Posted on Jul 09 2008 at 12:02 pm by dooley (see my profile)
As we all know, the climate is changing with disastrous consequences. Last week's New Yorker has a harrowing account of the current predictions . . . and, sorry for the downer, but with massive population displacements, vast food and water shortages, environmental collapse, and raging regional and global conflicts, I think it's safe to say that the world as we know it is ending.
Coal is, of course, a main culprit in our global demise and much of our power in NYC comes from that dirty fuel. As it turns out, our coal mainly comes from West Virginia and the process used to extract that coal -- mountain top removal -- is rapidly destroying the mountains, ecosystems, and communities of that state.
My friend Rory, who works down in West Virginia as an organizer for the communities affected by mountain top removal, has helped organize a festival in NYC this weekend -- the NY Loves Mountains Festival. If you're around this weekend and you can, please check it out.
The research on all of this is astounding. With the technology available and physical conditions perfect for generating all of NY's power needs from wind and solar energy, we're buying huge amounts of coal from West Virginia. Not only does this, of course, contribute tremendously to global warming, but it cripples West Virginia as well.
Coal in West Virginia isn't removed anymore by coal miners traveling deep into the earth (not that that's better...), it's instead removed by blowing the tops off of mountains, removing layers of coal, and blowing off the next layer of mountain until the mountains are mostly or totally gone. Over 450 mountains have been destroyed so far. Southern Appalachia is thought to be the second-most biodiverse region on the planet and is home to many communities of people -- all of this, however, is rapidly disappearing with mountain top removal.
Coal-mining is a old habit and the corporations associated with coal make obscene amounts of money for a small handful of people -- beyond that, there's no logic for why this highly destructive process continues. The research shows that solar and wind power would create far more jobs and have a far smaller environmental impact.
So, if you can, check out the stuff this weekend. We can't control the past, but anything can happen from here forward . . .
Tags: climate change, global warming, mountain top removal, west virginia, wind power, solar power, new york city, coal
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