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  • Watch Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., talk mountaintop-removal mining on Colbert

    Activist and all-around handsome dude Robert F. Kennedy talked mountaintop-removal mining and The Last Mountain with Stephen Colbert Wednesday night, and taught Stephen about why mountains are not actually renewable resources.

  • Tim DeChristopher and the March on Blair Mountain

    “I went in thinking that I was sacrificing my freedom by taking such an action. This is not really the case. The sacrifice had happened before: when I had spent years being obedient to a system that is powerful and destructive; when I accepted the myth I had no power to change things; when I […]

  • National coal expert: ‘Mining is a loser’ in practically every way

    Anytime coal’s cost to America is discussed, the coal industry reflexively talks about what an economic lifeline it is for the states in which it operates. Headwaters Economics, a Bozeman-based think tank focusing on natural resource issues, has a solid new study that’s getting national attention for undercutting those claims. For instance, the Headwaters study […]

  • This is what mountaintop-removal mining looks like

    This series of photographs from NASA's Landsat 5 satellite, taken over 26 years from 1984 to 2010, shows the toll mountaintop-removal mining takes on a landscape. You can watch the bombed-out area expand, and see that the "restored" scars never look quite the same. For a close-up look at the effects of mountaintop removal mining, […]

  • Appalachia Keeps Rising

    Without question, one of the most rewarding organizing experiences I have ever been a part of was the “Appalachia Rising” mobilization in late September of last year. Appalachia Rising consisted of three very successful days of action in Washington, D.C.: a two-day weekend conference, followed by a Monday morning march of 2,000 people to the […]

  • James Fallows discussion and Last Mountain film screening

    On February 1, 2011, Grist hosted a screening of the new documentary The Last Mountain—a look at the fight against mountain top coal removal in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley.  Prior to the film, Grist founder and head honcho extraordinaire, Chip Giller, sat down with director Bill Haney and James Fallows of The Atlantic for […]

  • What is coal’s true cost?

    For coal, the real costs outweigh the benefits.Photo: Andrea AbbottPaul Epstein, associate director of the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment, will publish a study entitled, “Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal,” later this month. The study has 10 coauthors, including public health and environment experts. A news release explains […]

  • On Valentine’s Day, activists show love for mountains with sit-in and march

    Activists in the Kentucky governor’s office.Photo: Chad Berry This post originally appeared at Facing South. This Valentine’s Day marks the fourth day of a historic sit-in at the Kentucky governor’s office calling for an end to mountaintop removal. Meanwhile, thousands of Kentuckians are gathering outside in the state capital of Frankfort for the “I Love […]

  • What was the most sustainable cinema at Sundance 2011?

    Grist's Jennifer Prediger set out to see some of the most sustainable selections on the silver screen at Sundance last week.