Code Red smog alert issued for metro Atlanta area

[RamblingRose]

State officials have issued a "Code Red" smog alert for today, as Atlanta's air quality is expected to be "unhealthy" for the third consecutive day.

The state Environmental Protection Division issued "Code Orange" alerts, meaning "unhealthy air for sensitive groups," for Monday and Tuesday, but the air quality index actually climbed into the Code Red range both days. Monday was the first time this year the alert hit the red stage.


http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/0705/27smogalert.html

[Burried News]

1. The Atlanta tree canopy has essentially been removed over

a huge area. Articles 10 years ago documented a 6 degree average temperature rise since the 1940's. Atlanta Journal Constitution ran a week of articles - didn't seem to do much good - the developers rule as they do in Charlotte NC and too many other places to mention.
And of course here in the Sunshine states I have never seen any solar panels as I do in Vermont. (Vermont Yeaaahh - Dean and Zinni for Pesident in 2008)

[BooScout]

8. Atlanta is essentially a Concrete basin.....

And when we don't get rain and high temps and the trees are going......we get the worse combination possible.

[Modem Butterfly]

9. I was absolutely amazed at the flooding caused by Dennis

We've certainly had worse storms for longer periods of time. I think all the development is catching up to us.

[RebelOne]

26. Had a lot of flooding from Dennis up in Woodstock

Luckily, my house is on high ground. But there is a field down below my house where I take my dogs for a walk. Well, the day after Dennis I went down there and the field had turned into a lake.

[RamblingRose]

2. White suburbia love their SUV's and won't support public transit

[BooScout]

7. Obviously you don't know Atlanta as well as you think.....

Atlanta is just as much Black Suburbia as it is White Suburbia. You throwing the race card into a Code red Smog alert is patently uncalled for. :eyes:

[ulysses]

11. there are certainly more African Americans in the 'burbs now

but race most assuredly had a lot to do with why MARTA doesn't extend any farther than it does.

[Modem Butterfly]

13. At least it does in Cobb County!

Though to be fair, it's just about 50/50 whether the big honking SUV in front of you is being driven by a white person or not. Georgia had very low gas prices for years, and still does relative to the rest of the country, so Georgians of all races and genders seem to embrace them with open arms.

[ulysses]

21. very true.

All my kids want an Escalade - the pimpmobile. :eyes:

[Modem Butterfly]

22. With the spinning rims, right?

One of my co-workers is a 45 year old man, a professional person with a college degree, a family and a big old mortgage. He spent his tax refund on spinning rims. We all thought he was nuts, and when his wife saw them she was mad enough to spit nails.

Mindless consumption knows no racial boundries.

[ulysses]

23. oh yes.

I have to say that the appeal of the spinning rims completely escapes me, but what do I know? :shrug:

Mindless consumption knows no racial boundries.

Yup.

[RebelOne]

25. I live in Woodstock and work in Marietta

On the roads in Cherokee and Cobb counties, I think there are more SUVs and pick-up trucks than cars.

[RamblingRose]

27. "Race has always mattered"

For a growing Atlanta 'race has always mattered'

By Douglas S. Wood
CNN Interactive

(CNN) - At breakneck speed, Atlanta's growth is expanding outward, unhindered by geographical barriers and stoked by the region's pro-business attitude. But while Atlanta has sold itself as "the city too busy to hate," it's no accident that the region's northside is mostly white.

The majority of Atlanta's African-American population is concentrated into two counties while counties surrounding the central city are overwhelmingly white. Those growth patterns were shaped by being part of the once-segregated South.

"If you look at the development of Atlanta and the Atlanta metro area, race has always mattered. Race was an integral part of the white flight from the city to the suburbs," said Robert Bullard, a professor of sociology at Clark Atlanta University and head of the Environmental Justice Resource Center there.

...


Traffic, race and public transit

But while the topic of how race and schools combine to influence Atlanta's development dilemma, may be difficult to discuss, the intersection of public transportation and race in Atlanta's growth problems may be even more controversial.

The Atlanta area is currently grappling with the negative effects of its growth and nowhere is that more apparent than the area's clogged freeways, cited as having has the fourth-worst traffic in the nation by the Texas Transportation Institute. Three of its interstate highway interchanges were rated as some of the worst bottlenecks in the nation by the American Highway Users Alliance.

But public transit offers limited relief to the congestion because only three counties offer mass transit in a metropolitan area that includes 20 counties, according to the Census Bureau's definition.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is the region's primary transit system but it serves only Dekalb and Fulton counties because voters in those counties in 1971 approved a one-cent sales tax devoted to MARTA. Clayton, Cobb and Gwinnett counties rejected it, and Gwinnett, one of the nation's fastest growing counties in the 1980s, rejected MARTA again in 1990. Both votes were seen by many observers as being racially tinged.

"Race was the overriding factor as to why those counties turned it down, Bullard said.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/democracy/sprawl/stories/sprawl.race/

I believe those 2 counties have MARTA

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. That's lovely...

And of course the joggers will be out on Peachtree Street today anyway.

[Modem Butterfly]

5. Heh. It's almost as bad as smoking a pack of cigarettes!

Be sure to breathe nice and deep there, guys.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. Two packs, on a "red alert" day. :)

But jogging is healthy, right?

Surprised we don't see people here wearing filtration masks like you see in Tokyo....

[Modem Butterfly]

10. People please, at least use a treadmill at the gym!

I think the folks who are outside on days like today are the real hard-core obsessives. When I get home in the afternoons, the first thing I do is take our dogs outside for a short walk. On days like today, I take them outside just long enough to piddle. Even that short amount makes my eyes water and my throat burn, I can't imagine how it makes them feel.

[Modem Butterfly]

4. I'm surprised it took this long to hit red

Usually we get a couple of red days in May and June. The rain was a huge factor in keeping the air less chunky earlier in the summer.

[Spider Jerusalem]

14. No purple yet, though, at least.

Although I'm sure we'll get at least one before August is over.

[LizW]

12. Orange yesterday in Birmingham, I'd hate to see red

It's the worst summer haze I've ever seen. The sun was just a red ball at sunrise and sunset.

And the humidity? Jeez. I took the trash out last night at nine and moisture condensed on my skin the instant I walked out of the cool house.

[MsTryska]

15. Just want y'all to know.....

that I and the people i work with are doing our damnedest to change things around here.



we've got great ideas - but it's a tough sell when you don't have as much political support as you need in the face of developers and such.

[anarch]

16. heard on dc news radio this morning:

"have you noticed we haven't had too many 'code red' days this year? Well, it's not because the air is any cleaner -- it's because they changed the criteria for 'code red'."


nice, huh?

[Brewman_Jax]

17. The joggers I know

will be out at lunch, as usual. But their runs are short, only 4-6 miles.

[Modem Butterfly]

18. How can they fit that in over lunch?

It always amazes me to see folks jogging on their lunch hours, because they have to change clothes, run, shower, change clothes again, and be back at their desks within an hour or so (I'm sure some folks have more leeway than others at lunch) and be ready to work another four or five hours...

[Brewman_Jax]

19. The health club

is on my office building's 1st floor, and these guys run fast. They've been running for the past 25 or so years and they can easily maintain 6.5-7 min/mile. During a race, they can go 5.5-6 min/mile.

They are professionals, don't try this at home.

[Modem Butterfly]

20. Heh. The only time I run is when I'm being chased!

Either that, or the ice cream man is speeding again!

:evilgrin:

[Brewman_Jax]

24. Good point

:rofl: