It’s Getting Hot In Here

While Eric Blevins is holding out up in the trees with fellow activists Amber and David to successfully halt blasting at Coal River Mountain, I’d like to share with you some inspiring words which he delivered this past December at a protest at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in Charleston.  Eric spoke on behalf of Mountain Justice, and was joined on the stage by the likes of former WV congressman Ken Hechler and Robert Kennedy Jr.  The genuine and profound framing and delivery of Eric’s speech has stuck with me since that day.  And as he sits up there, defending this mountain, I hope his words inspire you, as well.

Mountain Justice is a regional movement, moving to abolish mountaintop removal. And this region unites us. Whether we live in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia or Alabama, we are united by these mountains.  Appalachia unites us.

These mountains are divine creations.  They deserve our love and respect.  The people who live in these mountains are divine creations.  They deserve our love and respect.  The plants and animals who live in these mountains are divine creations.  They deserve our love and respect.   The fresh mountain air and fresh mountain spring water are divine creations.  They deserve our love and respect.  We must love the creator and all of the creator’s creation.  If we all give them the love and respect they deserve, then they will heal us every day, for generations and generations into the future.  If we continue to desecrate and destroy them, they will leave us, probably within a generation.

Coal River Mountain is a divine creation.  It deserves our love and respect and it deserves to live.

Continue reading ‘These Mountains are Divine Creations’

9 days of training, service and action
for environmental justice in the coal fields
9 more nails in the coffin of dirty coal!

In less than five weeks, you’ll have a chance to get totally plugged into the growing movement to end mountaintop removal and bring justice to the coal fields. Come to Eastern Tennessee, March 7-15 for Mountain Justice Spring Break, where we will share the skills and knowledge needed to fight back against dirty coal. This will be an amazing opportunity to meet and join the good people who make up Mountain Justice, gain grassroots organizing skills, and learn the dirty truth about coal, with your own eyes. Stand up and take action at the site of the TVA coal ash disaster and stand in solidarity with the impacted communities.

You can visit mjsb.org right now and register for what is bound to be a life-changing experience.

Continue reading ‘Mountain Justice Spring Break 2009!’

This rough week for coal continued yesterday, as Rising Tide Boston (RTB) acted in solidarity with those who took a stand at Coal River Mountain, earlier that day. Steve Leer, CEO of Arch Coal, the second largest coal supplier in the U.S., attempted to deliver a public lecture on “clean coal technology” at Harvard University last night. Not only was the crowd less than receptive to the coal baron’s sad defense of coal, the final word was delivered by members of RT Boston.

Continue reading ‘Arch Coal CEO talks up “clean coal” at Harvard lecture: Epic Fail’

What better way to celebrate the next commercial holiday than spotlighting the role of the banking behemoth Bank of America in the systematic destruction of ecosystems and oppression of working families?

Although BofA recently hatched an “ill timed PR ploy” swearing off MTR, they continue to fund coal extraction, as well as widespread oppression, from Black Mesa at Four Corners to the coal fields in Eastern Tennessee, to the urban communities in Mattapan… unless…

This Valentine’s Day, we do something about it.

Hot of the desk of Rising Tide Boston, in solidarity with City Life/Vide Urbana

*NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION*

BREAK UP WITH BANK OF AMERICA ON VALENTINES DAY
FEB 14th, 2009: MASS DAY OF ACCOUNT CLOSURES
STOP ALL EVICTIONS AND FORECLOSURES!
STOP FINANCING COAL AND CLIMATE CHANGE!

Contact: valentinesday@risingtideboston.org
Continue reading ‘Tell Bank of America: “It’s Over”’

While it’s important to celebrate our victories, and keep a positive momentum, we know that the fight is far from over.  Bank of America’s new “coal policy” is nothing more than a PR ploy, and we must not be distracted.

A message, from the core of Rising Tide Boston:

Rising Tide Boston not fooled by Bank of America’s “Coal Policy”; plans to break up with them this Valentine’s Day

Contact: info@risingtideboston.org

Rising Tide Boston wishes to announce that the group will continue its part in the widespread campaign to pressure Bank of America to drop its involvement with the coal industry, despite the bank’s recent release of a new “Coal Policy”. We view this so-called policy as a PR gimmick intended to distract the public from Bank of America’s ongoing funding of the coal industry. Bank of America’s Coal Policy fails to commit to a timeline or any concrete action to halt their financing of mountain top removal coal mining, and the alternatives the bank pledges to support are not solutions at all.

Bank of America claims that they will “phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountain top removal.” Without having any sort of schedule, there is no way to know that Bank of America actually intends to follow through on their stated plan. If the bank’s intention is a “phase out” over a number of years, what does that mean for places being bombed or covered in toxic sludge every day? If and when Bank of America does drop companies like Massey Energy, we hope they would extend this action to all companies wreaking havoc on ecosystems and coalfield communities through strip mining.

Continue reading ‘Rising Tide Boston to Bank of America: We’re still breaking up with you.’