Education and poverty linked in the South

More than half of students in Southern schools are from low-income families, which is creating a "crisis of the first order of magnitude" according to an Atlanta foundation.

"The [54] percentage in the 15-state Southern region rose slightly from previous years and is the nation's highest, ahead of the West at 47 percent and the Midwest and Northeast at 36 percent each, according to the Southern Education Foundation's report issued Tuesday."

• More: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | CBS News

Mercury lurks in SC waters

The (Charleston, SC) Post and Courier is in the middle of an interesting series on how mercury lurks in waters around the state. Bottom line: It's not healthy and is showing up in fish and people. Coal-fueled power plants aren't helping matters any.

"What's clear is that mercury taints fish in hundreds of miles of the state's rivers and streams. It's so bad in many areas that state health officials warn people to limit the amount of fish they eat, or eat none at all.

"Lonnie Carter, Santee Cooper's president and chief operating officer, said his company and the nation's power industry as a whole are not major contributors to the problem. He cited an EPA report that says the nation's electric power industry releases just 1 percent of the mercury pollution in world. 'A lot of people like to single us out as the problem. The facts don't support that,' Carter said. ...

"Environmental groups say it's a red herring to blame China and other industrial countries for the state's mercury contamination problems. Blan Holman, a lawyer for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said that 'at the end of the day, the Pee Dee plant will be a dirty facility.'"

• A look at mercury-contaminated rivers in SC and coal plants.
• Full news series.
  

South Must Sacrifice to Weather Drought

The Southeast is facing one of the most severe droughts in history. Areas extending from North Carolina to Alabama have been categorized as experiencing "exceptional" drought conditions - the most severe category of drought. Today, the New York Times outlines the problems accompanying the drought and the potential sacrifices the region will have to make if conditions do not change.

Leaders ranging from N.C. Governor Mike Easley to Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin have encouraged voluntary measures to limit water consumption. However, without cooperation from businesses and citizens, the region's leaders will be forced to institute mandatory restrictions.

The South is not accustomed to extreme drought and Southerners are not used to cutting water consumption. The rapid growth of the region has furthered the region's dependency on reservoirs and strained the now limited water supply.

In the Atlanta metropolitan area, which has more than four million people, worst-case analyses show that the city’s main source of water, Lake Lanier, could be drained dry in 90 to 121 days.

“I think there’s been an ostrich-head-in-the-sand syndrome that has been growing,” said Mark Crisp, an Atlanta-based consultant with the engineering firm C. H. Guernsey. “Because we seem to have been very, very slow in our actions to deal with an impending crisis. We’re in a stressful situation now,” Mr. Crisp said, “but come next spring, if we don’t have substantial rainfall this winter, these reservoirs are not going to refill.”

While the region has been slow to react to severe drought conditions, as informed citizens we can do our part to conserve and help prevent potential catastrophe.

Politics in the New South

Youth idealism, political ideology and hard-nosed campaigning form the backdrop of the article "God's Precinct Walkers" in the October issue of The American Prospect.

Adapted from the new book God's Harvard by journalist Hanna Rosin, the article profile a group of college students from Patrick Henry College in Virginia as they campaigned for GOP gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore in 2005. Despite the students' enthusiasm, conviction and hard work, their efforts fell short as their favored candidate ultimately lost the race. That loss, in turn, triggered confusion and exposed the student activists to the realities of politics in a modern Southern state.

Brack to KY: Stop burning so much coal

The Lexington (KY) Herald Leader Sunday published an op-ed by Better South President Andy Brack on crafting an energy policy that depended less on coal. An excerpt:

"There's a simple message Kentucky leaders should hear at the two-day Governor's Conference on the Environment this week: Stop burning so much coal.

"How? By conserving energy and exploring alternative forms of energy. Why? Because it will help consumers save money and improve the environment."

• Read full op-ed.
  

Brooks: Yes, we can conserve energy

Columnist Jeanne Brooks of The Greenville (SC) News highlights a major point made in the Center's Getting Greener book - - that Southern states need to try conserving energy instead of building more power plants. The payoff: a cleaner environment, less smog, more money in consumers' pockets.

"South Carolina consumed the fourth highest amount of electricity per person in the nation in 2003. We used more than Texas (No. 15), North Carolina (No. 16) and Georgia (No. 18). We used more than Florida (No. 27)!

We used so much electricity that although we pay one of the cheaper rates, the monthly bill for an average homeowner here was seventh highest in the country. Conservation can't help? We haven't really tried."

• Read full column.