Issue 7: December 2008
Augean Cleanup on Aisle Six
It’s been widely observed that the next president will be left with an enormous cleanup task. At one point, Vice President-elect Joe Biden compared it to cleaning the Augean Stables. He was referring to the humblest of the Twelve Labors…
Carbon Emissions to Drop Under VA Climate Plan
Virginia could cut new power plant construction — and save money in the process — under a new plan to reduce carbon emissions and promote energy conservation. The plan emerged from the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change this November, and…
Excerpt from a Letter
MEMO TO: President-elect Obama FROM: The Appalachian Alliance Dear President-elect Obama, … We are dealing with the devastating effects of the cycle of coal, from extraction, cleaning, transport, burning and the disposal of coal combustion waste. Coal industry abuse has…
Biodiversity in Appalachia's Future
By Paul L. Angermeier Paul Angermeier is a research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and a professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA Appalachia is blessed with fantastic biological diversity that is practically invisible to most of us. Biodiversity…
The Future of Blair Mountain
By Wess Harris Wess Harris is a former coal miner, a union organizer, a farmer and the editor of When Miners March Blair Mountain is a site that is sacred to American labor, so why not claim it as our…
Clean up and renew Appalachia
By George Brosi George Brosi is the Editor of Appalachian Heritage at Berea College, KY The future of Appalachia will be great if we can clean up and renew our infrastructure — in the broad sense of that term. If…
Appalachian Artists and Writers Must Create the Vision of a Healthy Future
By Theresa L. Burriss Theresa L. Burriss is an assistant professor of English and Appalachian studies at Radford University. Burriss also serves as the contributing senior editor of Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture. Appalachia is spiritually bankrupt.…
Build on Historic Traditions
By Dr. Jeff Boyer Dr Boyer is a professor in the Anthropology Department and Sustainable Development Program at Appalachian State University Peering into Appalachia’s crystal ball, 20 years out is mostly full of “ifs.” But if the current economic recession…
Generating a Renewed Energy Future
By Rory McIlmoil Rory McIlMoil is the Coal River Wind Campaign Coordinator for the Coal River Mountain Watch Through the employment of Mountaintop Removal (MTR) mining methods, the Appalachian coal industry has evolved. Now it is not merely suppressing economic…
It’s the Water, Stupid
By Harvard Ayers Harvard Ayers is a professor of Anthropology at Appalachian State University and a founding Board Member of Appalachian Voices. Appalachia has long been the source of water for vast areas both east and west of our region.…
Appalachia Could Be America’s Centerpiece
By Kate Larken Kate Larken is a member of Public Outcry, a musical group that performs to educate the public about mountaintop removal coal mining. She is also the publisher of MotesBooks, Inc. There are several Appalachias. Life at the…
Loosen Industry’s Grip on Government
By Jeff Biggers Jeff Biggers is the author of The United States of Appalachia and a contributor to Huffington Post, where this first appeared. … If President-elect Obama is truly serious about affecting climate change, launching a new green economy,…
Stream Buffer Zone Rule Repeal Deserves President Obama’s Attention
To the outrage of environmentalists across the Appalachian region, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved a severe weakening of a rule protecting streams from coal mining pollution in early December. The Stream Buffer Zone rule had been in effect since…
USA & Columbia: Coal Is The Wound That Binds
Environmental Effects of Mountaintop Removal Mining Worse Than South American Mining Operations First of a series: Coal around the World By Bill Kovarik Mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia is even more destructive than in Columbia, said two union miners from that…
Blasting Permit Granted on Coal River Mountain
Story by Sarah Vig Bulldozers are set to begin moving dirt on Coal River Mountain, and Massey Energy, with the permit granted to them by West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection, can begin blasting at any time. The permit’s approval,…
Biker Merges Law With Advocacy
By Sarah Vig Sam Evans’ environmental consciousness has always been linked to his bike. As a teenager growing up in Walker county, Alabama, Evans started riding in high school for transportation. “I didn’t have a car,” he explained sheepishly. Beyond…
Appalachian Bookshelf
These four picks for Appalachian literature and history represent an astonishing depth and variety. For more, see www.appvoices.org/books. • Field Guide to Medicinal Wild Plants, by Bradford Angier, Stackpole Books (2008). This revised edition brings back a 30-year-old classic field…
Appalachia Needs Appropriate Technology
By Al Fritsch and Paul Gallimore Excerpt from “Healing Appalachia,” University of Kentucky Press, 2007 Appropriate technology is a necessity for our planet as well as our country and the Appalachian region. We hope to offer a regional model of…
Appalachia Cannot Become a Sacrifice Zone
By Wendell Berry Wendell Berry is a world-renowned author of 25 books of poems, 16 volumes of essays, and 11 novels and short story collections. He is widely known as the conscience of Appalachia. These remarks were made at the…
Future Depends on Vision
