Note: This blog will be updated during the day, with dispatches, video and photos being filed with Stephanie Pistello from the nonviolent march against mountaintop removal in the Coal River Valley, West Virginia.)
"When I get to the other side, I shall tell God Almighty about West Virginia!" -- Mother Jones
"The abuse of the land always goes hand in hand with the abuse of the people." -- Don West
UPDATE: "The Sword of Damocles hangs over Marsh Fork Elementary School."
"I started out an as activist, but founded it necessary to be a hell raiser. We are going to need hellraisers to stop this devastating practice."--Ken Hechler
Video of former US Representative Ken Hechler (D-WV), who introduced the first bill to end mountaintop removal and stripmining in 1971. As a hero to coal miners, Hechler led the campaign for better mining workplace safety and black lung laws and compensation. The 94-year-old Hechler was arrested at the Coal River action, along with coalfield residents and parents, 88-year-old West Virginia activist Winnie Fox, Daryl Hannah, and James Hansen, and Goldman Prize Award winner Judy Bonds, RAN director Michael Brune and many others.
UPDATE: 6pm EST. Goldman Prize Award Winner Attacked. During the rally in front of the Massey Energy coal property today, Coal River Mountain Watch co-director (and 2003 Goldman Prize Award winner) Judy Bonds was reportedly assaulted by a Massey supporter. While Bonds was engaged in a nonviolent protest, the Massey supporter lunged from the line without any provocation and roughly slapped Bonds on the head, ear and jaw. The Massey supporter also attempted an attack on another protestor, Lorelei Scarbro, a coal miner's widow and local community organizer. The Massey supporter was immedidately apprehended by the police and charged with battery, according to news reports.
For more information on Judy Bonds, see: http://www.goldmanprize.org/node/84
The crowd included dozens of Mountain Justice participants who have been active in similar protests since 2005, including getting arrested at the same site. (http://mountainjustice.org/)
UPDATE: 2:30 EST: 94-year-old Ken Hechler, the legendary West Virginia congressman and coal miner hero who has been battling mountaintop removal since 1971 was arrested in a non-violent protest with NASA's celebrated climate scientist James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, Michael Brune, the executive director of Rainforest Action Network, and Goldman Prize winner Judy Bonds. Vietnam veteran Bo Webb, and dozens of other coalfield residents were arrested by crossing onto the property of leading mountaintop removal coal mining company, Massey Energy--purposely trespassing to protest the destruction of mountains immediately above the Coal River Valley community.
Here is Dr. James Hansen getting arrested today: (credit: Antrim Caskey):
In the face of recent Obama administration actions to regulate and not abolish mountaintop removal, which has wiped out 500 mountains and destroyed historic communities, the action launched a yearlong national campaign to bring mountaintop removal to an end.
"I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen," said Dr. James Hansen. "Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures if they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is politically expedient. Mountaintop removal, providing only a small fraction of our energy, should be abolished."
In an interview posted on Huffington Post last month, Hechler made a special appeal to President Barack Obama to stand by his word and end mountaintop removal.
That post is here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/rep-hechler-to-president_b_211996.html
As a massive turnout of state troopers and hundreds of protesters pour into the Coal River Valley, here is today's scene for the historic nonviolent direct action and march in West Virginia: A 2.8 billion gallon toxic coal sludge impoundment behind the earthen Shumate Dam hovers just a couple of football fields above the Marsh Fork Elementary School, while massive mountaintop removal blasts boom daily within a few feet, and where hundreds of concerned parents, families and citizens from around the country have gathered to call to an end to mountaintop removal--for the sake of the children, the coalfield communities, and the Appalachian mountains.
UPDATE: from Stephanie Pistello: 1:30pm EST: The state police allowed the coal supporters to line up along the road and then to proceed into playing field to intermingle with activists. The coal supporters are generally being aggressive towards other rally participants and chanting slogans such as "this is our state". The state police have general allowed aggressively (shouting, physical intimidation, standing very near/sitting on vehicals/equipment) activity and only intervene when asked to (including allowing power cords to be ripped out of the wall to silence the PA system). There are around 10 local media outlets on the scene including 2 live broadcast trucks. Several old time bands played from 11 to 12. Speakers started around noon and include Rev. Jim Lewis (who coal supporters taunted and tried to shout down), retired coal miner Chuck Nelson and Appalachian Voices biologist Matt Wasson (former US Rep. Ken Hechler and Daryl Hannah will speak later.)
