coal
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Facts and figures on air quality and Latino health in the U.S.
92 — percentage of the U.S. Latino population living in urban areas in 20002, 3 80 — percentage of Latinos living in counties that violated at least one federal air-pollution standard in 20022 57 — percentage of non-Latino whites living in counties that violate at least one federal air-pollution standard in 20022 50 — percentage […]
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GE kicks off ambitious green initiative
Last night, General Electric Chair and CEO Jeffrey Immelt canoodled with Congress members and industry top brass at a swish cocktail party on Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C., celebrating the launch of “ecomagination,” an initiative he announced earlier in the day to ramp up development of clean technologies and lighten the company’s Goliath-like environmental footprint. […]
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Everything coal is new again
Congress seeks tax money to make defunct “clean coal” plant dirty again For aficionados of government pork, the energy bill that recently passed the House is the gift that keeps on giving. The latest gem uncovered is a provision that would offer $125 million in loan guarantees to a “clean coal” power plant in Alaska. […]
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Harper’s article on Appalachian mountaintop-removal mining causes outbreak of despair, depression
Its contents are not available online (as far as I can tell), but the recent issue of Harper's Magazine contains a piece that makes it worth buying on the newsstand. It's called "Death of a Mountain," by Erik Reece. The subtitle is "radical strip mining and the leveling of Appalachia," and apparently Reece is at work on a book on the subject. (For a quick primer on mountaintop-removal mining, go here.)It is -- and I say this as someone who reads a lot of depressing stuff -- one of the most disheartening things I've ever come across. It is truly monstrous what's going on in Appalachia, difficult even to comprehend. I've been faintly cognizant of the issue, but Reece's piece really paints the picture. Some of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems in the country are simply being blown up, irrevocably destroyed. The poor surrounding communities suffer from polluted water and air, denuded landscapes, and showers of debris (last year a boulder dislodged by a mining explosion crushed and killed a three-year-old boy in his bed). The process has been aided and abetted by the Bush administration
Worse, the mines provide almost no jobs -- a crew of nine people can blow the top off a mountain and dig out the coal below -- and most of the coal is sold outside the state. Virtually none of the enormous profits benefit local communities. There's a reason those communities are, and remain, some of the poorest in the country. The presence of coal is an almost unmitigated curse for the region. But by and large, poor Appalachians view environmentalists as their enemies, people who want to steal their jobs and economic livelihoods, who care more about forest critters than about them.
The injustices involved -- both natural and socioeconomic -- are tragic on a scale that boggles understanding.
Compare the amount of attention this gets to the amount lavished on the Arctic Refuge. Why is that? At risk of offending some delicate sensibilities, I've come to think that the refuge plays the same role for the left that Terri Schiavo played for the right: It's almost an abstraction, distant and uncomplicated, a blank slate where we can project our own virtue. In contrast, Appalachia has a deep and complicated history and is populated by working class, culturally conservative whites -- the kind of people that upper-middle-class lefties refer to behind closed doors as "white trash."
But make no mistake, there's a huge crime taking place, the effects of which will be felt by our grandchildren, and theirs. Ecosystems are being wiped out, and vulnerable communities along with them. We need to force this stuff into the mainstream media. I can't imagine any human being with a heart or a brain remaining unaffected.
(If you'd like to do something to help, head over to Mountain Justice Summer and sign up. Thanks to them for the picture above.)
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Pombo eggs on mercury debate with controversial report
Pombo says: Eat up! House Resources Committee Chair Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) — longtime bete noire of the environmental community — cooked up what appears to be some fishy science in a report released last week titled “Mercury in Perspective: Fact and Fiction About the Debate Over Mercury” [PDF]. The report — written not by scientists […]
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Bush admin isn’t putting money where its mouth is on “clean coal”
When pressed on climate change, the Bush administration is fond of citing “clean coal” technology as the wave of the energy future. Even some enviros are starting to grudgingly acknowledge the technology’s potential for good. Coal: Can you dig it? Photo: NREL. But all Bush’s talk doesn’t appear to be translating into the funding needed […]
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Umbra on home heating
Dear Umbra, Can you shed some light (or some warmth) on the most environmentally sound ways to heat one’s home this winter? Natural gas over coal and oil for its lower carbon (and particulate) content? What about fireplaces: good or bad? Would burning gas logs be a good alternative to burning real wood? Thanks for […]
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Zuni tribe member Pablo Padilla talks about beating back a strip mine
Earlier this week, Native Americans and environmentalists won a surprising victory when a power company abandoned plans to build a highly controversial coal mine in New Mexico. Zuni Salt Lake. Photo: Zuni Salt Lake Coalition. For 20 years, the Salt River Project, an Arizona-based utility company, had sought to build an 18,000-acre strip mine near […]
