Archive: Jun 2012

Powerful New Video: Protect the Moapa Band of Paiutes from Dirty Coal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DSFhGt-DN7g

The Moapa Band of Paiutes continues to fight the pollution from the nearby Reid Gardner coal plant in Southern Nevada, and the Sierra Club stands with them. Today, we are releasing this powerful new video that features members of the tribe telling moving personal stories about the devastating effects of pollution from Reid Gardner. I first wrote about the Moapa in late April when we supported the Moapa Band of Paiutes on their three-day, 50-mile cultural healing walk from their reservation to the Lloyd George Federal Building in Las Vegas. The walk brought visibility to the damage that the Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant is doing to the tribe's health, culture and economy. Following that march, on May 3, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a hearing on the Moapa reservation about the pollution permits for Reid Gardner. That's when much of the footage was taken for this short, unforgettable video. The hearing was packed with tribal members telling their stories of serious health problems: asthma, other lung diseases, nosebleeds, severe allergies, heart disease, and more. Members also talked about being unable to live their lives according to their culture: the toxic dust stirred by the wind keeps people indoors; they are afraid to gather herbs and use them because they know they are contaminated with coal ash; and they universally are concerned about the long-term survival of the tribe. This is an issue of fairness and justice. This Tribe deserves clean air and water, not an outdated coal plant saddled with second-rate pollution controls. The Moapa are leading the way beyond dirty coal and to clean energy by developing a major solar plant on the reservation. Now EPA needs to do its part by requiring first-rate technology to reduce air pollution at the Reid Gardner coal plant. You can help - take action today to tell EPA to protect the Moapa from dirty coal pollution.

Winning the climate culture war

More science will not cure climate skeptics and pandering to conservatives can only win battles, not the war. So, what's the right strategy in the climate fight?

Beverage industry to NYC: Ignore the mayor. Soda’s totally cool

Well, that didn’t take long. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that NYC would be banning sugary drinks if they came in containers bigger than 16 ounces. And today, the American Beverage Association is pushing back with an ad that says, basically, “Do not believe that science over there! Believe this science that says soda is […]

Queen of England to eat invasive species pie

Enemies of invasive species have been advocating for a diabolical solution to doing away with unwanted species: Eat them! And while most people are not down with eating sautéed iguana or lionfish ceviche, on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II will be honored with a gift of lamprey pie — a dish […]

Galaxy, right ahead! The Milky Way’s on course for a head-on collision

One day, this is what the night sky will look like. Yup, that’s a galaxy (Andromeda, to be specific) headed straight for … our galaxy! Andromeda’s rushing towards us at the crazy fast speed of 250,000 miles per hour. Luckily, it is a galaxy far, far away, and so it will take 3.75 billion years […]

Global warming could wipe out the goth population

As a former goth, I had to love this article from British satire site NewsBiscuit about the latest species to be threatened by climate change: the normally nocturnal, tree-dwelling Common Goth. Britain’s Goth population, identifiable by its distinctive eye markings, peaked at around 90,000 in the 1970s, but since then has been driven out of […]

Critical List: Carbon dioxide hits 400 ppm in the Arctic; bedbugs don’t like boozy blood

Carbon dioxide levels in the Arctic have reached 400 parts per million (ppm). Once upon a time, they were 275 ppm. 350 ppm is considered a decent level to aim for these days. Peanut butter and deli meats have traces of flame retardant in them. Fishing fleets don’t care what regulators say — they’ll fish […]

What humans hath wrought: What happens when we mess with Mother Nature?

A hole-in-the wall museum in Pittsburgh, run by an oddball art professor, offers a sober -- and sobering -- glimpse of what we’ve done to life as we know it. Good? Bad? You make the call.

It wasn’t just the billboards: How activists brought down the Heartland Institute

Yes, the Heartland Institute shot itself in the foot with its stupid Unabomber billboard. But what really hurt was the anti-Heartland campaign joined by tens of thousands of citizen activists.