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Decision to dump TVA’s spilled coal waste in Alabama community sparks resistance

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved a plan last week to dump 3 million tons of coal ash that spilled from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in eastern Tennessee in an impoverished, largely African-American community in Alabama — and the decision is sparking resistance among local officials and residents who don’t want the toxic […]

John Bachar, Our Generation’s Great Hero

As a recreational rock climber and mountaineer, I’ve always seen my work on environmental issues as a natural extension of that passion for the outdoors, and also part of a long tradition: climbers and mountaineers have a long history of moving from their sometimes solipsistic, self-involved, and meaningless-by-definition sport into hugely important and weighty work, […]

Coal ash contamination imperils July 4 festival goers in Tennessee

The city of Kingston, Tenn. plans to hold its annual July 4 “Smokin’ the Water” celebration tomorrow at a public park near Watts Bar Reservoir. The event is expected to draw as many as 25,000 people with festivities including raft races, boating and swimming. But the park is only a short distance downstream from the […]

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A right to rain

One man gathers rain to recharge groundwater reserves and another pushes salt water through a desalination plant for subsequent sale. Are these both viable solutions to the world’s water crisis? With the impacts of climate change, water waste, contamination and mismanagement driving us ever closer to the edge of a cliff, ensuring clean and plentiful […]

Urban hawks take flight on New York’s Upper West Side

Photo: Ralph HockensReason No. 137 that I love commuting by bike in New York City: I get to watch baby hawks go to flight school. Last year, I was fascinated and then heartbroken by a pair of red-tail hawks that built a precarious-looking nest over the West Side Highway, produced a trio of hatchlings, then […]

Goodbye to Cancer Valley: In remembrance of my friend John Soley

John SoleyAfter a long struggle with cancer, my friend Mr. John Soley died at his home in Carbon County, Pa. on Saturday, June 20. He was only 62, which is too young to die of natural causes. But then, neither John nor I believe he got sick from natural causes. We believe he and many […]

Friday music blogging: Deer Tick

One of my happiest musical discoveries of the past year has been Deer Tick, a band originally out of Providence, Rhode Island. The band is sui generis — no description quite works. There’s a definite tinge of backwoods Americana, but also some raggedy low-fi freak folk, a little old-fashioned ’50s rock-and-roll, doo-wop, blues … it […]

KBR, Halliburton sued over war-zone’s toxic burn pits

Confronted with the need to dispose of enormous quantities of war-related trash including batteries, pesticide containers, medical waste and even human body parts, but lacking proper incinerators, private contractors working for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan came up with a simple solution. They burned the trash in big, open pits. But now soldiers, […]

On the passing of Father Thomas Berry, noted ecological thinker

Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest and self-described “Earth scholar,” passed away June 1 in Greensboro, N.C., where he was born in 1914. He was 94 years old. A member of the Passionist order that was founded to teach people how to pray, Berry went on to become an influential eco-theologian — though he preferred to […]