Along with NASA climatologist James Hansen, long-time environmental activist and actress Daryl Hannah, retired coal miner Chuck Nelson, and many other national environmental and political figures, the rally and march from Marsh Fork Elementary School to a Goals Coal Prep Plant and Massey Energy mountaintop removal site will be joined by two legendary West Virginia titans: 88-year-old activist Winnie Fox, and 94-year-old former US Representative Ken Hechler.
Here's a photo of Daryl Hannah at the school rally:
Here's the scene from the sky: mountaintop removal blasting near the Shumate coal sludge dam, and the elementary school below:
Over 500 mountains, 1.5 million acres of hardwood forests, and 1,200 miles of streams, along with historic mountain communities, have been destroyed by mountaintop removal.
In a study the last fall by the Ashby-Tucker environmental firm, air quality experts found that the coal dust blanketing the Marsh Fork Elementary School exceeded accepted limits. According to the study, Dr. D. Scott Simonton reported: "My concern about the school is that dust levels not only appear to exceed human health reference levels, but that the dust is largely made up of coal. Coal dust contains silica, trace metals, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), many of which are known human carcinogens. PAH's have been found in dust samples taken at the school. Inhalation of coal dust is known to cause adverse health effects in humans, however, studies of coal dust toxicity are understandably mostly of adult populations. Children are particularly at risk from dust exposure in general, so it is reasonable to assume that coal dust creates an even greater risk for children than it does adults. The sampling to date certainly indicates that dust levels and composition at the school reach a level of concern. Particulate matter at levels found at the school has been shown to cause adverse effects in children."
According to the evacuation plans, if the Shumate Dam and coal sludge impoundment failed--as happened in eastern Kentucky in 2000 and at the TVA coal ash pond--the school children and communities below would have THREE MINUTES to flee.
Born in the eastern Kentucky coalfields, Winnie Fox's first protest took place in 1930, when she insisted on drinking from a segregated water foundation in Huntington, West Virginia, where her family moved when she was a child. A former board director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (ohvec.org)--one of the main organizations in the battle against mountaintop removal--Fox has been involved in stopping reckless pollution in the rivers and watersheds for decades, dating back to her earliest movement against Ashland Oil's pulp mill dumping of toxic material in the waterways.
Fox will be in a wheelchair today, but that will not stop her from risking arrest at the coal prep plant and Massey Energy site.
In a 2007 interview with Shannon Bell, Fox declared that her battle against mountaintop removal would be a lifelong commitment: "I would never give up, I will never stop. Because to me, that would be betraying everything that I am and everything I've ever been and everything I ever hoped to be. And I've seen too much suffering by these women [who are involved]. Too many sad stories."
Actress and environmental activist Daryl Hannah will speak at the Educational Rally on Sustainable Solutions for West Virginia at the Marsh Fork Elementary School today.
Hannah lives on a solar-powered ranch in the Rocky Mountains in the West. In an interview with the Central Florida Green Guide, Hannah said: "It's a small but beautiful house made with salvaged materials. It's both passive and active solar, meaning it faces southwest. It is beamed into the landscape and uses the natural movement of the sun and the insulation of the earth to heat/cool the structure."
Hannah is a long-time activist with various environmental groups and Greenpeace, and host of her own environmental blog- www.dhlovelife.com/
Here's a clip from the Sundance Channel about her work for solar energy.
Dr. James Hansen, the nation's foremost expert on climate change, will not only risk arrest today, but has agreed to debate Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship on the reality of climate change.
"Stopping coal emissions is 80 percent of the solution to climate change, and halting mountaintop removal is the essential, rational first step," Hansen wrote. "Any politician who claims to support our children and the environment, but also supports mountaintop removal, is either a fool, a liar, or both."
Hansen recently published a piece on Huffington Post on mountaintop removal and his decision to come to Coal River Valley here.
And as the rally unfolds today, here's a clip of Marie Gunnoe, the recent Goldman Prize Award winner, whose own home and hollow has been been stripmined, and subjected to flooding seven times, describing the disastrous realities of the coal sludge dam above the elementary school and mountaintop removal blasting.
