Thanks to Joe Romm for the heads up on this remake of the John Denver classic.
Showing posts with label mountaintop removal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mountaintop removal. Show all posts
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Monday, 15 March 2010
Leveling Appalachia
Could this be the crime of the century? Please watch the video over at Environment 360
"During the last two decades, mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia has destroyed or severely damaged more than a million acres of forest and buried nearly 2,000 miles of streams. Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining, a video report produced by Yale Environment 360 in collaboration with MediaStorm, focuses on the environmental and social impacts of this practice and examines the long-term effects on the region’s forests and waterways.
At a time when the Obama administration is reviewing mining permit applications throughout West Virginia and three other states, this video offers a first-hand look at mountaintop removal and what is at stake for Appalachia’s environment and its people."
"During the last two decades, mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia has destroyed or severely damaged more than a million acres of forest and buried nearly 2,000 miles of streams. Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining, a video report produced by Yale Environment 360 in collaboration with MediaStorm, focuses on the environmental and social impacts of this practice and examines the long-term effects on the region’s forests and waterways.
At a time when the Obama administration is reviewing mining permit applications throughout West Virginia and three other states, this video offers a first-hand look at mountaintop removal and what is at stake for Appalachia’s environment and its people."
Friday, 12 March 2010
From The Hill -Poverty and tyranny central to immoral practice of mountain destruction, water and air poisoning
It still astounds me that this continues. I can't help but continue to remind us of this shameful behaviour. It is incumbent upon on us all to reduce our demand for electricity, without demand for the electricity we don't need the coal, at drastically reduced demand, renewables are far more feasible. The low hanging fruit is solar hot water, this can be DIY'ed very easily, see these two posts about a very simple system built from recycled materials.
Batch Heater #1
Batch Heater #2
Here is an article from Robert Kennedy Jr. about MTR over at the The Hill. Thanks to Climate Progress for the heads up.
Batch Heater #1
Batch Heater #2
Here is an article from Robert Kennedy Jr. about MTR over at the The Hill. Thanks to Climate Progress for the heads up.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Human Impact!
I'm constantly amazed when otherwise rational people seem to find it difficult to believe that human's are having a significant impact on the planet. Usually this takes the form of doubting that we could possibly be causing climate change. But no matter how amazing I find that, what follows is more amazing, the observed facts of that impact.
And here is the most amazing figure,
75% of all the ice free land mass on the planet has been modified by us!
As Dr. Iain Stewart,Professor of Geoscience Communication at the University of Plymouth, stated on his recent TV special How Earth Made Us, "We are now a geological force to rival the earth's natural forces".
In this clip he explores an amazing cave full of giant crystals which was, ironically, discovered by miners who drained the chamber of it's hot water.
Much of the following, including the inspiration and almost all of the bold text, is drawn from the series by Dr. Stewart.
We are capable, as a species of unleashing vast destructive power, and not just with weapons of war. We have turned our weapons upon the earth. Explosives are used to strip away whole mountain tops and destroy thousands of miles of streams in the Appalachians, open pit mines are now big enough to swallow whole cities.
As a species we move more earth and rock than all the forces of erosion combined.
In the 1930's 500,000 people were made homeless and 1,000,000 acres of farmland were devastated by the unsustainable farming practices that brought on the dustbowl.
25% of the world's farmland is now degraded.
But this beavering away at the earth pales in comparison to the forces we can mindlessly unleash from the earth itself, in Indonesia, exploration for natural gas has uncorked a boiling mud volcano that has displaced 30,000 people and destroyed 10,000 homes, enough mud flows from this engineering mistake to fill 50 olympic size swimming pools every single day, while the corporation responsible ducks and weaves with the assistance of the government.
"A new study has concluded that a volcanic eruption of mud in Indonesia's east Java was caused by human error.
An international team of scientists says there is no doubt that drilling at a nearby gas well weakened rock formations, triggering the crisis.
The company responsible for the drilling, Lapindo Brantas, claims the problem was caused by an earthquake."
In the eastern Pacific ocean a giant swirling mass of plastic debris, called the Garbage Patch, is now twice the size of Texas. This toxic waste is being found in every level of the food chain and no one is being held responsible because everyone is responsible, with our plastic water bottles, toothbrushes, razors, lighters, pens, and everything else made of plastic that we chuck away.
