Citizens converged in Raleigh yesterday to demand that political leadership begin to address the challenge of climate change. North Carolina House Rep. Pricey Harrison reminds the crowd that the state legislature belongs to the people. She recently re-introduced the Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act that would a) ban the burning of mountaintop-removal coal in the state, b) put into place comprehensive rules for the storage and disposal of coal ash waste, c) place a moratorium on the construction of new coal plants, and d) divest state pension funds from fossil fuels.
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First Annual Climate Convergence in Raleigh, NC
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 | Posted by Sandra Diaz
A Clearcut Connection Between Mountaintop Removal and Climate Change
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 | Posted by Melanie Foley
Mountaintop Removal and other destructive land uses could turn the Southern Appalachians from a carbon sink to a carbon source in as little as 12 years.
Scientists from the universities of Kentucky and California recently released a study detailing the climate implications of coal extraction by mountaintop removal. If coal mining continues at its current pace, the authors predict the next 12 to 20 years will see Southern Appalachian forests switch from a net carbon sink to a net carbon source — meaning the area will emit more carbon than it takes in.
Consequently, ending mountaintop removal may have more environmental benefits than originally realized. The long-standing goals of mountaintop removal opponents have been to protect human lives, improve drinking water, and support ecosystem health. This new research shows that ending this destructive mining practice would also be a victory in the fight against climate change — and not just by moving away from dirty coal.
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Forward on Climate!
Monday, February 18th, 2013 | Posted by Matt Abele
This past weekend’s Forward on Climate rally in Washington, D.C., made it more evident than ever that America is ready for a clean energy future. I arrived on a bus from Asheville, N.C., to join close to 50,000 people from across the country and world. As a collective, we showed up inspired and enthused, ready to bring the fight to the White House.
People gathered around a central stage located next to the Washington Monument to listen to keynote speakers ranging from U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse to indigenous leaders from the U.S. and Canada. These speakers rallied up the crowd as they charged them to stand behind President Obama and make sure he sticks to his promise of a clean energy future by rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and promoting alternatives to coal, gas and oil.
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Appalachian Voices staff attended the rally to support communities that have been devastated by mountaintop removal. We were there to join 167 fellow sponsoring organizations in a call for climate action, but also to remind those calling for major policy shifts that economic diversification in the region must be included in a national strategy to combat climate change.
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President Obama Focuses on Energy Jobs
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013 | Posted by JW Randolph
Climate, Energy, Efficiency Feature as Key Pieces of SOTU
The first “State of the Union” address of President Obama’s second term had a little something for everybody. The President was aggressive about the need to tackle the problem of climate change, while using broad economic language to describe the potential benefits of growth in solar, wind, energy efficiency, and increased oil and gas exploration and consumption.
About the only energy industry the President didn’t throw a verbal bone to was the coal industry. But that doesn’t mean Appalachia isn’t directly implicated in some of the President’s new proposals.
Perhaps most importantly for our region, was how enthusiastically the President pushed rapid American investment in energy efficiency, saying:
I’m also issuing a new goal for America: let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen.
We live right here in the Saudi Arabia of energy waste – the southeastern United States. As such, Appalachian Voices staff and members listened to this proposal with great interest. Energy efficiency is the lowest hanging fruit to negate and replace declining coal demand. It is cheap, clean, and creates loads of good jobs while lowering electricity demand. Few places are better suited to take advantage of the enormous potential of energy efficiency than Appalachia and the southeastern United States, and efforts to use our resources more wisely could provide an out-sized benefit to our historically wasteful region…
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New NC DENR Boss Isn’t Sure About Global Warming
Friday, January 11th, 2013 | Posted by Tabitha Lunsford
Watch as John Skvarla, North Carolina’s new head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, sidesteps a question about climate change (near the end of the video) and supports the continuance of fracking.
As the state pursues more controversial forms of energy production, he believes that “we are not going to go backward in air and water quality protection.”
Is Environmental News Fit to Print?
Friday, January 11th, 2013 | Posted by Molly Moore
The same day The New York Times announced it was closing its environment desk and restructuring its environmental coverage, the paper ran a front-page photo of snow in Jerusalem. The caption describes the photo as "an example of weather extremes that are growing more frequent and more intense." Photo via Newseum
Spotting quality environmental journalism amidst the national media’s 24/7 tornado of he-said-she-said breaking news may have just gotten more difficult.
The New York Times has announced it will close its nine-member environment desk over the next few weeks and assign its environment staff to other departments, according to Katherine Bagley for InsideClimate News.
The best environmental coverage often depends on reporters and editors who are dedicated to the beat. They are experts in their fields. They have reliable sources, know the history of an issue, know what questions to ask and how to navigate sometimes conflicting scientific reports and long policy papers to provide the full scope of complicated issues that readers need. Although the paper’s managing editor for news operations told Bagley that the Times will continue to cover environment and climate, the fact that no one at one of America’s most prominent newspapers will apparently be focused solely on environmental reporting is disturbing.
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A Physician’s Take on Coal Pollution
Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell
"I look at the attacks on EPA as a war on health … The Environmental Protection Agency is working mightily and against increasing odds to really make important public health decisions that are protective of human health and benefit everyone." - Dr. Alan Lockwood in an interview with Earthjustice.
A few weeks after releasing our report, The Human Cost of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining, and helping launch the No More Excuses campaign through iLoveMountains.org, I was turned on to a interview about the impacts to human health during various stages of the coal use cycle.
On Earthjustice’s Down to Earth podcast, Jessica Knoblauch spoke with Dr. Alan Lockwood, the co-chair of the Physicians for Social Responsibility’s Environment and Health Committee and the author of the new book, The Silent Epidemic: Coal and the Hidden Threat to Health.
