Posts Tagged ‘Coal’
A Physician’s Take on Coal Pollution
A few weeks after releasing our report, The Human Cost of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining, and helping launch the No More Excuses campaign through iLoveMountains.org, I was turned on to a interview about the impacts to human health during various stages of the coal use cycle. On Earthjustice’s Down to Earth podcast, Jessica Knoblauch spoke…
Read MoreElectoral Math for “All You Climate People”
During a campaign season in which climate change featured most prominently as a laugh line at the Republican National Convention, the low point was when CNN’s Candy Crowley addressed “all you climate people” in her explanation of why climate didn’t come up during the presidential debates. Who knew that human disruption of the global climate…
Read MoreSustaining Healthy Appalachian Communities
Editor’s Note: Wendy Johnston is a sixth generation West Virginian from Mercer County and the granddaughter and great granddaughter of coal miners. Her post is the second in a series of guest blogs coinciding with our “No More Excuses” campaign on iLoveMountains.org, where we ask impacted Appalachians why President Obama should make ending mountaintop removal…
Read MoreCongratulations to our conservation allies on a major victory in the fight to end mountaintop removal!
Patriot Coal Co., one of the largest coal companies operating in Central Appalachia, today announced it will phase out mountaintop removal mining coal mining over the next several years, saying its decision is in the “best interests of the company and the communities where it operates.” The announcement is the result of an agreement between…
Read MoreMoving Appalachia Forward!
Editor’s Note: As part of the launch of the “No More Excuses” campaign on iLoveMountains.org, we asked people whose lives have been directly impacted by mountaintop removal coal mining to contribute their thoughts on why President Obama should make ending mountaintop removal a priority in his second term. The first in the series is a…
Read MoreShowing Faith in Appalachia’s Future
Last Saturday, the Office of Justice & Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond and Hollins University in Roanoke, Va., hosted an “Eco-Evening” to discuss how environmental issues in Virginia influence poverty and human health. I was invited to relate the devastation caused by mountaintop removal coal mining. Many attendees were seeing photos of the…
Read MoreHow the Rest of the World Needs to Help Educate the U.S.
By Rev. Pat Watkins Several years ago, volunteers from a United Methodist Church traveled to a small village in Kenya where they observed that the women of the village were walking, twice a day with buckets on their heads, to a river a mile away to get water for their families. Deciding this village could…
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House Sides with Coal, Passes a Non-starter On Sept. 21, in its last act before the election, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed H.R. 3409, a package of five bills it calls the “Stop the War on Coal Act,” claiming that environmental regulations are the real enemy of economic prosperity. Each of the bills would,…
Read MoreA Finite Frontier: Facing the Future of Central Appalachian Coal
By Brian Sewell On Sept.18, Appalachian coal mining giant Alpha Natural Resources announced it would idle eight mines and lay off 400 employees in the first phase of a “strategic repositioning” plan designed to meet the evolving demands of a changing global coal market. According to Alpha, the plan aims to enhance the company’s position…
Read MoreClimate in the Classroom
Scientists and science educators overwhelmingly agree that climate change is real and that part of science education is informing students about that reality. Appalachian educators are up to the challenge.
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