Viewpoint
Environmental Education in Giles County
It’s often been said that a good example is at the heart of a good education. That being true, imagine what students on the New River in southwestern Virginia are learning about morality, science, economics and law, thanks to American Electric Power Co and the Giles county government. By recklessly building a dump for toxic…
Read MoreWV Council of Churches Statement on Mountaintop Removal
/images/AppalachianVoice/AVNov07/Dr.-Benedict-M.-Anover.gif September 11, 2007 As people of faith, called upon by our covenant with God and each other to safeguard and care deeply for what God has created, we cannot stand by while our mountains are being devastated. The destruction caused by mountain top removal mining, as presently practiced, is unprecedented and permanent. We believe…
Read MoreWorlds Moral Compass Points to the South Again
Worlds Moral Compass Points to the South Again American Southerners are independent people — independent enough to stand for the truth, even if it means standing alone. A few weeks ago, Al Gore joined five other Southerners who have also been awarded the world’s most distinguished honor, the Nobel Peace Prize. We conservatives and liberals…
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 MoreWaste Dumps
Letter to the Editor, Time is running out to protect NC citizens from under regulated mega dumps being built in their back yards. “In the face of all out pressure from waste lobbyists, the North Carolina General Assembly listened instead to community activists & passed a one year moratorium on consideration of permit applications or…
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 MoreCoal Synfuels: A Giant Leap Backward
America’s coal companies and their political supporters continue to push for the creation of a massive coal synthetic fuels industry. This time, they say, it would be a real industry, not the half-baked “spray and pray” operations that have legally but unethically siphoned off billions in tax dollars for bogus “synthetic” fuels projects. Recently, a…
Read MoreCelebrating Earth Day
Thirty seven years ago, American rivers were still catching fire and city dwellers had to choke through a pall of smoke just getting to work. Fed up with unregulated pollution, millions of Americans joined together on Earth Day and demanded that air and water pollution be cleaned up. The environmental movement was one of the…
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