By Bill Kovarik Fifty years ago, America discovered Appalachia and the “sense of despair which lingers over the valleys and ridges,” as one Washington Post writer put it. Stark images of poverty aroused the conscience of the nation, and a…
How We Talk Can Be As Important As the Problems We Talk About
By Kathy Mattea Kathy Mattea is a Grammy-Award winning country singer and songwriter whose most recent album, “Coal” was inspired by the Sago Mine Disaster of 2006. See www.mattea.com. I have come to believe that the future of Appalachia’s environment…
Building on Character, Respecting the Environment
By Rep. Heath Schuler Congressional Representative of North Carolina’s 11th District As a native of Western North Carolina and the representative of the 11th Congressional District, I am proud of the shared history and cultural identity of the Appalachian region.…
Inaugural New River Trail Race a Success
Runners of the first New River Trail 50K (NRT 50K) began their race with foggy 48 degree temperatures on Saturday, October 11, but finished with bright skies and sunny conditions. Of the 102 racers at the start of the 50K…
Appalachian Voices Is Earthfare’s December Friend of the Month
Appalachian Voices has always been a friend of the earth, but now we’re also a friend of Earthfare. For the entire month of December, Appalachian Voices will be the featured organization of Earthfare’s Friend of the Month program in Boone,…
iLoveMountains Launches Obama–First 100 Days
New Campaign Asks the President-elect To End Mountaintop Removal During the recent presidential campaign, President-elect Barack Obama pledged to end mountaintop removal coal mining. iLoveMountains.org is asking Obama to deliver on his promise. On December 3, 2008, iLoveMountains.org launched a…
Sunroots at Solstice Time
By R. Kelly Coffey As the sun weakens at the end of the growing season and flowering plants fade to brittle remnants, gardeners and wildflower lovers resign themselves to a few months estranged from nature’s brilliant colors. But one wildflower…
Letters to the Editor
Damascus is not the only town on the AT Dear Editor, I have very much enjoyed and learned from Appalachian Voices for a long time. I usually pickup issues at our local co-op, Tennessee’s only community-owned grocery store: Three Rivers Market…
Across Appalachia: Environmental News in Brief
Stream Buffer Zone Rule Repeal Deserves President Obama’s Attention To the outrage of environmentalists across the Appalachian region, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved a severe weakening of a rule protecting streams from coal mining pollution in early December. The…
USA & Colombia: Coal Is The Wound That Binds
First of a series: Coal around the World Mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia is even more destructive than in Colombia, said two union miners from that South American country on a tour of the coalfields this November. “It was a…
Greenest Holiday Gifts You Can Buy
/images/AppalachianVoices/AV-08dec/recycling-trees.jpg It’s enough to turn anyone into a Scrooge! So many potential gifts ignore concerns about natural ingredients, fair labor, the carbon imprints of production and shipping, wasteful packaging, and so on… Enter Appalachian Voice’s Green Gift Guide! With nine…
Blasting Permit Granted on Coal River Mountain
Bulldozers are set to begin moving dirt on Coal River Mountain, and Massey Energy, with the permit granted to them by West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection, can begin blasting at any time. The permit’s approval, which was announced in…
A ‘Greener’ Christmas Tree
For most people, the quest for the perfect Christmas is not so different today than it was 150 years ago. People have been cutting their own Christmas trees since the 1850s. At the time, trees were chosen from forest, not…
Full Appalachian Voice December issue in PDF
Download the full PDF (8.1 MB) https://appvoices.org/pdfs/voice_2008_06dec.pdf
Hiking the Highlands: Hanging Out in Hanging Rock State Park
/images/AppalachianVoices/AV_08dec/hangingrock.jpg Among the picturesque plains of the North Carolina Piedmont, the Sauratown Mountains rise north of Winston-Salem. Capped by cliffs, these peaks on the east side of the Blue Ridge are known locally as the “mountains away from the mountains,”…
Solar homes tour leading by example
It’s been said that the best way to lead is by example. The American Solar Energy Society has embraced this mantra with the sponsorship of a national solar homes tour. Over the first weekends in October, people all over the…
Hanging Out in Hanging Rock State Park
By Joe Tennis Among the picturesque plains of the North Carolina Piedmont, the Sauratown Mountains rise north of Winston-Salem. Capped by cliffs, these peaks on the east side of the Blue Ridge are known locally as the “mountains away from…
Greenest Holiday Gifts You Can Buy
By Sarah Vig and Melanie Bianchi It’s enough to turn anyone into a Scrooge! So many potential gifts ignore concerns about natural ingredients, fair labor, the carbon imprints of production and shipping, wasteful packaging, and so on… Enter Appalachian Voice’s…
A ‘Greener’ Christmas Tree
Integrated Pest Management and Fraser Fir Farming By Sarah Vig For most people, the quest for the perfect Christmas is not so different today than it was 150 years ago. People have been cutting their own Christmas trees since the…
Naturalist's Notebook
Sunroots at Solstice Time
Hiking the Highlands
Hanging Out in Hanging Rock State Park
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