Three more retired coal miners died of black lung today. Over 105,000 Americans have suffered and died from black lung related diseases; 10,000 miners, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, have died from black lung in the last decade.
One of the most compelling chapters in the PBS Frontline 2-hour special on global warming that aired earlier this week was the segment on America's Addiction to Coal. PBS dives headfirst into the myth of clean coal and pretty much tears it apart using something we don't often see these days when it come US energy issues: facts.
And the most complete take-down of "clean coal" in the segment came from the CEO of the second largest coal electricity company in the US.
A new national poll released today (pdf) finds that 85% of voters in the US are concerned about the destructive practice of mountaintop removal minging for coal.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a report today outlining the considerable risks associated with so-called "clean coal" and carbon capture and storage technology (pdf.)
Rainforest Action Network's executive director Mike Brune has a great op-ed out on the idiocy of the idea that coal is somehow clean:
If you owned a wind or solar power production plant and were looking to expand would you be okay if it that expansion was fueled by coal?
There's outrageous headlines everyday, but as a news junkie you become immune, at least for the most part. The headline today at the Michigan's Bay City Times reads: Michigan needs coal to build its clean energy future.
Wow. I need to clear my head to figure out the logic behind this one.
Today is a historic day for the climate change
movement. A UK Crown Court jury effectively ruled that taking direct action, breaking the law, and even property damage are all justified in the course of stopping catastrophic climate change.
The trial was regarding 6 Greenpeace activists -
who were arrested in the course of painting an anti-coal message on the smokestack of the Kingsnorth Power plant in the UK. They were charged
There's a showdown in West Virginia today pitting old dirty energy against renewables - and one side is armed with explosives.
Coal giant Massey Energy is planning as early as today to begin blowing up the mountains in the Bee Tree Branch area of Coal River Mountain, West Virginia. More specifically, Massey is planning to blow off the top of a local mountain, push all the debris into the surrounding valleys and repeat until they hit a big fat coal seam.
On his NY Time's DotEarth blog, journalist Andy Revkin writes:
"When party activists gathered in Chicago to nominate Bill Clinton to a second term in 1996, Mr. Obama was making his first run for political office, but he did not have enough clout to get full access to the convention. Instead, he concluded that high-dollar breakfasts and dinners seemed to lock voters out of the system, grousing to a reporter, "The convention's for sale, right?" New York Times, August 27th, 2008.
