Weekly Links: This week, facing pressure, MARTA adds more light rail for the Beltline while cutting funding for Emory rail. Also, this month is on pace to be the hottest September on record in Atlanta. Plus, Georgia finally got its very own model solar zoning ordinance!
This week, Gwinnett County’s approval of rail expansion comes in the wake of a recent report highlighting the efforts of a conservative lobbying group to kill local transit projects throughout the country. This is reminiscent of General Motors’ effort decades ago to kill trolley ridership in favor of cars. Plus, we’ve introduced a new chart to put Atlanta’s temperatures into a historical context.
This week, Paul Newman discusses why New York City’s zoning changes in the 1980’s will create more shadows and ruin neighborhoods, our new tool that puts Atlanta’s weather into a historical context, and the US Supreme Court strikes a major blow to employees and consumers.
The 2017 hurricane season was one of the most intense and unpredictable on record. The 2018 season officially begins on June 1, only a couple months after the release of a proposal to cut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget by nearly 25 percent.
An abundance of asphalt and concrete increases air temperatures locally, which can exacerbate the effects of heat waves and generally cause unpleasant conditions. This is known as the urban heat island effect and it can be true for both sprawled suburbs and dense cities. Savannah’s beautiful green spaces offer a prime example of how the benefits of dense development can be achieved while mitigating or eliminating the urban heat island effect.
This week: NASA’s visualization of smoke and dust moving thousands of miles through the atmosphere, why Atlanta’s weather is relatively predictable, some Airbnb regulations now require routine building inspections, and laser imagery showing the Mayans had raised highways.
While Atlanta is experiencing a wetter-than-average year, northern Georgia is experiencing severe to extreme drought conditions. This is just one example of how conditions in one part of the state may not be indicative of the larger local or regional climate. The new SustainAtlanta Weather+Climate page is dedicated to giving readers a better understanding of how the day-to-day weather fits into the overall regional climate picture.
The first half of 2017 was far and away the hottest such time period of any year in 123 years of record keeping in the Southeast. Don’t let a lack of heat waves or a senator with a snowball deflect from the overwhelming evidence of a global and regional warming trend.
Can We Drop the Media Narrative of Cities Being in Decline?
People Should Just Give Up on North America
A Notorious Asylum’s Haunting Encounter With a Strange Trespassing Law
Georgia’s Conservation Measures Prove Pivotal in the Water Wars
It’s Likely Earth’s Six Warmest Years on Record Are the Last Six Years
Remembering the Time Andrew Jackson Decided to Ignore the Supreme Court In the Name of Georgia’s Right to Cherokee Land
The Fictional Alcohol Law That’s Destroying Lives
The Dawson Forest Site: Atlanta's Intriguing Former Nuclear Aircraft Site Turned Nature Conservancy
You Don’t Own That Parking Spot in Front of Your House
Booting is Confusing, Unfair, and Counterproductive
