Drought
In a September 28th letter, the director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division announced a level four drought response across the northern third of Georgia due to the forecast of a dry, mild winter and low water levels at Lake Allatoona and Lake Lanier.
Like Hurricane Katrina or the California wildfires, this drought was a natural event transformed into a natural disaster by human folly. And while it's still hard to say whether global warming caused any particular drought or flood or fire, it's going to cause more of all of them. The drought has worsened in the past few months, especially in the northern counties of Georgia. Around Atlanta and the metro areas, there is an 18-inch rain deficit.
The drought has caused much more damage than just water loss. Jobs have been lost as well. According to a letter from the Urban Agriculture Council, over 80,000 workers are employed in the landscaping and horticulture business. Since May 2007, 13,800 employees have lost their job. This business generates around $8 billion to Georgia each year. Since May, there has been a 43 percent revenue reduction in this business. (Elrick, 2007).
Most people are praying for rain others are looking for other higher powers to fix the problems. Bottom line, wither its global warming or humans causing the problem, we need rain and lots of it fast, otherwise we are looking at a longer term situation that contrary to what the politicians are saying, won’t be fixed any time soon
Reference
Elrick, Crissie. (2007). Is there repair?. Stallion on line, V (), Retrieved November 5, 2008, from www.thestalliononline.com database
Governor asks for help (2007). Georgia Drought, (),. Retrieved November 4, 2008, from www.forestry.uga.edu database