The Appalachian Voice
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 gem … a ‘one and only’ in Asheville, and we as a community should take…
Read MoreLetters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I am the wife of a recently disabled coal miner, and offer my opinion on the (Clean Coal) campaign. Coal is filthy, and in more ways than one. I was insulted when (West Virginia) allowed the workers’ compensation laws to be changed so coal companies don’t have to pay when a miner is…
Read MoreNews Briefs
Twelve arrested in protest over Marsh Fork elementary school State police arrested 12 demonstrators at the West Virginia state capitol during a peaceful protest over conditions at Marsh Fork elementary school on March 16. Holding signs asking “What would Jesus do?” and “Build a New School,” demonstrators demanded that WV Gov. Joe Manchin build the…
Read MoreAcross Appalachia
Wind Power Questions Still Remain Wind energy has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions and pollutants as it displaces other forms of electrical production, a National Academy of Sciences report said in May. But the report said there was practically no guidance or coordination of wind power policies on the federal, state or local levels.…
Read MoreAlternatives to Styrofoam
Canyon’s Restaurant Sitting overlooking one of the most gorgeous mountain views in the Appalachians, Bart Conway, owner and manager of Canyon’s Restaurant in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, is going vegetarian. No, he still serves (and eats) many delicious meat dishes, but he is lowering his carbon footprint by using canola fryer oil to heat with…
Read MoreThe Crooked Road
Climbing into the Cumberland Mountains, Virginia’s Heritage MusicTrail – “The Crooked Road” – comes to Clintwood and stops at a mighty mansion bearing the name of Ralph Stanley. A smoky-voiced singer, the 80-year-old Stanley is one of Southwest Virginia’s greatest musical success stories. As one half of The Stanley Brothers, Ralph created some of the…
Read MoreThe Pines: The Good and the Bad
Jim Minick is a professor of English at Radford University and the author of Finding a Clear Path_, a collection of essays was published by West Virginia University press. Pine trees receive a large share of bad press in environmental circles, and sometimes rightly so. Their use in plantations has been linked to increasing global…
Read MoreStrange Bedfellows
The strangest bedfellows in West Virginia, the AFL-CIO / United Mine Workers union and the WV Chamber of Commerce, joined hands recently to write an article entitled “Economic cornerstone of W.Va. under attack.” They are strange bedfellows because the Chamber of Commerce would stomp out the United Mine Workers and any other union in a…
Read MoreEditorial
Jobs? What mining jobs? That strange noise coming from Appalachia’s coal fields is the sound that the truth makes when it is being mercilessly twisted. In rallies and op-ed essays this spring, the “friends of coal” have focused on a consistent theme: Jobs. A good many Appalachian politicians, union leaders and business leaders are claiming…
Read MoreBlair Mountain: New Archeological Data Heats up Mine Wars
images/voice_uploads/june_o7/circle_blair.gif Like his grandfather, Kenny King figured he just had to do something. Hallowed ground was about to be clearcut, bulldozed, and blasted down to rubble. The site of the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain battle between miners and coal company forces would be gone forever. “I just hated to see it be destroyed,” he…
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