For its short length, the interview does a great job of touching on coal’s impacts, the importance of regulations that protect human health, and why Lockwood feels it is his responsibility as a physician to educate others in the medical community, legislators and the general public about the true cost of coal. Listen to the full interview below, or read the transcript here.
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Don’t Depress, Divest — Reflections on 350.org’s Climate Change Roadshow
Wednesday, November 21st, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell
Executive director of The Sierra Club, Michael Brune, speaks at the 350.org "Do the Math" tour stop in Durham, N.C.
On Monday, author and environmentalist Bill McKibben and 350.org’s climate change roadshow, the “Do the Math” tour, packed the Page Auditorium at Duke University. The energy in the room was high, the crowd was diverse and full of familiar faces, and maybe I’m just biased, but my younger brother and I couldn’t help but recognize the strength of North Carolina’s environmental community. As we settled into our seats, the house lights dimmed and, anticipating McKibben’s speech, the fellow sitting behind us whispered, “If he gets too gloom and doom, I’m leaving.”
McKibben has become well-known for presenting the stark reality of climate change and the challenges we face in the simplest terms possible. By his own admission as he took the stage, his basic role in life “is to bum people out.” Fortunately, for the group behind me and any other eco-anxious attendees, the “Do the Math” tour isn’t about gloom and doom, it’s about getting down to brass tacks. It’s about going on the offensive, and after fossil fuel companies. Or as McKibben said, the “fossil fuel industry is wrecking the future, so we’re going to take away their money.”
That’s exactly the message of the “Do the Math” tour: If it is not OK to wreck the planet, it is not OK to profit from it. So we, especially universities and large institutions, should divest from them. McKibben put it more eloquently in his most recent column for Orion magazine when he wrote that “It’s completely nonsensical for [universities] to pay for educations with investments that will guarantee there’s no planet on which to make that learning count. Pension funds can’t sensibly safeguard people’s retirements by investing in companies that wreck the future.”
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Working Together for a Clean Energy Future in Virginia
Monday, April 30th, 2012 | Posted by Tom Cormons
I’ve been thinking a lot about the future lately. Our family has a set of newborn twins expected home from the hospital within another week or two, and it’s funny how babies simultaneously awaken you to the present moment and highlight the importance of preparing well for the coming decades and beyond. Kids transform the future from something abstract to something so literally tangible that you regularly hold it in your arms.
There’s the personal side of this, of course – everything from financial planning to the apple and pear trees my four-year-old and I planted in the backyard earlier this year and the new garden beds we’re building. But there’s no escaping the fact that, prepare individually as we might, the fates of our families and offspring – and everything else we care about – are tied to the future of our communities, our society, and the planet itself. To be sure, contemplating this reality can lead to despair for those attuned to the array of threats to our common future. But despair get us nowhere, and there’s something far more useful that comes just as naturally: the excitement of working together to lay the foundation for a bright future in the face of these threats.
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Over the Line
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 | Posted by Thom Kay
A lot has been made of EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas rules, but a quotation from Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) will likely grab the most headlines.
The Navy SEALs shot Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and Lisa Jackson shot us in Washington. – Cecil Roberts, 4/3/12
Sure, it’s pretty offensive, but let’s just focus on how overblown and wrong the statement is.
First of all, the proposed rule would only apply to future coal fired power plants that have not broken ground for construction within the next 12 months. In other words, all of the 1,226 coal fired power plants across the country will have to do exactly nothing under the proposed rule. They will continue to burn the same amount of coal as they would without the rule.
We’ve heard an uproar from the UMWA but there’s a reason environmental groups offered such tame applause. In practice, this rule would not change all that much. According to the proposal, EPA anticipates the rule “will result in negligible changes in GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions over the analysis period (2020).” Hardly worth popping the champagne over. Keep in mind that the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calls for a 25%-40% reduction of GHGs below 1990 levels by 2020 in order to avoid catastrophic impacts from climate change.
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EPA Releases Draft Rule on Mercury Emissions
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 | Posted by Griff Crews
The EPA finally proposed the first national standard regulating coal and oil fired power plants on March 16th. The EPA’s long overdue proposal directly regulates mercury and toxic air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide which causes acid rain. If the regulations are approved 91 percent of mercury and 55 percent of sulfur dioxide from coal burning facilities would be prevented from entering 
the atmosphere.
Power plants are responsible for a startling 99% of mercury pollution as well as the majority of other air pollutants that are produced. Currently, 44 percent of plants do not have equipment to control air pollution. The power industry is the only one of the three major industries that issues toxic air pollutants that is not regulated.
The new EPA regulations would prevent an estimated 6,800-17,000 premature deaths and save the affected communities an estimated $59 billion to $140 billion in health costs each year.
Though the regulations are wonderful news, the EPA’s emphasis on the “much cleaner burning coal” leaves out the environmental and health costs that are accumulated when obtaining the coal to burn “more cleanly.” When will the EPA take into account $74 billion cost of early deaths resulting from coal mine pollution? A recent Harvard study has begun the task of taking the total costs of coal into account. This includes toxic air emissions and impacts from mountaintop removal. While the EPA’s regulations do limit the amount of pollutants coal burning power plants spew into the air, burning coal will never be clean.
-Griff Crews is currently an intern from Appalachian State University where he is studying Communication Studies
Radio Interview: Environmental Concerns for Shenandoah National Park
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 | Posted by Tom Cormons
A babbling brook.
A fall ridge view in the park.
Appalachian Voices’ Virginia Director Tom Cormons was a guest yesterday on a public radio program focused on the impacts of climate change on Shenandoah National Park. A new report from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council focuses on impacts to the park and other special places in Virginia. Tom joined the report’s lead author, Stephen Saunders, and park service Ecologist Jim Schaberi on the program.
You can listen to the program here or here.
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