NORTH CAROLINA Appalachian State University, Boone, NC – ASU’s wide ranging Renewable Energy Initiative began over a decade ago with the founding of the Sustainable Energy Society. It expanded in 2004 when students approved a green fee of $5 per…
Monthly Archives: August 2007
Hail to the Poplar
images/voice_uploads/sahriDeangelo_circle.gif In 1807 Thomas Jefferson planted a tulip poplar near the west entrance of his home. Over the course of two centuries, this tree and another nearby have grown to massive proportions, perfectly framing his impressive house. Almost twenty years…
Brewing up a Revolution
Sandor Katz is literally brewing up a revolution in his kitchen. The Tennessee man has authored two books on food. The first, “Wild Fermentation,” mixes Katz’s experiments with kraut, sourdough, wine and other fermented foods with the politics of self-sufficiency.…
Mountain Girls Go to Press
Tammy Robinson Smith could well be one of the characters in her own fiction. Some sort of regional literary mandate dictates that the heroine’s heart must always belong in these Southern Appalachian mountains no matter what else comes along, and…
Opinions
Young Leaders and Green Universities The strong move towards sustainability in Tennessee and North Carolina universities, described in the story on page 12, is one of the most positive trends we have noted in years. We are proud of the…
Assessing the Cost of Wise County Coal Plant
By Kathy R. Selvage I am a lifelong resident of Wise County, VA, where a now bankrupt company demolished a portion of my Stevens, VA community through mountaintop removal. I know the true costs of being forced to live through…
Asheville Climate Data Center May Expand Mission
It’s a good bet you didn’t know Asheville has a weather museum, nor that it has the world’s largest archive of climate data in the world. But it does, and there’s a vision brewing for its future. “We have a…
Great Ideas for Greening Your Campus
images/voice_uploads/tntechStudents_circle.gif Institutions of higher learning have an enormous responsibility to help lead the way towards a more sustainable society, and nothing empowers and interests a university administration more than students committed to a good cause. Your individual efforts can have…
Renewable Energy from Landfill Gas Fires Glassblowing
images/voice_uploads/energy-exchange-8_circle.gif Hand thrown pottery and blown glass have a high aesthetic value, but they also come with a fairly high price tag in terms of energy use and environmental impact. EnergyXchange, an arts incubator project in Yancey County, is working…
Affrialachia Magazine Showcases Poetry
For well over a century now, Appalachia has been categorically reduced by many outsiders and insiders alike to include only white Scots-Irish descendants, with a few Native Americans thrown in for political correctness. The rich ethnic diversity that actually exists…
