Through recorded audio, we got to expose API’s upcoming “Vote4Energy” campaign, which debuts January first on CNN during major political programs. Audio recordings from inside the Vote4Energy commercial shoot can be found on the Greenpeace website, and on Yahoo News. More can also be found at the Checks and Balances Project, where Deputy Director and youth climate leader Gabe Elsner has more recordings from inside the shoot.

Continue reading ‘Climate Activist Punks Big Oil’s “Vote4Energy” Commercial Shoot’

The situation at the damaged nuclear reactors in Fukushima is dire. Two days ago, three workers were exposed to water containing radioactive materials 10,000 times the normal level in the basement of Reactor No. 3.  This reactor is especially dangerous because it contains MOX fuel, a mixture of uranium and plutonium.  And, things got worse yesterday.  The Japanese authorities have now said that the reactor vessel in unit 3 may have breached, which means that much greater amounts of radiation from the MOX fuel could be released.

There are many ways to view the communities impacted by industrial activity. Brett Ciccotelli is paddling a kayak solo from Pittsburgh, PA to New Orleans, LA for the next couple of months. He plans to document the impact of energy, in particular coal, on that watershed and its communities. I will occasionally cross post his updates for this community. If you have a chance to stop and see him along the way, he will be taking out at towns along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Coal smoke over the Ohio River.

On December 2, 1875 Nathaniel H. Bishop launched a small boat into the Monongahela (Mon) River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After several hours the Mon joined the ice covered Allegheny and the two rivers below his “sneakbox” the Centennial Republic became a third, the Ohio. Three years later he published an account of his trip from Pittsburgh to the Gulf of Mexico. In it he describes the region around Pittsburgh:

“The use of the soft bituminous coal in the towns along the river, and also by the steamboats navigating it, filled the valley with clouds of smoke. These clouds rested upon everything. Your five senses were fully aware of the presence of the disagreeable, impalpable something surrounding you. Eyes, ears, taste, touch, and smell, each felt the presence. Smoky towns along the banks gave smoky views. Smoky chimneys rose high above the smoky foundries and forges, where smoke-begrimed men toiled day and night in the smoky atmosphere.”

And later in Wheeling, West Virginia he writes of smoke and soot that coated his small boat and of an oily shine that covered the river for miles downstream.

One hundred and thirty-six year later dark clouds no longer linger over Pittsburgh or blacken the fresh snow…

Read the rest of the article here: http://banksofthebasin.com/2011/03/11/coal-smoke-over-the-ohio-river/

Continue reading ‘Coal Smoke Over the Ohio River’

This is an incredibly inspiring story of 10,000 Thai citizens protesting a coal plant in their region yesterday. This blog has lost some of its global content recently, so I thought it good to be reminded that the struggle for clean energy solutions and a global draw-down of green house gasses reaches across the planet. Incredible to see so many people come out for this. Here in my home country of the US we get excited when 3,000 people converge to protest dirty energy, we really do need to continue to aim high.

Here are some highlights from Greenpeace and various news outlets:

“On Thursday, 10,000 residents of Tha Sala District in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province formed a “human chain” as a symbol of their determination to protect their district from the coal-fueled power plant slated to be built by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT),” according to a press release by the protest organizer, Greenpeace Southeast Asia….

Continue reading ’10,000 Thai Citizens Take Action for Clean Energy’

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the fight to quit coal. One of the least reported and yet most compelling new set of facts illustrating how irresponsible it is to burn coal for electricity is a new study soon to be published by Dr. Paul Epstein at Harvard University. Here is an excerpt from a blog by Kert Davies over at Greenpeace:

“The paper details all the factors that are not quantifiable like lost work time when a mother has to take her child with to the doctor for an asthma attack or the cost to a family for the lost of a loved one or wage earner.

“The monetizable impacts found are damages due to climate change; public health damages from NOx, SO2, PM2.5, and mercury emissions; fatalities of members of the public due to rail accidents during coal transport; the public health burden in Appalachia associated with coal mining; government subsidies; and lost value of abandoned mine lands.”

The abstract of the of paper tells the whole story:

Each stage in the life cycle of coal—extraction, transport, processing, and combustion—generates a waste stream and carries multiple hazards for health and the environment. These costs are external to the coal industry and thus are often considered as “externalities.” We estimate that the life cycle effects of coal and the waste stream generated are costing the U.S. public a third to over one-half of a trillion dollars annually. Many of these so-called externalities are, moreover, cumulative. Accounting for the damages conservatively doubles to triples the price of electricity from coal per kWh generated, making wind, solar, and other forms of non fossil fuel power generation, along with investments in efficiency and electricity conservation methods, economically competitive. We focus on Appalachia, though coal is mined in other regions of the United States and is burned throughout the world.

Continue reading ‘$500 Billion True Cost of Coal: New Harvard Study’

Hi All,

Yesterday’s Appalachia Rising was an incredibly inspiring event.  It was great to meet folks from the coal fields who live with the extraction costs of this dirty source of energy, and amazing to see them risk arrest to protest at our nation’s capital. Another environmental justice issue threatening communities around the country is the end product of burning coal, the waste.  Today, Greenpeace activists unfurled a banner at the coal ash hearing in Louisville, Kentucky telling the EPA: Protect People Not Polluters! Here’s a cross-post from my friend Robert:

Protect People, Not Polluters

Blogpost by Robert Gardner – September 28, 2010 at 9:12 AM

Highlighting the need for federal standards to protect public health from hazardous coal waste, activists unfurled a banner at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville this morning that read “EPA: PROTECT PEOPLE, NOT POLLUTERS.” The peaceful protest was held at the location of EPA’s Coal Ash public hearing on two vastly different proposals for the regulation of coal ash disposal.

Activists took this step to ensure that the EPA establishes federal minimum standards for toxic coal ash that protect our communities and the environment.

Continue reading ‘Greenpeace Unfurls Banner at EPA Coal Ash Hearing’

Another round of applause for the youth who showed up to confront Big Coal at the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Here’s a video that captures not only the youth action, but some impressive words from the committee members. Enjoy

Greenpeace Rescue Unit on Scene!

Washington, D.C., United States — Greenpeace activists and emergency vehicles descend on the Chamber of Commerce in response to a climate emergency.

This global warming crime scene was quickly taped off by Greenpeace activists as a hostage negotiator attempted to make contact with the group. Tension mounted as the negotiator and activists attempted to convince the Chamber to “put down the coal, step away from the climate talks, and set the world free.”

The Greenpeace climate crime unit intervened at the scene of the crime, confronting the lobbyists who work for the very industries who create and profit from criminal climate destruction.

The Chamber and its clients have a history of climate crimes, and clearly their motive is to maintain the obscene profits of their clients. Already, an estimated 300,000 people die every year as a result of the global warming that the Chamber’s clients contribute to.  In the coming year, it’s crucial that President Obama not allow climate criminals like industry lobbyists to handcuff progress on global warming.

Continue reading ‘Climate Talks Held Hostage!’

SHARE THIS VIDEO: Join @GreenpeaceUSA and @350 for a day of Action on October 24 http://ow.ly/tXId

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/getinvolved/102409

All over the country and world on October 24th, people will be taking action to demonstrate our global collective desire to see a change in the politics and see urgent action to rescue the climate. We need world leaders to go to the international negotiations and achieve a treaty that is fair ambitious and binding, and we need out local leaders to help spur on our clean energy future and end fossil-fuel-based energy. Here in the US we need to send a strong message to president Obama to be our leader and fulfill the hope of the world that the US will lead the fight to save the climate.  Join us, or register your own event.

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/getinvolved/102409