Not only are we using the oceans as a dumping ground but we have increased oceanic acidity by 30% since measurements have been taken.
We have so interfered with the natural water cycle of the planet that very few rivers reach the sea without major alteration, some, like the Colorado, never reach the sea at all most years.
There is now 5 times more fresh water stored behind dams than what flows freely in all the world's rivers. Far from beneficial, it is evident that our interference with the water cycle is making life worse for billions of people worldwide, and degrading vital wetland and riverine habitat.
In the final episode of his series Dr. Stewart detailed how in spite of being made by the earth over the last 50,000 years or so we have now turned the tables and are remaking the earth. He explains that we should have been deep in an ice age by now, which according to the geologic record should have started 7000 years ago. But around 11,000 years ago we invented agriculture, more specifically slash and burn agriculture. The added carbon dioxide overcame the forces of the relationship between the sun and earth which would have brought back the ice. And now the industrial revolution is vastly accelerating that process. CO2 and CO2 equivalent levels are higher now than at any time in the last 15 million years.
Our appetite for one resource outstrips all others both in consumption and in damage caused. We burn 1000 barrels of oil per second and the amount of oil we burn in a year took the planet 3 million years to make. When it comes to oil, our thirst for cheap abundant energy is leading us to "scrape the bottom of the barrel" - Dr. Iain Stewart. The Alberta Tar sands; the most expensive, most polluting source of energy on earth, producing 30% more greenhouse emissions than traditionally pumped oil, for every 5 barrels of oil produced it costs 1 barrel as opposed to traditional wells which deliver 25 barrels of oil for every barrel invested, the strip mining of which currently covers 50,000 sq kilometers. Most of the area mined was covered in carbon sequestering boreal forest. Most of this disastrous oil is burned in the vehicles of the United States.
And now to the most fragile of Earth's systems, the atmosphere. 55 million years ago there was a quick intense burst of global warming that remade the biosphere. To survive, plants and animals had to move toward the poles, those that could lived, those that couldn't died.
The overabundance of methane in the atmosphere brought about a warm period that lasted millions of years. The planet eventually compensated but only because the movement of the plates created the Himalayan range which altered the atmospheric and water cycles to such an extent that a long period of carbon sequestration took place bringing the greenhouse effect back into balance.
This period provides vital lessons for us today, read more about it at:
Global warming 55 million years ago caused migration to North America
Perhaps the most important lesson is this; the kind of changes that we ourselves are bringing about will take millions of years for the planet to sort out. Our civilization depends very much on the state of the planet we found ourselves in during the last 10,000 years. We have been assiduously destroying the balance the planet took millions of years to create and we will have to wait millions of years for the planet to repair our mistakes.
We are washing away the foundations of our existence on every front. It is high time we move from crashing about on the planet like a bull in china shop and find a way to go forward with intent. We must find systems of living based on sustainability. The systems and tools exist, it is up to each of us to adopt them.
And here is the most amazing figure,
75% of all the ice free land mass on the planet has been modified by us!
As Dr. Iain Stewart,Professor of Geoscience Communication at the University of Plymouth, stated on his recent TV special How Earth Made Us, "We are now a geological force to rival the earth's natural forces".
In this clip he explores an amazing cave full of giant crystals which was, ironically, discovered by miners who drained the chamber of it's hot water.
Much of the following, including the inspiration and almost all of the bold text, is drawn from the series by Dr. Stewart.
We are capable, as a species of unleashing vast destructive power, and not just with weapons of war. We have turned our weapons upon the earth. Explosives are used to strip away whole mountain tops and destroy thousands of miles of streams in the Appalachians, open pit mines are now big enough to swallow whole cities.
As a species we move more earth and rock than all the forces of erosion combined.
In the 1930's 500,000 people were made homeless and 1,000,000 acres of farmland were devastated by the unsustainable farming practices that brought on the dustbowl.
25% of the world's farmland is now degraded.
But this beavering away at the earth pales in comparison to the forces we can mindlessly unleash from the earth itself, in Indonesia, exploration for natural gas has uncorked a boiling mud volcano that has displaced 30,000 people and destroyed 10,000 homes, enough mud flows from this engineering mistake to fill 50 olympic size swimming pools every single day, while the corporation responsible ducks and weaves with the assistance of the government.
