Here’s a recent article in Boston Globe about the struggles in Appalachia. The article says that coal’s recent ascent as fuel for electricity has sparked a “debate”, but if you live in Appalachia and stand against King Coal it’s a lot more than a debate. Maria Gunnoe –mother, neighbor, environmentalist, community organizer and Appalachian resident– has stood [...]

Blue Ridge Earth First! and Mountain Justice Summer did a little anti-coal caroling at a Bank of America in Charlottesville. “Activists with Blue Ridge Earth First! (BREF)and VCU SDS (VCU Students for a Democratic Society) gathered at noon Tuesday inside the Bank of America branch on the downtown mall in Charlottesville to tell bank management “Divest [...]

On the same day as my birthday—December 19th—America received some disheartening news that the Environmental Protection Agency denied California and 16 other states the right to set their own standards for greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. The emissions standards California proposed in 2004 — but never approved by the federal government — would have [...]

Can the palm oil industry really fail to tell when they have crossed all lines? Apparently not. The latest story comes from Woodlark Island, 130 miles of the coast of Papua New Guinea. This 80,000 ha tropical island is home to the nineteen endemic species, including the Woodlark Cuscus, as well as 6,000 indigenous residents [...]

Here’s an old GE Video I recently stumbled upon. It’s a 2005 recipe to sell “clean coal” from General Electric’s “Eco-magination.” 1. Dress some super-models up like coal miners 2. Oil their bodies up and set them loose in an underground mine 3. Co-opt a traditional anti-corporate anti-mining folksong, Sixteen Tons. 4. Throw in some lines like: “Now, thanks to [...]

If you haven’t watched The Story of Stuff, you should. Just bookmark this blog post, go watch it, and then come back. OK, great. I watched this fantastic little movie last week and although I’d heard nearly all of the info before, I came away so impressed with the its style, presentation, accessibility and substance. I [...]

So, after 8 years of debate, the Department of Energy finally announced the location for it’s FutureGen prototype “cleanER”coal plant this morning. Mattoon, Illinois. It was once hailed as a “clean coal” and “zero emissions” project, but now it’s merely “Cleaner coal” and “near-zero emissions” project. At least there’s a dab of honesty there. While I [...]

This week, Sam, one of our kick ass RAN NYC activists paid a visit to an investor’s conference featuring Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis. Check it out: “The Goldman Sachs investors conference was held in the Cotillion room of the Pierre hotel. Famous for hosting some of the best performers in New York I couldn’t wait [...]

King Coal sighed a big breath of relief last week, their friend and flunkie, WV Gov. Joe Manchin joined the coal industry as a friend of the court opposing two federal court rulings that would impose new regulations on mountaintop coal mining. Let me say that again, Joe Manchin came out against federal regulations that would [...]

There’s few details available, but it sounds like action may be brewing in Grassy Narrows. The message below was forwarded along with this eviction notice late last night from Judy Da Silva, a clan mother and one of many women leading the grassroots effort to end clearcut logging there. These 4 women are out there right now [...]