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All contributor posts in Health and the Environment
November 19, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment
, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- appalachia, coalmining, dirtycoal, EPA, fill, fillrule, interior, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval, MTR, salazar
The Interior Department announced yesterday that it is taking immediate steps to strengthen oversight of state-approved surface coal mining operations -- including mountaintop removal -- and to impose tighter restrictions on the dumping of mining waste in steams. In a statement issued by the agency, Assistant Interior...
November 16, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment
, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- appalachia, coalmining, dirtycoal, EPA, mayflies, mayfly, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval, MTR
When I started my environmental career working as a grassroots coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia, one of my favorite parts of the job involved occasionally accompanying CBF educators on canoe trips to teach students and teachers the...
November 13, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- coalash, coalspill, dirtycoal, EPA, tennessee, tennesseevalleyauthority, TVA
The horror is unimaginable. A community suffering severe health effects, with more than a thousand residents blaming coal ash contamination for causing their sickness, including grisly birth defects in their children. This, according to a recent investigative story in the Miami Herald. Go to the article to see a...
November 12, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment
, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- appalachia, bigkenny, countrymusic, emmylouharris, gibson, kathymattea, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval, MTR, musicsavesmountains, nashville, robertfkennedy, sherylcrow
Nashville is "Music City", the home of country music -- but the heart and soul of this celebrated American musical genre lies a few hundred miles east in the Appalachian Mountains. Yes indeed, Appalachia is where country music was born. And more...
November 11, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment
, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- appalachia, coal, coalmining, dirtycoal, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval, MTR
I have blogged countless times about mountaintop removal, the world's most destructive coal mining. My posts explore the various ecological, economic and cultural harm caused by this reckless strip mining. I've also highlighted specific people and places most affected by the...
October 28, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution
, Health and the Environment
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- coal, coalash, coalpollution, coalspill, coalwaste, dirtycoal, EPA, powerplants
Without a doubt coal is dirty and dangerous. Consider that the nation's power plants spew out 130 million tons of coal combustion waste every year. Much of this so-called coal ash, which is what's left at the bottom of the smokestacks after coal gets burned...
October 27, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution
, Health and the Environment
, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- appalachia, coalmining, dirtycoal, dirtyenergy, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval, MTR, USAToday
Kudos to the USA Today for coming out strong in its opposition to the worst of the worst coal mining: mountaintop removal. Today's excellent, hold-no-punches editorial declares "it's time to protect forests, streams from environmental degradation." It kicks off this way: Buried...
October 27, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution
, Health and the Environment
, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- appalachia, coalmining, coalriver, coalrivermountain, dirtycoal, dirtyenergy, massey, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval, MTR, obama, solar, wind
Let me get this straight. President Obama, touting his administration's support for clean energy, visited Florida yesterday to tour the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, with its solar panels sprawling across 180 acres that can generate power for 3,000 homes. Yet on Coal River...
October 21, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution
, Health and the Environment
, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- airpollution, climate, coal, dirtycoal, globalwarming, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval, MTR
Since many of our elected leaders seem to be worried about costs, they should consider this: fossil fuels cost the United States about $120 billion a year, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences. This cost is measured primarily by thousands...
October 20, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution
, Health and the Environment
, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
, Solving Global Warming
, U.S. Law and Policy
- Tags:
- appalachia, coalmining, corps, dirtycoal, EPA, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval, MTR, water, waterpollution
Now that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has made it clear that mountaintop removal coal mining poses a severe threat to the environment -- most notably to water quality -- in Appalachia, the fate of this abominable practice appears to rest...
October 18, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution
, Health and the Environment
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- coal, coalash, dirtycoal, drinkingwater, water, waterpollution
Are you drinking water contaminated by coal pollution? Apparently, that's what folks living in the shadows of the South Carolina Electric & Gas coal plant fear. A chilling story published in the Charleston Post & Courier tells how local residents "have wondered for years about...
October 16, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution
, Health and the Environment
, Solving Global Warming
, U.S. Law and Policy
- Tags:
- coalash, coalspill, congress, dirtycoal, EPA, kingston, tennessee, tennesseevalleyauthority, TVA
Kudos to Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) for bird-dogging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the need to regulate pollution from coal-fired power plants. Yesterday, Rep. Markey sent a letter to EPA requesting information on the agency's findings related to the...
October 16, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment
, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- appalachia, coalcountry, coalmining, dirtycoal, levelingappalachia, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval, MTR, plunderingappalachia
"You can't put a mountain back." -- Judy Bonds Across the Appalachians, companies are blowing entire mountaintops to smithereens to get at the thin coal seams below. The communities of the region are paying the cost in their health, their...
October 14, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- coalash, coalspill, dirtycoal, EPA, lisajackson, tennessee, TVA, waterpollution
On the heels of last month's jaw-dropping New York Times expose of widespread water pollution in the U.S., the newspaper just published this follow-up story focusing on one of the culprits: pollution from coal-fired power plants. The NYT story highlights...
October 14, 2009
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment
, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- appalachia, coalmining, Corps, corpsofengineers, dirtycoal, EPA, lisajackson, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval, MTR, obama
Right now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is holding public hearings in six Appalachian states on mountaintop removal coal mining. This controversial practice is at long last under intense scrutiny by the Obama administration, with the U.S. Environmental...