"A new study has concluded that a volcanic eruption of mud in Indonesia's east Java was caused by human error.
An international team of scientists says there is no doubt that drilling at a nearby gas well weakened rock formations, triggering the crisis.
The company responsible for the drilling, Lapindo Brantas, claims the problem was caused by an earthquake."
In the eastern Pacific ocean a giant swirling mass of plastic debris, called the Garbage Patch, is now twice the size of Texas. This toxic waste is being found in every level of the food chain and no one is being held responsible because everyone is responsible, with our plastic water bottles, toothbrushes, razors, lighters, pens, and everything else made of plastic that we chuck away.
Not only are we using the oceans as a dumping ground but we have increased oceanic acidity by 30% since measurements have been taken.
We have so interfered with the natural water cycle of the planet that very few rivers reach the sea without major alteration, some, like the Colorado, never reach the sea at all most years.
There is now 5 times more fresh water stored behind dams than what flows freely in all the world's rivers. Far from beneficial, it is evident that our interference with the water cycle is making life worse for billions of people worldwide, and degrading vital wetland and riverine habitat.
In the final episode of his series Dr. Stewart detailed how in spite of being made by the earth over the last 50,000 years or so we have now turned the tables and are remaking the earth. He explains that we should have been deep in an ice age by now, which according to the geologic record should have started 7000 years ago. But around 11,000 years ago we invented agriculture, more specifically slash and burn agriculture. The added carbon dioxide overcame the forces of the relationship between the sun and earth which would have brought back the ice. And now the industrial revolution is vastly accelerating that process. CO2 and CO2 equivalent levels are higher now than at any time in the last 15 million years.
Our appetite for one resource outstrips all others both in consumption and in damage caused. We burn 1000 barrels of oil per second and the amount of oil we burn in a year took the planet 3 million years to make. When it comes to oil, our thirst for cheap abundant energy is leading us to "scrape the bottom of the barrel" - Dr. Iain Stewart. The Alberta Tar sands; the most expensive, most polluting source of energy on earth, producing 30% more greenhouse emissions than traditionally pumped oil, for every 5 barrels of oil produced it costs 1 barrel as opposed to traditional wells which deliver 25 barrels of oil for every barrel invested, the strip mining of which currently covers 50,000 sq kilometers. Most of the area mined was covered in carbon sequestering boreal forest. Most of this disastrous oil is burned in the vehicles of the United States.
And now to the most fragile of Earth's systems, the atmosphere. 55 million years ago there was a quick intense burst of global warming that remade the biosphere. To survive, plants and animals had to move toward the poles, those that could lived, those that couldn't died.
The overabundance of methane in the atmosphere brought about a warm period that lasted millions of years. The planet eventually compensated but only because the movement of the plates created the Himalayan range which altered the atmospheric and water cycles to such an extent that a long period of carbon sequestration took place bringing the greenhouse effect back into balance.
This period provides vital lessons for us today, read more about it at:
Global warming 55 million years ago caused migration to North America
Perhaps the most important lesson is this; the kind of changes that we ourselves are bringing about will take millions of years for the planet to sort out. Our civilization depends very much on the state of the planet we found ourselves in during the last 10,000 years. We have been assiduously destroying the balance the planet took millions of years to create and we will have to wait millions of years for the planet to repair our mistakes.
We are washing away the foundations of our existence on every front. It is high time we move from crashing about on the planet like a bull in china shop and find a way to go forward with intent. We must find systems of living based on sustainability. The systems and tools exist, it is up to each of us to adopt them.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Video - I Love Mountains Day - Wendell Berry
"Wendell Berry speaks at the rally at I Love Mountains Day. February 14, 2008, Frankfort, Kentucky. "
Monday, 2 November 2009
Video - Coal River Mountain, WV: Coal River Wind Project
Where does the electricity you use come from?
"America's Most Endangered Mountains - Coal River Mountain, WV
Pledge to Help End Mountaintop Removal. Visit:
www.iLoveMountains.org"
- - - COMMUNITY STORY - - -
"We don't live where they mine coal. They mine coal where we live.... Our concern today is our homes, our environment, and the sustainability of the environment."
