It’s Getting Hot In Here

Authored by: Lydia Courtright and Julia Peckinpaugh – student interns with the Kentucky Beyond Coal Campaign.

Over one year ago the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash storage facility in Kingston, TN gave way – spilling over one billion gallons of toxic coal ash into the surrounding community.  Even today, the devastating impacts of the coal slurry spill on nearby family homes and surrounding ecosystem have imprinted our memories.  The incident also leads us to beg the question, “what happened urgency sense of commitment to remedy the issue so that other communities would be safe from future spills?”.

TVA coal ash spill Dec, 2009

We know that over the past year – since the disaster – the has EPA concluded that coal ash and other coal plant waste materials, are highly toxic, and should not be stored in wet ponds or discharged into ground or surface waters. According to the agency, coal ash contains heavy metals, including selenium, mercury, arsenic, and lead, and has caused documented damage to community health and ecosystems across the country. Continue reading ‘Administration Must Act to Classify Coal Ash As Hazardous Waste’

Written for Alumni News, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

I feel helpless when asked to describe Antarctica. It is the command centre of our world’s ecosystems, yet the slightest mention of the word ‘Antarctica’ renders your mind to a place seemingly farther and more foreign to humankind than the moon. Only through poetry could anyone even begin to do it justice. A summary of the experience is just the tip of the ice berg, but I have a feeling might be worth it.

Continue reading ‘Just the Tip of the Iceberg…’

Previous blogs about this here for an update, here for another update, and here to learn how to help.

Update of the Navajo Nation Desert Rock Blockade (9:30 p.m. MST, 12/21/06), as posted by Tom Goldtooth, Director, Indigenous Environmental Network

All your calls to the Navajo Nation today have been working! As of this late evening, we heard from the people at the Blockade that the Navajo police have NOT made any arrests (yet).

All the supporters must understand that from late morning to early afternoon today, the elders and resisters at the Blockade, for all intentions and purposes, actually were thinking they were going to be arrested. Reports came in from the Blockade that there were up to 21 numerous types of police, ambulance and tribal ranger vehicles ascending on the site. According to Dailan Jake Long, the media contact at the Blockade, some of the tribal police came all the way from Tuba City, Arizona, in addition to local Shiprock, New Mexico police vehicles.
Continue reading ‘NO ONE ARRESTED – YOUR CALLS WORKED – UPDATE AS OF TONIGHT’

Strange Air Today. December 15, 2006 – Photo and Text by John Blair at ValleyWatch.net.

Regional particulate pollution is on the rise today and there are reports from parents in Warrick County of “unusual smells” in the air. Rising temperatures, reaching near the 70s are causing morning fogs but the particle levels keep visibility low. This photo was taken on an aerial survey today.

The Rockport Power Plant, operated by the Indiana Michigan Electric Company, is a subsidiary of American Electric Power. Rockport supplies electricity to northeastern Indiana and southern Michigan leaving its considerable pollution legacy in southwest indiana, more than three hundred miles from its market.

In 2002, the last data available, Rockport emitted:
• 16,837,252 tons of Carbon Dioxide
• 53,196 tons of Sulfur Dioxide
• 34,243 tons of Nitrogen Oxide
and a whopping 806 pounds of neurological poison mercury.

When I interviewed the former president of the company in 1978, asking about those large emissions figures, he replied, “Well, there is an awful lot of air out there.”
Find out more about Indiana’s power plant emissions

So, tonight’s a big night for me… I’ll be giving a speech to about 650 people at a benefit for the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition. It’s an amazing concert here in Montreal, organized by a group called PoP Montreal, which does music and activism stuff. Montreal is a pretty active, pretty progressive and fairly political city, being both one of the biggest college towns in North America (5 big universities + more than 10 colleges) and one of the very cheapest. Something we don’t talk a lot about in the global warming circles, save for our EJ talks, is the connection between affluence, oppression and climate change. For me, if I couldn’t afford to go to school and live, I couldn’t spend time doing the work of advocacy and outreach. This is how it breaks down: average tuition in quebec for a year = ~$2000, my apartment monthly rent incl. all bills = $300, food = ~$50/week… my income is usually around $1200 a month, part time, making this all possible. I Know that ain’t the situation in many places.

Continue reading ‘Save Frosty – Stop Global Warming’

“No, Danny, you can’t fly to Cape Verde tomorrow. You’ve exceeded your carbon allowance.”

“Dad, that’s so unfair!”

Think this scenario is unbelievable in more ways than one? Not so! A report commissioned by British Environment Secretary David Miliband outlines the procedure for a personal carbon trading scheme. Read today’s story for more. Take a hike, Piggy Bank!

So “Greener Harvard: Title II” passing at Harvard is not the only exciting news from here this week! There’s also a group of students, faculty, and staff interested in starting an organic farm in our new campus in Allston. Ryan Buckley and I put together this video for the $25,000 grant competition from mtvU and Billy Parish said I should post it here… so this is my first blog post ever. I am really hoping that it works, and I also hope that you enjoy the movie!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/jY6u52okRBA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

That’s right, you heard it. Solar Photovoltaics (PVs) are cost-effective. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

Two important news stories:

1) The 40% conversion efficiency threshold has been reached and surpassed. According to the U.S. Department of Energy itself, PVs are now “producing electricity at a cost of 8-10 cents per kilowatt/hour, making solar electricity a more cost-competitive and integral part of our nation’s energy mix.”

2) Even more compelling, one company is giving away PV cost savings, through a no-cost rental program. According to an article called No Excuses for Not Buying Green Power, they have “used financial engineering and a complete redesign of the solar electric business model to make solar economic for homeowners in forty U.S. states and to build a 40% to 50% cost advantage over their competitors.” That’s right, cost SAVINGS through home photovoltaics. The company is willing to put up everything, from production to installation, for free.

… and the violent response that this innocent action recieved…

Side Note The climate activist in question has a law degree from one of the most prestigeous universities in Canada (and never had a professor with leather patches on his/her suit jacket).

Here is another youtube about how GM killed the electric street car.

Hey rad Climate activists,

Don’t let the lazy bug get you this winter break. Take action in your neighborhood, whether you’re staying put or going to stay with family or whatever else.

Visit Santa! And get some flyers going door to door (well, door to naughty door).

Christmas Police. Need I say more?