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Top Forest Service official may be held in contempt of court

The top official overseeing the U.S. Forest Service has some 'splainin' to do. Mark Rey may be held in contempt of court, and possibly jailed, unless the USFS follows through on a court-ordered analysis of the environmental impact of a toxic flame retardant, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Malloy ruled on Friday. In 2003, ammonium phosphate dropped on a wildfire killed 20,000 fish in a creek in central Oregon. As a result of a lawsuit brought by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, Malloy ordered the USFS to provide an environmental analysis of the chemical; on the day the review was due, the agency filed for an extension. Unamused, Malloy has ordered Rey to appear in his court in October -- unless the USFS completes the environmental analysis beforehand, which is unlikely. "The Forest Service cannot disregard the orders regarding the Endangered Species Act," Malloy wrote. According to Andy Stahl of FSEEE, a little time in the slammer would "coerce future good behavior." Hey, it worked for Paris Hilton.

source: Associated Press

see also, in Grist: D'oh! Rey: Me?

The latest in W. Va. adventures

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This week, Gabriel Pacyniak and Katherine Chandler are traveling throughout southern West Virginia to report on mountaintop removal mining (MTR). They'll be visiting coalfields with abandoned and "reclaimed" MTR mines, and talking with residents, activists, miners, mine company officials, local reporters, and politicians.

We'll publish their reports throughout the week.

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Tom White's directions to Yeager Airport instruct us to follow the signs outside of town, turn right at the first fork, and take the road straight up to the top of the hill. Like many of the instructions that we have received, he tells us, "And if you think you've gone too far, it's probably just a little bit farther up." The airport is, in fact, on a flattened mountain overlooking the city of Charleston, a location that shows how difficult it is to find flat land in the area.

Tom's business card reads "In deep? WHO YA GONNA CALL. Contract lawyer for hire ... former newspaper reporter, author, commercial pilot." He's also passionate about the environment, so he is a perfect fit for Southwings, a non-profit conservation organization that links volunteer pilots with journalists and researchers studying conservation issues in the south. It's a pretty crucial service for anybody looking at mountain top removal mining (MTR). On the ground, you can drive up a hollow all the way over the mountain and never know that just beyond the trees the mountains have been mined away.

A mine site with valley fill in Mingo and Logan counties. (photo: Katherine Chandler)

The Climate Changed and All Norway Got Was Everything

Norway contemplates far-north drilling, melting ice reveals new islands As climate change alters the landscape of the Arctic, Norwegians are having a rough go of it. They face a more hospitable climate, an even better financial situation, and more land. “It’s very challenging for a very wealthy nation, knowing this will be a positive change,” […]

Overlooking Ahead

Are we too obsessed with climate change? Climate change is getting heaps of attention these days — and it’s about time. But with the spotlight focused on the climate cause, are other eco-issues being ignored? Issues like pollution, biodiversity loss, waste, resource use, and habitat protection used to be the focus for enviros, but they’re […]

We Put the Unclear in Nuclear

Potentially deadly uranium spill in Tennessee kept secret As part of its model for a newer, more relevant form of democracy in the 21st century, the U.S. government in 2004 clamped down on the public’s access to information on all things nuclear, for so-called national-security reasons. Hidden in the big ol’ nuclear hidey-hole: news of […]

A report from W. Va.

((mtr_include))

This week, Gabriel Pacyniak and Katherine Chandler are traveling throughout southern West Virginia to report on mountaintop removal mining (MTR). They'll be visiting coalfields with abandoned and "reclaimed" MTR mines, and talking with residents, activists, miners, mine company officials, local reporters, and politicians.

We'll publish their reports throughout the week.

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At the Cabin Creek Rd. exit along Interstate 64, we turn off onto a two-lane drive that follows the creek. We pass from one hollow to another, small communities of West Virginians in the cramped valleys of Appalachia. At the end of the road, atop Kayford Mountain, lives Larry Gibson, the unofficial ambassador of the movement to stop mountaintop removal mining, or MTR. Gibson has been fighting MTR for 22 years, and has over 5,000 visitors signed into his guest book. This includes CNN's Anderson Cooper, who showcased Gibson last week on his 360 Heroes program. It is our first stop on a five-day trip across the coalfields of southern West Virginia, looking at how MTR has changed the landscape 30 years after the passage of the federal Surface Mining Reclamation and Control Act.

From the highway, it is difficult to imagine the devastation that has occurred at the mine site; the green, rolling hills seem to stretch out forever, hidden in the light haze of summer. As we continue up the road, we pass by the houses of local residents and a few community churches, following the dirt fork to the right that takes us over a small bridge. There's still no visible sign of the strip mining taking place all around us, but we do see our first sign of mining's impact -- the one-lane dirt road bridge has been reinforced to hold a 40,000-pound truck.

The blasting area at Kayford Mountain. (photo: Katherine Chandler)

Volunteers get naked for climate awareness, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Dying For a Change That’s One Way to Highlight Shrinkage Lead, Swallow, or Get Out of the Play Scaling Down This Gives Us Paws Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: The Butler Did It Living Piggy Lives Crops and Neighbors

That’s One Way to Highlight Shrinkage

Some 600 nudes pose on receding Swiss glacier Giving climate-change awareness an infusion of sex appeal and highlighting the issue of glacial melt, Greenpeace teamed up with photographer Spencer Tunick over the weekend to bring together 600 volunteers for a nude photo shoot on Switzerland’s Aletsch Glacier. “People posing on the glacier, it’s like they […]

There’s Cash in Them There Fires

Oil fires in Nigeria can be source of cash for impoverished residents Some residents in Nigeria’s oil-rich river delta have resorted to setting fires to an oil pipeline to force companies like Shell to pay citizens to enter the area to put out the fire. One of the most recent blazes, which was extinguished only […]

Back to Mystery Meat

Organic-lunch project pulled out of Chicago elementary school A school-lunch chef has pulled his Organic School Project out of a Chicago elementary school after district officials balked at his plans to expand the program to more schools. The first and only organic meal program in the nation’s third-largest school district had also provided Alcott Elementary […]