Lorelei Scarbro's house in the little community of Rock Creek, West Virginia is the same house her husband built with his own two hands when they were married, on land handed down to him from his parents. They raised their children in this house. Lorelei watches the deer in the field below, enjoys a fresh mountain stream running by the property and says that her granddaughter takes particular delight in the wild turkeys that frequent the neighborhood. Her husband, a coal miner for 35 years who died of of black lung, is buried in the family cemetery next to their home.
Lorelei's property in Rock Creek borders Coal River Mountain, one of the most beautiful mountains in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia, and one of the few untouched mountains in the region. Miles of pristine creeks and waterfalls, horseback trails and stunning vistas are often overlooked as a prime eco-tourism location.
Now Coal River Mountain is slated for a mountaintop removal coal mine. If the coal company's plans go through, nearly 10 square miles of the mountain will be destroyed, and 18 valley fills will devastate the Coal River watershed.
But residents in the Coal River Valley have joined together to propose a new idea - one of sustainable energy. In 2006, a study of the wind potential on Coal River Mountain demonstrated that the mountain is an ideal location for developing utility-scale wind power.
The proposed Coal River Wild Project would produce enough wind power to keep the lights on in 150,000 homes, pump $20 million per year in direct local spending during construction, and $2 million per year thereafter. It would create hundreds of jobs and allow other uses of the land that would benefit local communities. Sustainable forestry, tourism, and harvesting of ginseng and other wild plants are just a few options for Coal River residents that would ultimately preserve the natural environment of Coal River Mountain for generations to come."
"America's Most Endangered Mountains - Coal River Mountain, WV
Pledge to Help End Mountaintop Removal. Visit:
www.iLoveMountains.org"
- - - COMMUNITY STORY - - -
"We don't live where they mine coal. They mine coal where we live.... Our concern today is our homes, our environment, and the sustainability of the environment."
Lorelei Scarbro's house in the little community of Rock Creek, West Virginia is the same house her husband built with his own two hands when they were married, on land handed down to him from his parents. They raised their children in this house. Lorelei watches the deer in the field below, enjoys a fresh mountain stream running by the property and says that her granddaughter takes particular delight in the wild turkeys that frequent the neighborhood. Her husband, a coal miner for 35 years who died of of black lung, is buried in the family cemetery next to their home.
Lorelei's property in Rock Creek borders Coal River Mountain, one of the most beautiful mountains in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia, and one of the few untouched mountains in the region. Miles of pristine creeks and waterfalls, horseback trails and stunning vistas are often overlooked as a prime eco-tourism location.
Now Coal River Mountain is slated for a mountaintop removal coal mine. If the coal company's plans go through, nearly 10 square miles of the mountain will be destroyed, and 18 valley fills will devastate the Coal River watershed.
But residents in the Coal River Valley have joined together to propose a new idea - one of sustainable energy. In 2006, a study of the wind potential on Coal River Mountain demonstrated that the mountain is an ideal location for developing utility-scale wind power.
The proposed Coal River Wild Project would produce enough wind power to keep the lights on in 150,000 homes, pump $20 million per year in direct local spending during construction, and $2 million per year thereafter. It would create hundreds of jobs and allow other uses of the land that would benefit local communities. Sustainable forestry, tourism, and harvesting of ginseng and other wild plants are just a few options for Coal River residents that would ultimately preserve the natural environment of Coal River Mountain for generations to come."
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Mountaintop removal protest ends in arrest for James Hansen
As we obsess about war and political unrest in far flung locales, the good work goes on, largely unreported. Here's a story you are not likely to see on CNN. As reported at Huffington Post by Jeff Biggers.
"I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen," said Dr. James Hansen. "Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures if they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is politically expedient. Mountaintop removal, providing only a small fraction of our energy, should be abolished."
UPDATE: 2:30 EST: 94-year-old Ken Hechler, the legendary West Virginia congressman and coal miner hero who has been battling mountaintop removal since 1971 was arrested in a non-violent protest with NASA's celebrated climate scientist James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, Michael Brune, the executive director of Rainforest Action Network, and Goldman Prize winner Judy Bonds. Vietnam veteran Bo Webb, and dozens of other coalfield residents were arrested by crossing onto the property of leading mountaintop removal coal mining company, Massey Energy--purposely trespassing to protest the destruction of mountains immediately above the Coal River Valley community..... Your request is being processed...
