Inside Appalachian Voices

AV Helps RAN Secure a Benny
PNC and USB are the latest banks to issue strong statements about severely limiting their funding of mountaintop removal mining. Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has been the main force behind this grassroots campaign to pressure banks to cease public financing of mountaintop removal mining projects.

The Business Ethic Network recently awarded RAN a Benny Award for their work; Appalachian Voices received a supporting award for providing the data on coal companies that made RAN’s campaign possible.

Trees On Fire: Music for the Mountains

Trees on Fire, a band based in Charlottesville, Va., plays an unique, passionate and danceable blend of “reggae, hip hop, rock, electronica, classical, klezmer, funk and beyond.” They have recently been touring the Southeast and blowing listeners away with their high-energy performances, including a special show in our hometown of Boone, N.C., at Galileo’s Bar and Cafe. Trees on Fire is donating 5% of the proceeds of their new album, Organica, to Appalachian Voices. Check them out on myspace.com/treesonfiremusic

Riverkeeper Featured on Expedition Blue Planet

In September, Appalachian Voices’ Upper Watauga Riverkeeper traveled back to Harriman, Tenn., to meet with Alexandra Cousteau and Expedition Blue Planet to film an episode about the TVA coal ash disaster.

The team, along with research partners at the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, spent the day testing fish on the Emory River and conducting interviews in the shadow of the Kingston coal-fired power plant.

“The TVA coal ash spill was the most horrific and gutwrenching environmental disaster I’ve ever seen on a waterway,” Donna Lisenby said during the interview. The Riverkeeper was one of the first and only independent scientists to paddle through the TVA spill shortly after it occurred.

Expedition Blue Planet is presented by National Geographic. Visit alexandracoustea.org and nationalgeographic.com/water.

AV Joins Coalition to Urge for Stronger Ozone Regulations

Appalachian Voices joined a national coalition of over 200 organizations in urging the EPA to adopt stronger proposed ground-level ozone regulations. According to the coalition, stricter rules on smog pollution would save 12,000 lives and prevent tens of thousands of asthma and heart attacks each year. Top national groups that signed on include the American Lung Association, Interfaith Power and Light, Sierra Club, National Latino Coalition on Climate Change and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Visit: Plowsharegroup