While the rally at Marsh Fork Elementary School and the nonviolent march continues today, it is important to recall a similar moment in West Virginia in 1923, when coal miners went out on strike. Chicago-native Mary "Mother" Jones arrived to support the miners. Her appeal to the West Virginia governor to support striking coal miner is a haunting parallel to today's West Virginia governor Joe Manchin, who has refused to deal with the Marsh Fork Elementary School, despite the health care studies and parent complaints and campaigns.
"Governor," I said, Mother Jones wrote in her autobiography,"listen-do you hear anything?"
He listened a moment.
"No, Mother Jones, I do not."
"I do," said I. "I hear women and little boys and girls..."
The boys and girls of Marsh Fork Elementary School, and the coalfield communities, along with Americans across the country, are calling on the West Virginia governor, the EPA, the Council for Environmental Quality, and President Barack Obama to listen.
More updates to come.
Mother Jones, Logan County, West Virginia, 1923
Where are the young people I keep hearing about that are going to save us from environmental disaster and climate change?
Nearly every time something like this takes place it's the old people, the middle aged people doing it.
It's a MYTH that young people care about climate change and mountain top removal and the decimation of our environment. The only people who seem to care are the older people. Look at this bunch! Most are well over 50!
The young people are working to pass the Waxman-Markey bill, which is a disaster. It won't do ANYthing to mitigate climate change until 2027 and they are doing their little Facebook stuff in support of it. Meanwhile the old people and the adults are out getting arrested.
Here is the link to the video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_EWKeYql9M.
Thanks for covering these important developments in my home state.
Till 9pm eastern time.
http://headonradionetwork.com
Another First hand account.
Anything for money. Anything. Doesn't matter if it kills them in the end.
No other school in America would have to put up with coal dust and a coal sludge dam above its head.
See the latest scandal:
http://www.grist.org/article/breaking-news-wv-supreme-affirms-toxic-coal-silo-as-wonderful-playground
No matter how you look at it it's not your property.
Human cell tissue is now full of carcinogenic metals/minerals and pharmaceuticals spewed out by businesses that don't have to pay for any of our health care costs. Our bodies are our property, and other people are putting stuff in them through the air and water simply to make themselves money. Petro-chemicals, fertilizers, over fishing, carbon dioxide, metal carcinogens now desecrate most eco-systems of the planet. Export agriculture from semi-arid climates has ruined aquifers.
All other religious faith traditions value the earth and planet and support human life that is in synch with the planet. Islam bans destroying fruit trees and water sources, and scorched earth practices.
Our Judeo-Christian world has now scorched a significant part of the earth with its command to go out and dominate the earth...and to choose hunters and fighters over farmers in the Cain and Abel story.
Future cars will need no fuel and can become power plants when parked.
Breakthroughs include the MagGen. These magnetic generators will initially make it possible to cut the cord on a plug-in hybrid so it no longer needs to plug-in. Later, they can replace the batteries in an electric car. Then, the MagGen can run when the car is parked and sell power to the utility. Prototypes are under development.
Next is a Self Powered Internal Combustion Engine - SPICE, which can power a hybrid. It will need no fuel and is another path to ending the need to plug-in. The engine can run when parked. Both systems can wirelessly transmit and sell power to the local utility.
The SPICE will be powered by hydrinos which let a barrel of water equal hundreds of barrels of oil.
Scientists and engineers will doubt these technologies are possible until they have been validated by Independent Laboratories. That is an important step on the agenda.
Until now, car ownership has been an expense. Payments to car owners driving a hybrid with a SPICE, or powered by MagGen, are likely to be substantial.
The cost of many vehicles might be paid for by utilities, as they purchase power.
Parked cars each become decentralized power plants - a rapid, cost-effective path to an end for the need to burn coal - rebirth of the automobile industry and the world economy.
As for rebuilding the school, the people in the area ( friends of mine) have been trying for YEARS to get that school moved. The state is not interested. They have been reduced to something called Pennies Of Promise at : http://www.sludgesafety.org/gallery/2006/05_30/index.html you might want to check it out before you shoot off your mouth.
You also might want to check into what happens when the coal fired power plants pump out mercury into the atmosphere. Every woman in this country has enough mercury in her system to cause a TEN POINT DROP IN THE INTELLIGENCE of any child she carries. Any child. All from coal. Think about it.