville in Washington County." This must be one of those new "clean coal" plantsl.

Georgia Organics 12th Conference: A Success

Go Green InTown
Unfortunately, I missed this one. Hopefully I'll be able to get to next year's conference. The conference and trade show had over 1100 attendees and was the largest in the 12 years of the event. Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, was the keynote speaker. You can see his speech here. If you have never heard or read Mr. Pollan and you are interested in sustainable and healthy food, check out the clip or read one of his books. It was great that Georgia Organics was able to bring such a big time name to the event. We are fortunate to have such an organized group right here in Georgia focusing on local and organic food production.

Old Suburbia Must Fit Into New Society

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Our love affair with shopping is on the skids. Ghost-town strip centers already abound. It’s not hard to imagine dead malls pocking the landscape like buffalo carcasses amid the tumbleweeds in old Westerns." Ellen Dunham-Jones' book Retrofitting Suburbia details a recreation of the suburbs or "new suburbia." She says that metro Atlanta is one of the top three metro areas undertaking suburban retrofits with projects such as Smyrna Market Village and Perimiter Place in Dunwoody. It's good to see that Atlanta is finally starting to get it. Unfortunately, we got it right at the wrong time for real estate.

Toxic Cloud in Forsyth County Disipates

GPB News

This one was scary. Authorities recently had to evacuate 80 people from a kitchen and bathroom faucet manufacturing plant. The cause of the yellow puff of toxic smoke was an inadvertent chemical mix.