Get Arrested with James Hansen to stop MTR!

On June 23rd Dr. James Hansen, a leading climate scientists and environmental hero, will join community members in Coal

photo by Vivian Stockman of OVEC

River Valley, West Virginia to launch a year of activism to end mountaintop removal coal mining. Blowing the tops off of mountain ranges to harvest dirty coal harms the people and places of Appalachia, destroys the economic potential of the Appalachian Mountains for clean energy opportunities and furthers the burning of climate killing coal.

Dr. Hansen and the people of West Virginia need you and as many friends as you can muster to come to West Virginia on June 23rd to help build the wave of activism needed to stop mountaintop removal this year.

This is the year we must stop the most ecologically and culturally destructive form of strip mining on earth.

WHEN: 12:00pm-3:00pm, Tuesday June 23rd

WHERE: Marsh Fork Elementary, 8801 Coal River Rd Naoma, WV 25140

WHAT: At Marsh Fork Elementary at 12:00 noon Dr. Hansen and MTR impacted community members will begin the day by speaking out about the problems with MTR. The elementary school is next to a mountaintop removal mine operated by Massey Energy; threatening children with chemicals and coal dust, and just 400 yards downslope from a 2.8 billion gallon coal sludge impoundment (if the impoundment were breached there would be less than three minutes to evacuate the School). At 1:00pm the crowd will march a short distance to Massey Energy’s office of operations. Standing in defiance at the Massey Energy property line of a mountaintop removal mining operation, Dr. Hansen, 94-year-old former Representative Hechler and dozens of Coal River Valley residents will risk arrest in a line crossing civil disobedience. This is the next big step in stopping mountaintop removal where it starts.

For more information, please contact Annie Sartor at: annie [at] ran [dot] org

Mountaintop removal, the world’s worst strip mining, is unacceptable. Period. Join the fight to end mountaintop removal coal mining on June 23rd.

About Liz

While at the University of North Carolina, Liz led one of the first successful campus renewable energy campaigns in the southeast and won the Morris K. Udall scholarship in both 2002 & 2003. She organized the first Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference April 2-4, 2004, to engage other Southern schools beyond UNC in energy and climate work. In the summer of 2004 she became a co-founding member of Energy Action Coalition, which she has been actively involved with since then. She co-chaired the Energy Action Coalition Steering Committee for 2 years and is Executive Director of the Southern Energy Network, which works with students in the Southeast on clean energy and climate initiatives as part of Energy Action Coalition's Campus Climate Challenge. In late fall 2005, she attended the UN Climate Negotiations in Montreal and helped start www.itsgettinghotinhere.org . In 2008, she joined the board of the Highlander Research and Education Center (www.highlandercenter.org).

10 Responses to “Get Arrested with James Hansen to stop MTR!”

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1 andrewmunn Jun 17th, 2009 at 11:24 pm

If I were anywhere within 1,000 miles of this action, I would go.

Keep up the great work in Appalachia!
2 scott johnson Jun 19th, 2009 at 10:03 pm

This sounds like a bad idea. If we end MTR tomorrow and the price of coal goes to $300.00 a ton, how are we going to pay our electric bill when it hits $500.00 a month?
3 StewartIII Jun 22nd, 2009 at 12:05 am

Coal CEO Challenges NASA’s Hansen to a Global Warming Debate
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/06/21/coal-ceo-challenges-nasas-hansen-global-warming-debate
4 W. A. Grasmeder Jun 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 am

I’m in the same boat, where I can’t make the action. Don’t worry, though! I hear there’s stuff planned for just about every other week this summer. Plenty of chances to get your voice heard and show the world what democracy really looks like.
5 Fnfcst Jun 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm

Our taxpayer dollars funds his research at NASA. As a public employee, he is by law, restricted from activities of this kind. James Hansen should be fired.
6 Jimmy Haigh Jun 22nd, 2009 at 5:42 pm

Youth Climate Movement, eh? Thank God there was no blogosphere when I was a youth because I would probably have contributed to this kind of total crap as well. At least I can’t look back on what I would have written then and die from embarrassment.

Really guys. Grow up!
7 Sean G Jun 22nd, 2009 at 8:23 pm

Oh, I don’t know. Seems like a pretty efficient way to get the coal out, and the badly needed jobs into WV.
8 John A Jun 22nd, 2009 at 9:42 pm

But if James Hansen gets arrested, then how will he debate Dan Blankenship?
9 W. A. Grasmeder Jun 25th, 2009 at 12:08 am

Sean, the problem is that Mountain Top Removal ensures a lower job rate in WV for an extended period of time. This form of coal mining is actively removing jobs from the area.