Oke Honor, United Over Data Centers

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Good morning! We take a look today at a long-awaited international honor bestowed on the Okefenokee over the weekend. Then we examine how opposition to data centers, like the one proposed for Effingham County, can be a unifying force. Finally, we meet a Black woman who always knew she belonged in the environmental movement, even when others doubted it.

Questions, tips or concerns? Send me a note at mary.landers@thecurrentga.org

NEWS: ENVIRONMENT

Georgia Rivers Executive Director Rena Ann Peck and Muscogee Nation representative Tracie Revis met the Chair of 48th session of the World Heritage Committee, Lee Byong Hyun, and presented him with a small alligator to pose with. Courtesy Georgia Rivers

High honor for Okefenokee

More than 40 years after it was first identified as a potential UNESCO W0rld Heritage Site, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge was officially added to the list on Saturday. At the ceremony in South Korea, a representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature noted the Okefenokee “is a globally important wetland complex with an exceptional interaction of water, fire and peat supporting diverse, ongoing ecological processes and high levels of biodiversity.” He also noted the Okefenokee is the “world’s largest freshwater peatland in the subtropical zone.” The thick layer of peat under the Okefenokee is important for carbon storage, providing a hedge against climate change.

The designation further elevates the refuge as a global destination for conservation, scientific research, outdoor recreation, and environmental education. While advocates celebrated the honor, the first for a national wildlife refuge, some residents of the conservative counties around the swamp fear it could encourage foreign interference in the management of the Okefenokee and the surrounding land, as The Current GA‘s Mary Landers reports.

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FEATURE: GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

300 people gather outside the Effingham College & Career Academy to protest the proposed OpenAI data center in Rincon on July 23, 2026. The $20 billion project was announced Wednesday, surprising many local residents. Credit: Justin Taylor/The Current GA/CatchLight/Report for America

Bonding over data centers

Across Georgia — including in Effingham County after last week’s announcement of a proposed Open AI data center there — growing concerns over data center developments are fostering unexpected political unity among residents, as GPB’s Grant Blankenship reports. Local activists and party leaders in areas including Albany, Mitchell, and Jasper counties are setting aside partisan identities to address potential impacts on water, land, and energy resources. This cross-party cooperation aims to challenge rapid infrastructure changes and protect communal interests against perceived corporate encroachment.

The Current GA is covering data centers with fact-based reporting to empower residents to become more civically engaged. Read our collection of data center stories here.

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FEATURE: ENVIRONMENT

Environmental sociologist Dorceta Taylor has dedicated her career to reframing and expanding representation in the environmental justice movement. Credit: Courtesy of Dorceta Taylor

Environmental Justice encyclopedia

Dorceta Taylor, a Yale professor and environmental sociologist, recently released the SAGE Encyclopedia of Environmental Justice, the first comprehensive global text of its kind. In 360 entries, the landmark project documents the histories and contributions of people of color within the movement, as Jenae Barnes of The 19th* reports.

One of the earliest pioneers in the field, Taylor blazed a trail of firsts, including as the first Black woman to earn a doctoral degree from the Yale School of Environment in 1991. She also helped to create one of the first environmental justice programs in the country as a professor at the University of Michigan in the 1990s.

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Also noted

A wildfire on Wassaw Island made for smoky conditions around Savannah earlier this week. The Georgia Forestry Commission said lightning caused the fire at the national wildlife refuge. Also lightning-caused was a wildfire in Bulloch County that was 90% contained Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced Tuesday the agency is investing $486.7 million through the Electric Infrastructure Loan Program to strengthen electric reliability and help maintain affordable power for communities throughout Georgia with wide-ranging system improvements. Tucker-based electric membership cooperative Oglethorpe Power will use loan funds for upgrades and maintenance at 14 sites it owns or co-owns. Oglethorpe owns and operates the Bobby C. Smith Jr. Energy Facility in Rincon.

America’s Boating Club Golden Isles will present “Georgia’s Amazing Tides: Why Our Coast Works the Way It Does” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13, at the University of Georgia Marine Extension, 715 Bay St., Brunswick. Cynthia Lamb will explain why Georgia experiences some of the largest tides on the East Coast and how they affect boating, fishing, navigation, and the coastal environment. Attendees will also learn how to read tide tables and navigate local waters safely. Admission is $20 for members and $40 for non-members. Advance registration is encouraged. For information and to register, visit GISPS.org.

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Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp joins UNESCO’s World Heritage List

Several sites, including the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, a Thai Buddhist temple, and South Korean tidal flats, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List during a committee meeting in Busan on Saturday, July 25, 2026.

The Okefenokee is about to be honored, but some locals aren’t celebrating

Local leaders in Ware and Charlton counties oppose World Heritage Site status for the Okefenokee, leaning into America First values.

In partisan times, are data centers the one thing to unite people?

In various Georgia communities, residents and political leaders from opposing parties are forming unexpected alliances to address concerns regarding potential data center developments and their impacts on natural resources.

Meet the woman behind the world’s first environmental justice encyclopedia

Dorceta Taylor, a pioneering environmental sociologist at Yale, has released the SAGE Encyclopedia of Environmental Justice, a landmark three-volume resource documenting the global history and struggles of communities of color in the environmental movement.