Perdue announces water conservation contest for grade-schoolers
A press release from the Governors office today unveiled a contest for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders to develop a water conservation plan for their community. The contest winner will receive $2000 to implement the plan in their area. You can view the full PDF of the announcement here.
While I think that encouraging kids to think more about water conservation is a good thing, Perdue really needs to start doing things that will make a real difference now. So far this week we’ve had this and the controversial prayer vigil. That’s about it. Where’s a real plan? I’d like to see the governor develop and share two things:
1 - A plan to conserve water and/or get more water to the area to prevent disaster. “Pray for rain” has been his best plan so far.
2 - In the event that we run out of water, develop a plan to deal with the aftermath, similar to how Lawrenceville already has.
Contests like this are cute, but time is running out.
November 14th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Hey, remember that the last time this guy developed a plan on his own we had all the schools in the state shut down for two days to save gas.
What I’d like to see him do is hold a conference on the problem and invite world class experts to attend. Let the people that know what they are talking about put a plan together. Of course, this should have been done at least several months ago, but I guess better late than never.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Unbelievable. Look for the global warming version of this in about 20 years(?).
November 14th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Why would this grown man, our governor, decide its a good idea to turn to children for a problem adults created??? Why burden the children and possibly alarm them over something they have ZERO control over. Hey Sonny, don’t frighten the kids, Halloween was last month. Can someone beam me up? Or better yet, someone beam Sonny up to the mothership.
Im disgusted by the lack of creativity, leadership, and drive for solutions from this man. You can’t conserve your way out of this predicament!
And as for the Sonny Rain Dance, it would have to rain for 40 days and 40 nights to re-fill the lake. At that point he will have a vigil on the steps of the Capitol to pray for an Ark…..
November 14th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Pitiful. Might as well offer college students a $50k prize to develop a plan most likely to end the genocide in Sudan. It’s not that they couldn’t do it, it’s that you’re not looking for a solution, you’re looking for a pageant, the recommendations to which you will say “yes dear, that would be nice.”
Why in the world aren’t you folks working on drought mitigation professionally, maturely, and in a manner that works?
1) top up your tanks (emptying evaporation-prone reservoirs), build new ones, and work out emergency drought plans - involving the lowest baseline, the amount of water needed to survive.
2) do the usage restrictions that you have in place now - lawn-watering bans, et cetera. Keep them in place until your reservoirs are full - noone needs a goddamn lawn or swimming pool for their survival.
3) ESSENTIAL: Raise the price of water temporarily. Your idiot-run utilities are charging you 1.5 cents per gallon, right up until the stuff runs out. In a scarcity, you raise the prices to conserve a resource. For residential properties, at least, set a minimum usage amount that’s tax-free (2000 gallons/month, say), and add a tax of 10 cents per gallon above that, to be extended every 60 days. Put the money into conservation measures like those above.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Reword: I support it from an educational perspective (If it was a principal instead of a governor, I might actually praise it), but this is despicable.
“The plan has to cost less than $2000 to be considered…” and when the brightest students conclude that you can’t replace something as essential as water for a large metropolitan area on $2000? Well, they fail the contest.
It cost far more than $2000 to put out the press release, cart the governor to the winning school, call a press conference, et cetera.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
By the way, NWS says you’ll be getting 0.39″ of rain this week.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Thanks for the news Chris. Unfortunately, our evaporation rate will be 0.87″ over the same time period.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Have ya’ll ever thought that Sonny is just simply not smarter than a fifth grader???
All of this is a grave reflection of the sad leadership the citizens of this country continue to choose year after year after year.
Our Grandparents told us to expect a quality of life better than theirs, generation after generation. So, we did. We believed it like a fairy tale. Now bridges collapse, buildings are leveled by terrorists or mother nature, the homeless remain without a safe harbor, etc, etc because we wasted our capital on a fairy tale lifestyle built upon a perspective three generations old fueled by consumption. Nobody seemed to remember that lifestyles and infrastructure require MAINTENANCE and careful watching; conservation. Democracies require ardent discussion and involvement. Half of our citizens don’t even care enough to vote. Those that do make decisions on “faith” and “values” rather than choosing intelligent leaders equipped with leadership skills and philosophical considerations related to the future of this country.
We reap what we have sown.
We’re trying to bring awareness at our site to the issues Atlanta is soon to face. If it hits ya’ll, it’s bound eventually to hit us over here in Charleston. We totally ditched our car to fight global warming. We had to do something, especially when watching situations like yours.
We agree with every one of your posts that asks people to STEP UP. This is no time for cowardess. The people of this country must take back the responsibility and power. Our leaders certainly won’t.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
I live in Houston, and I am wondering if there are plans to institute an area-wide evacuation from Atlanta and many areas and where the citizens would go in something like this. You cannot truck in enough water, unless you ban showers, water at the dinner table unless you buy it, and limiting laundry usage to once a month, anything where water is not used to keep something alive.
