Posts Tagged ‘Mountaintop Removal’
WATCH: Appalachian Kids Give Science Lesson to President Obama
Children in Appalachian coal mining communities are 42% more likely to be born with birth defects and have a life expectancy that is almost 5 years lower than the national average. As this short video shows, they understand why: Dozens of scientific studies have linked mountaintop removal coal mining to high rates of cancer and…
Read MoreUnder Pressure, Patriot Coal to Phase Out Mountaintop Removal
By Brian Sewell On Nov. 15, amid bankruptcy litigation and multiple lawsuits, Patriot Coal announced it would begin phasing out mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia as part of a settlement over selenium pollution. One of the largest operators in the region, the St. Louis-based spin-off of Peabody Energy is the first major coal operator…
Read MoreSeeing is Believing
The coal industry is fond of saying that there is no mountaintop removal taking place in Tennessee, so we wanted to see for ourselves. Appalachian Voices recently teamed up with the filming crew from “Coal Country” and SouthWings’ award winning pilot Susan Lapis to take an aerial tour of coal-mining counties in the Volunteer State.…
Read MoreAV and iLoveMountains Launch No More Excuses Campaign
Appalachian Voices, in conjunction with iLoveMountains.org, recently launched a two-pronged campaign to solicit reelected President Obama to end the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. With our new report summarizing the human cost of mountaintop removal coal mining and a nationwide campaign through iLoveMountains.org, we are telling the Obama Administration, “No More Excuses —…
Read MoreA 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 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 MoreOther Shorts
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,…
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