Learning to adapt in a pandemic –now and in the future

When I retired from Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, nearly six years ago, I began teaching a water resources class every fall to graduate students in the School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech, where I earned my master’s forty years ago. That degree helped launch my career in water policy, culminating in a satisfying, twenty-year position leading the only nonprofit advocacy organization focused solely on protecting the Chattahoochee River.

Above The Water Line

One of my goals has been to pass on some of the “realworld” lessons that I learned over the years to my planning and engineering students, hoping these lessons may prove useful. For at least some of the fiftyplus students I have taught, I believe that this has been the case. In truth, I have gotten as much, if not more, in return, as the students asked tough questions about the changing environmental issues that face our communities and planet. They have challenged me to think more deeply and try to communicate more clearly; their enthusiasm and desire to make the world a better place has never failed to sustain me, as I worked to make my lectures as interactive and interesting as possible.

By Sally Bethea

Instead of teaching a group of ten or so students in a comfortable room with windows along one entire wall and state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, I will have to somehow engage these bright young people through the screen on my home computer, at least for the foreseeable future. My most successful classes, to date, have been those in which the students’ energy and my responses created a feed-back loop of sorts, keeping all of us focused on a particular topic. How will I be able to do this effectively, when we must communicate at a distance?

How will I read non-verbal cues from the students that, in the past, have helped guide my lectures and our discussions?

Are there best practices of virtual teaching to help me grab and keep the attention of distracted students? As the Covid-19 pandemic is teaching us, the ability to adapt is critical: embracing new ways of achieving goals, both personally and professionally.

working conditions, along with life’s other uncertainties. I’ve been thinking a lot about my younger son, Robert, who teaches English at a large school in San Diego; I’m confident that his creativity, resourcefulness and ability to deal with changing circumstances will help him get through these difficult times. But I still worry about both of us – and all teachers.

Changing circumstances. Adaptation. Do we demand that our lives and activities remain as close to “normal” (whatever that is) as possible, defiantly refusing to acknowledge the change that is obviously taking place around us? Some predict that future pandemics will be more frequent and spread more rapidly, unless we stop the widespread destruction of our environment: rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of agriculture, intensive farming, mining, the exploitation of wild species and more. The current pandemic is not likely a one-off.

“iceberg islands.” The melting was caused by hotter air above and warmer water below, according to a glaciologist who said, “Without a doubt, it’s climate change.”

Last year, fifteen extreme weather disasters caused at least a billion dollars in damage each and seven of them cost much more: California wildfires ($25 billion), Typhoon Hagibis in Japan ($15 billion), and flooding in the American Midwest ($12.5 billion) – all events exacerbated by climate change, according to scientists.

The fall of 2020 will be very different.

With one small group of students to co-teach a new (to me) environmental management class this fall, I know that my challenges will be insignificant compared to those facing teachers in schools across the country who must manage many more classes and students: teaching and grappling with issues related to the pandemic, including unsafe

Do we find ways to thrive, not just survive, by embracing reliable scientific knowledge, by electing and supporting leaders unafraid of making hard decisions, and by investing as heavily as necessary in pandemic mitigation and adaptation? This type of quandary has, of course, been taking place on the planetary level for decades with climate change. The majority of the people in our country are finally demanding that climate action be taken now. Will Big Oil and Wall Street listen and voluntarily adapt to change their ways – or find themselves forced to alter their business-as-usual approach?

At the end of July, Canada’s last intact ice shelf – the 4,000-year-old Milne Ice Shelf – collapsed, breaking into huge

In 2018, Georgia Tech launched its Global Change Program, designed to coordinate and grow education and research activities that create positive change: solutions and economic opportunities at the intersection of global change, climate change and energy. Planning and engineering students at the university are readying themselves with information and strategies to help communities grapple with the impacts of climate change that are already observed – and those that will come.

The students will need all the tools in the proverbial toolbox to help communities thrive and embrace changing circumstances, be they related to pandemics, global warming or other issues. My hope is to inspire them to seek new ways to build their toolboxes – to be resilient and resourceful in the face of uncomfortable and, in many cases, frightening change.

To do that, I will first need to overcome my own trepidation about online teaching. Instead of complaining about how hard and different it will be, I’ve decided to learn about any creative approaches that will make remote learning as meaningful and satisfying as possible for all participants. I am learning to adapt.

►Keep America Beautiful and The Coca-Cola Foundation has placed 25 new recycling bins at Piedmont Park as part of the Coca-Cola Public Spaces Recycling Bin Grant Program. “As Atlanta’s crown jewel, it is vital for Piedmont Park to set a high standard in green efforts such as recycling. Therefore, we are proud and grateful to receive recycling bins from Keep America Beautiful and The Coca Cola Foundation,” says Mark Banta, President and CEO of the Piedmont Park Conservancy. “The new bins are an integral part of our continuous mission to maintain the Park’s pristine nature.”

Ten organizations have joined forces with national recreation retailer REI for the Hikes for Health Challenge encouraging the public to hike, walk, or jog 10 trails in 10 greenspaces over the next 10 months. Organizations participating in the challenge include Blue Heron Nature Preserve, Chastain Park Conservancy, Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy, Chattahoochee Nature Center, Dunwoody Nature Center, Friends of Lost Corner, Livable Buckhead, Parks Cobb County, Peachtree Creek

Greenway, and Sandy Springs Conservancy. Participants are encouraged to use #HikesForHealthREI in social media postings after walking, jogging, or hiking a trail from each greenspace organization. For more details, visit hikesforhealthchallenge. splashthat.com.

The Atlanta Audubon Society Board of Directors recently voted to change the name of Atlanta Audubon Society to Georgia Audubon. Along with the new name comes a new statewide focus and partnerships with other Audubon chapters across Georgia, scaling up successful programs, and engaging with more diverse communities. “With an ever-growing list of conservation threats facing Georgia birds and their habitats, there is a clear need for habitat restoration and resilience, education, and community engagement on a statewide level,” says Executive Director Jared Teutsch. “As Georgia Audubon, we will seek to adopt a broader focus to connect birds and people across the state.” Established in 1926 as the Atlanta Bird Club, the organization later voted to become an independent chapter of National Audubon Society and was granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 1973. Since hiring its first part-time staff person in 2006, the organization has grown to include eight full-time and one part-time staff positions at its headquarters at the Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Buckhead.

►Georgia Power and MARTA have partnered to be electric car charging stations at local transit stations. The first phase of the partnership included the implementation of 60 EV charges at nine MARTA locations for a connected load of 426 kilowatts (kW). Further phases will include a second wave of EV charging at MARTA locations and the potential for fast chargers to support Lyft EV rideshare drivers at popular MARTA station destinations. MARTA, with Georgia Power’s assistance, also recently won a grant for six electric buses slated for deployment at the end of 2021.Learn more at GeorgiaPower.com/EV.

Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) has reached a settlement for litigation concerning an industrial facility along Burnt Fork Creek in Tucker. The A&R Ironworks facility’s violations were discovered as part of CRK’s Protecting

Streams and Communities from Industrial Pollution program. During a survey of industrial operations in the watershed, staff identified potential pollution issues at the facility, which fabricates structural and ornamental ironworks for commercial building projects. After CRK filed a lawsuit, A&R Ironworks substantially cleaned up and stabilized the property and has altered operations to eliminate almost all outdoor activities, storage, and stormwater exposure of industrial materials. Additionally, in agreeing to terms for settlement, CRK has secured $60,000 for supplemental environmental projects, paid directly to two entities in and around Burnt Fork Creek and the South Fork of Peachtree Creek, the larger Chattahoochee River tributary into which Burnt Fork Creek flows.