Good luck!
November 14th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Stephanie: Water priced high enough that externalities are taken into account (such as the danger of running out)… does all that on its own. A pure, libertarian free market would raise the price on its own (though i’m not a fan of that for other reasons), but we have a government that controls things… So you have to convince the government that practically giving water away(which might be appropriate in a monsoon) and praying for more to fall from the sky is not appropriate in a historical drought. It makes more sense to charge people a significant enough amount that they notice it - and then the people cut back on their own consumption voluntarily (restaurants stop offering free water, laundry slows down, lawns stop being watered).
This is applicable whenever any resource runs out. And water in Atlanta isn’t anything like the worst case. US oil imports are in a much more catastrophically perched level, the desert American West is practically mining their water(and the aquifers retreat hundreds of feet deeper every year), and nations without the starting point of our extravagant wealth, when faced with similar situations, blend into anarchy, strife, and genocide.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Stephanie, no, there are no plans (that are known) for an evacuation. Therefore, it will be chaos and everyone for themselves. This will be Katrina II without the hurricane as it relates to dislocation of families and business. I am beginning to think “someone” wants this tragedy to occur, otherwise they would be planning. Our government only responds if its a CRISIS on any issue, therefore we are going to one. Also, more money flows to help a crisis and more people will give up their freedoms in a crisis which we have been doing since 911. It’s pathetic and the average Georgian will end up giving away some element of control of their life along with money (higher costs/taxes) to deal with the crisis - bank on it.
Thanks for caring, Stephanie. I do remember the clogged highway video of Houston when it tried to evac during a hurricane scare - it will be worse here since it will be a long duration event. Within 4 days a hurricane threat is no longer there - our “hurricane” will last for months and most likely years. My real fear is FEMA coming in and “taking over”…..
November 14th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Wow, who would have thought -this- article would inflame such passions?
This does no harm, unless nobody does anything while they wait for the results of this little contest. Hopefully that won’t be the case.
My personal prediction? Any plan will be considered in a plodding way until such time that this crisis becomes much, much more urgent. It’s blogs like this one that might eventually up the urgency, hopefully before actual water rationing is implemented in a city of five million.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
rkolter makes a good point - why is THIS article such a big deal.
As I said in the initial post, I don’t have a problem with Sonny doing this — educating the kids about water conservation is a GOOD thing. My only problem is that he’s spending time doing this but he’s not doing anything else.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Because its juvenile, mickey. It insults serious adults who understand what’s happening. Let parents teach their children about conservation - believe me, every family will get a chance to do so in the next few months. The schools should focus on reading, writing, science and math - period. Sonny should stay out of political photo ops with kids and quit the “gimmick” solutions and get to work on the problem. He should be impeached if this gets out of hand and causes serious harm to GA.
Besides, the people who need to learn about conservation are ADULTS.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Rkolter -
“Pray for rain on the steps of city hall” is a down-and-out insult to those of us who are capable of rational thought.
The idea that the governor expects to gain political points by using elementary schools to do his pointless photo-ops, when he already shows such a lack of solutions, is an outrage to same.
Disaster relief and guidance (like: What you are to do if the rains don’t come) has been the first responsibility of government (ahead of even defence) since we first started farming. And if there’s any chance to wake up the nation, the failure to plan for disasters is one of the top issues we have. Atlanta today is, like I said, nothing compared to what Vegas or LA or Phoenix will go through if we don’t broaden our planning horizons beyond 2-4 years.
————
Since the Katrina comparison (while wildly, insultingly different in intensity) has been brought up, I’ll lay it out like this:
If Governor Mary Landrieu had spent the fourth day after Katrina holding a pray-in on the steps of the Capitol for the floodwaters to drain into the ocean, knowing that Lake New Orleans would return to sealevel (still entirely unsatisfactory) within a week.
And then, five days in, offered $10k to the city as a prize if they created a contest for their third-graders to come up with a plan to rebuild the levees.
What would the expected reaction be?
——–
We have allowed a rotten mixture of ideologies to seep into our leadership - one which says that having a public official evangelizing in an emergency is entirely appropriate. One which says that government inherently can’t work - so why try any harder in public office than is necessary to enrich yourself and all of your friends. One which thinks that PR and campaign contributions are the only things necessary to keep you in power and doing so. One which says publicly that it’s immune to checks and balances, that the constitution is a just a piece of paper, and that they’re creating their own universe while the rest of us reality-based thinkers will be left to simply study their actions.
This is merely a continuation of the pattern.
