The Appalachian Voice
News Briefs
Grammy Award Winning Artist Sees Mountaintop removal First Hand By Sandra Diaz Kathy Mattea’s journey started when she saw Al Gore give his presentation about global warming in January of 2006; the slideshow that is the basis of An Inconvenient Truth. His presentation struck her so profoundly that she decided take action. She signed up…
Read MoreAssessing 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 sleepless nights, the dust, the noise, and the destruction of mountaintop removal. (For video of…
Read MoreOpinions
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 young people who are giving so much of themselves to lead our region towards a…
Read MoreMountain 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 Smith fills that role as if she’d been sent in from Central Casting. “I’ve moved…
Read MoreBrewing 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. His most recent work, “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved,” tackles the food industry and…
Read MoreHail 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 ago on a visit to Monticello, I purchased a 12-inch tulip poplar seedling at the…
Read MoreGoing Green: Campus by Campus
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 student to fund renewable energy projects. The fee raises around $150,000 per year and has…
Read MoreBogging Down the Courts
The fabled cranberry bogs of Shady Valley, Tennessee, were once the very image of a pastoral Ocean Spray commercial. Now mostly a faded memory, the remaining bogs are still woven into the fabric of civic pride—in the town’s welcome signs, on a big corn silo that stands at Shady Valley’s rural crossroads, and in an…
Read MoreHiking the Highlands
Consider the contents: a waterfall, a tunnel and a trestle over a rocky river. It’s all waiting in Virginia’s Wise County, all within the first half-mile of the Guest River Gorge Trail. But wait, all this literally is just the beginning. Water draining out of southeastern Wise County ends up in the Guest River, roaring…
Read MoreStudents Building Beyond Campuses for Greener Future
From campus to community to state, students across the Southeast will have a strong campaign this coming school year, pushing more schools’ administrations and state legislators to convert to renewable sources of energy and move away from fossil fuels. Students are expanding beyond just their campuses this fall by building relationships with their surrounding communities…
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