The mothman, the giant supposedly human-like flying creature first spotted in Point Pleasant, West Virginia back in the 1960s has made its return to the popular consciousness once again it seems — with images recently taken (on 20 November 2016) by an unidentified man now making the rounds on the internet. While certainly nowhere near
It doesn’t take rocket science to draw a line between pollutants in small streams and wetlands and water quality downstream. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have united to propose a rule that will strengthen the Clean Water Act, applied to safeguard American water quality since 1972. The rule will
Seven thousand light years away a recently discovered super dense binary star system is proving itself to be the ideal test case for verifying a prediction made by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity (GR) back in 1915. The binary system is composed of a white dwarf star encircling a fast-spinning type of
West Virginia is one of the nation’s biggest coal-producing states. But both the production and treatment of coal produce major health risks for our local residents. Many residents in West Virginia are adversely effected by the coal industry and have been protesting for decades, especially against mountaintop removal coal mining.
Coal plays a massive part in not only the economy of the United States, but also the lives of its citizens. Nearly 45% of the electricity generated in the U.S. comes from coal, which is about twice as much as natural gas and four times as much as renewable sources of energy. While many
Here are three good activism stories I wanted to cover in more depth this week but never found the time to:
A 6.0 earthquake shook far beyond its epi-center in Mineral, Virginia; shaking was felt from as far north as Rhode Island, New York and as far south as Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Starting at approximately 1:51 PM at the epi-center 3.7 miles beneath the surface, reports are varying as to how long the quake lasted; best estimates are only a few seconds.
Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has made head lines lately as he fights public health efforts that would raise costs for the coal industry, while financially he is making millions of dollars from a private coal company…
Eco-chaplaincy is a form of inter-religious and secular ‘spiritual’ support for people engaged in environmental and social justice work to help prevent burn-out and inspire and
sustain long-term vision.
Some top green activism stories form the past week or so (that we didn’t cover,.. or pieces of them we didn’t cover)….
A recent Harvard Medical School study took a long look at the entire industrial coal process – extraction, transport, processing and combustion — crunched the numbers, and came up with a rather shocking tally:
“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.”
West Virginia’s new job growth brings landfills, drug rehab centers, 4-wheeler trails, and prisons. Now, that’s what I call progress. If coal is such a good thing for West Virginia, then why do they need more prisons and drug rehab centers in mining communities? West Virginia also became the first U.S. state to have “natural decrease” where deaths
A recent report from the West Virginia Racing Commission has revealed that over 152 greyhound dogs have been euthanized, due to injuries acquired while racing, since 2005. The injuries occur because of the design of the tracks’ first turn. I would think that a greyhound racetrack that makes thousands on a daily basis could afford
West Virginia coal miners have always taken pride in supplying energy to the world. Although their work hours are long and the hazards of the job are many. They reluctantly dig coal to support their families, because there are no other opportunities for these hard working individuals. In a state that is politically controlled by
Here’s some of the biggest global warming and environmental politics news and commentary from the last week or so, along with some fun cartoons. Rocket Fuel in Our Water? The inspiration for the cartoon above, among other things: information that there is rocket fuel (or a component of it) in water supplies across the U.S.
Top climate, environmental, and animal activism stories from around, in my opinion: Industry Group Portrays West Virginia Pro-Coal Rally As a ‘Call to Arms’ There was plenty of early industry backlash to EPA’s historic decision last week to veto the permit for Arch Coal’s planned mega-mine in Appalachia, as I wrote about last week. More recently,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSP2Ju8ojUU Finally, we’re going to get a movie on mountaintop removal coal mining, especially focusing in on Massey Energy (the company that wouldn’t let its workers take off to attend the funerals of some of the miners that died in an explosion in 2010) and a particular mountain in West Virginia, it seems. The Last
Since we had plenty of news last Friday and I was heading out of town, I decided to leave our weekly roundup of global weirding and environmental news (that we didn’t already cover) to Monday. Here’s the global weirding portion. Climate: Student Reporters Take on Climate Change and Security Coincidences abound—just after posting an item
One of our faithful readers and supporters, WV Outpost, recently wrote an interesting, powerful, and moving article on some of her and her family’s experiences living in the heart of coal country. She is living in West Virginia and her and her husband have to write under false names for their own safety there. At
Mountaintop removal is something we cover on here pretty frequently. It is the horrible process of blowing the tops off mountains to get out dirty coal to burn for electricity, which then contributes greatly to global warming, water pollution, air pollution, and other problems. Luckily, we are not the only ones concerned about this issue
Timothy Hurst of ecopolitology and I went on a thorough search for the best and worst campaign ads of 2010 (as concerns the environment) recently. In other words, we compiled the best “pro-environment” ads and the most ridiculous “anti-environment” ads of the 2010 election season. If you are interested in getting inspired, having a laugh,
Mountaintop removal coal mining is bad stuff. It is destroying habitats and communities, poisoning people, and annihilating ancient mountains and national treasures. Appalachia Rising!, a national response to the unmitigated destruction of Appalachia’s mountains, air and water through mountaintop removal coal mining started today in Washington, D.C. Individuals from around the country, grassroots groups and organizations,