We need to return to a government of rationality which believes in serving its citizens, in measures that actually work to solve crises (rather than merely being able to be described as “taking measures). We need to create a new political center out of an even mix of the positions of John Edwards, Al Gore, Dennis Kucinich, and Ron Paul. Or rather, we need to get it recognised by the establishment as the political center, since it’s where surveys on isolated issues (rather than “do you consider yourself a conservative”) place the majority of the public right now, when Bill O’Reilly isn’t convincing them otherwise.
And we need to do it before a crisis emerges which threatens our existence - as peak oil combined with the effects of currency failure looks to be doing within a decade. Turn it in late and we get a failing grade: Mass fatalities. Or a totalitarian fascist government. Or both.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Chris, I like your Landrieu scenario but please read what I wrote. It’s not “wild” or “insultingly different” in the way I phrased it:
“This will be Katrina II without the hurricane as it relates to dislocation of families and business.”
If faucets run dry, we will exactly have that situation of disclocated people leaving the state in search of everything from water/housing with running water to schools for kids (schools won’t be open). Disclocated businesses trying to find or chase their workforce and customers will leave since commerce won’t be possible or severely constrained. And, just as in Katrina, the govt will fail miserably and it will be everyone for themselves at this rate.
Think through the chain of possible events and you will see why I termed it as I did and how it could happen - but only if faucets truly run dry. Mass exodus from the area and potential chaos. If we plan for the worst, we should be OK with whatever happens.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Chris, great post, by the way - meant to say that above.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Dead fields, closed businesses, and a few less showers do not compare with drowned families, and even when such a comparison is apt (and regardless of your/my intent), whenever I fail to put footnotes in my arguments that such things are not literally equal tragedies(thinking it obvious), somebody interprets it that way and I regret it.
Trucking in enough water to survive on for a few months and compensating farmers for a failed crop or two is much, much easier than trucking out a major metropolitan area for a few years.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Chris -
Many (although admittedly not all) fourth and fifth graders are at the same time both bright enough to realize that there is something bad going on, and yet not quite smart enough to realize that they are being humored. There is no harm in offering young students a way to make them think that they are helping out, or to get them to think about conservation.
Given the ones who will take this seriously are the ones who probably have at least a basic understanding of what’s going on, and who might in the next decade be somewhere else that has a big drought going on, I figure what the heck.
It’s really doing no harm. Again, so long as this is just a thing to do for the kids, and not actually the sum of all the effort being made to find new ways to conserve.
This just isn’t an issue that needs to be such a rallying point.
November 15th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Back when Sonny was up for reelection, he talked about his “Sonny Do” list and asked us what we would like to see on that list. Well, it turns out that this list is really more of a “Sonny Do Nothing” I do not think that it’s unreasonable for the state government which he runs to put together a comprehensive plan of action that would not only take steps to help out now, but plan for future droughts. Rather than looking to school kids for ideas on conservation I would suggest that he look to other areas that are facing similar situations and how they are dealing with the problem. For example, the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australis is in a prolonged drought and facing the same possibilities that we are. Under the guidance of Victorian State Government, the Melbourne Water and the three retail water companies have developed a Drought Response Plan.
The plan co-ordinates management of the water supply system to minimize drought impacts, such as restrictions and other actions, which can affect water users and the environment.
In June 2007, the Victorian State Government announced $4.9 billion of projects to secure Melbourne and Victoria’s water supplies for the long term. These include:
* A 150 billion litre desalination plant to provide water for Melbourne, Geelong, Westernport and Wonthaggi;
* A major irrigation upgrade in the Food Bowl in Northern Victoria to deliver water savings to be shared equally between irrigators, the environment, and Melbourne; and
* A major expansion of the Victorian Water Grid with pipelines to connect Melbourne’s water system with the desalination plant and Northern irrigation upgrades, connect Geelong to Melbourne’s supplies, and connect Hamilton to the Grampians Wimmera Mallee System.
These projects will deliver a 50 per cent boost to Melbourne’s water supply within five years and allow water to be moved where it’s needed most.
They will increase Victoria’s total supply by 375 billion litres each year, with Melbourne receiving 75 billion litres in 2010 and a further 150 billion by the end of 2011.
The point is that they are at least being proactive and taking steps to deal with the problem head on. Something that I see very little indication of here.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:29 am
It’s really doing no harm.
The time for projects which ‘really do no harm’ was months ago. Now, projects which ‘do no harm’ simply take attention away from projects which do some good. Nero playing the fiddle didn’t make Rome burn faster, but then again, it didn’t exactly help.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Article today, the govt knows of “catastrophic” water shortages in 36 states in the next 5 years. But, no planning is occurring - back to my previous point, elected officials want the crisis so they can campaign on it and take more of our money and civil liberties, period. Its sick.
“The U.S. Government Accountability Office warns that the combination of rain shortage, rising temperatures, urban sprawl, and population growth will cause at least 36 states to experience catastrophic water shortages within the next five years.”
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=4430.2688.0.0