"I started out an as activist, but founded it necessary to be a hell raiser. We are going to need hellraisers to stop this devastating practice."--Ken Hechler
UPDATE: 6pm EST. Goldman Prize Award Winner Attacked. During the rally in front of the Massey Energy coal property today, Coal River Mountain Watch co-director (and 2003 Goldman Prize Award winner) Judy Bonds was reportedly assaulted by a Massey supporter. While Bonds was engaged in a nonviolent protest, the Massey supporter lunged from the line without any provocation and roughly slapped Bonds on the head, ear and jaw. The Massey supporter also attempted an attack on another protestor, Lorelei Scarbro, a coal miner's widow and local community organizer. The Massey supporter was immedidately apprehended by the police and charged with battery, according to news reports."
"Video of former US Representative Ken Hechler (D-WV), who introduced the first bill to end mountaintop removal and stripmining in 1971. As a hero to coal miners, Hechler led the campaign for better mining workplace safety and black lung laws and compensation. The 94-year-old Hechler was arrested at the Coal River action, along with coalfield residents and parents, 88-year-old West Virginia activist Winnie Fox, Daryl Hannah, and James Hansen, and Goldman Prize Award winner Judy Bonds, RAN director Michael Brune and many others." - Jeff Biggers
Please go to the Huffington Post article for more.
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Fear and loathing fighting Big Dirty Coal
For the sake of a few jobs are we really willing to sacrifice mountain communities and the very mountains the live on? Here's an update on the situation in West Virginia as reported by Ben Block over on World Changing.
Here's an excerpt;
Here's an excerpt;
"Maria Gunnoe raises her children in a small town in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. Her grandfather toiled for 32 years in the coal mines to buy the property where she lives. She helped build the house that her son and daughter now call home.
Five years ago, a flood unlike anything her ancestors experienced nearly wiped Gunnoe's home off the map. A spring rain turned the docile Big Branch Creek that transects her yard into a barrage of black water. The flood ripped Gunnoe's Rottweiler from his collar and carried him downstream. Her family stayed indoors, praying the house would withstand the current.
"There is nothing more intimidating than a 60-foot-wide, 20-foot-tall wall of water coming at you," said Gunnoe, whose property has flooded seven times in the past nine years. She blames the 486 hectare (1,200-acre) mountaintop removal mine that has been leveling the ridge above her home.
Gunnoe, who was honored last month with the 2009 Goldman Environment Prize for North America, has become one of the most fearless opponents of mountaintop removal in her state. Her campaign against the powerful coal industry has helped attract international attention to the damaging mining practice. ... "The people of Appalachia are being sacrificed for energy in this country," said Gunnoe, a grassroots organizer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC). "The work I do with fighting mountaintop removal coal mining was inspired because I am a mother. I do not and will never support any aspect of the coal industry, simply because I've seen it kill people I care about."...
OVEC sued the Army Corps of Engineers in 2007 to stop any new mining at a mountaintop removal site near Gunnoe's home town of Bob White. Days before the hearing, Gunnoe gathered 20 local residents who were scheduled to join her in testifying against the mine site. But more than 60 coal miners also showed up at the community hall to harass the protestors to stay silent.
The day of the testimony, more than 100 people packed the courtroom, with a divided gallery split between miners and
environmentalists. Among the community witnesses, Gunnoe was the only resident willing to challenge the industry directly.
Her testimony helped sway U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers to rule in the coalition's favor. "Money can be earned, lost, and earned again," Chambers wrote. "But a valley once filled is gone forever."
The mining company involved in the lawsuit released a notice stating that the ruling could result in job losses for at least 39 miners at the site and another 180 at a related underground mine. Soon, Gunnoe found her face across her community on "wanted" posters labeled "Job Hater." A neighborhood store started collecting signatures for a petition against Gunnoe. Her daughter's dog was shot dead.
Friends heard rumors that Gunnoe too would be shot, and that her home would be burned with her children inside." - Ben Block
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