Comments johnthetreehugger has made

massive, fraudulent, pathetic excuse for a pundit

um, excuse me, but y'all can fawn over Friedman all you want... But some of us might do well to remember that he was a cheerleader for the War on Iraq and a proponant of corporate globalization (so called free trade in the form of NAFTA and the WTO).

so his little shifting with the political winds act is kinda cute, but he really is a corporate lapdog who is given too much credit and influence by people who ought to know better.

thanks and have a nice day.On I think Friedman is upset with Bush posted 1 year, 5 months ago 18 Responses

where is the plan to actually challenge power?

it seems rather telling to me that all these "thinkers" and their plans to "rebrand" environmentalism never have a section in their "blue" prints about challenging corporate power.

it seems rather obvious that corporate power is a big part of the problem here.

c'mon, from the War to environmental racism to mountaintop removal to social inequity and everything in between there are common culprits and they are called corporations. They have the best governments that money can buy in their back pockets and they are running amok across the planet in the name of profit and progress.

But do these great "thinkers" include any plans to challenge that power in their "new" ideas for citizen movements? I haven't seen any. Is it because they get paid from excess corporate largesse?

or are they just plain blind to the reality that the free market is all about sacrificing the future for the present?

Werbach, et al... If you don't have any real ideas about changing the power relations in this country and on the planet then you don't really have squat for any kind of solution to the myriad, complex problems facing communities. And, no, even if the Dems win next November, that will NOT substantially change power relations.

If working people and greenies had real power, things would change real quick.

all y'all have a nice day.
On Adam Werbach follows up 'Death of Environmentalism' with 'Birth of Blue' posted 1 year, 7 months ago 46 Responses

seek and ye shall find

"Where are the environmental groups in the South?"

this kind of question ticks me off. if y'all would spend a little time on the dang internet you might just be surprised at how many groups are working on a plethora of issues across the South.

y'all need to look a little closer - there are environmental groups, social justice groups, etc...

all over the South!

interested in poverty issues - look at the organizers and attendees of last year's U.S. Social Forum - organized by Project South out of Atlanta and a bunch of others.

mountaintop removal piss you off?

ALL OF THE GROUPS TAKING THE LEAD ON THIS ISSUE ARE SOUTHERN BORN AND BRED.

google the following:

Coal River Mountain Watch
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (in WV)
Mountain Justice Summer.org (with links to most ot the rest of the anti-mtr crowd listed here)
Katuah Earth First!
United Mountain Defense
Dave Cooper's Mountaintop Removal Roadshow
Save Our Cumberland Mountains
Appalachian Voices
ilovemountains.org
Appalshop.org
Christians for the Mountains
(there is also a new religious group here in Knoxville working on strip mining. i think their acronym is LEAF but i'm not sure)

energy issues:

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Southeast Energy Network
there are also anti-nuke groups in NC and GA
the one in GA came up with "No Nukes Y'all" as a slogan - which i thought was brilliant.

Also, next weekend, students in Valdosta, GA are hostin the 4th or 5th annual Southeastern Students for Renewable Energy Conference. This conference has consistantly drawn hundreds of student activists from across the south. There are student activists at every major University (and even a bunch of smaller ones in the South) - UT Knoxville, Berea College in KY, Warren Wilson in Asheville, Appalachian State in Boone, NC, Universtiy of Georgia at Athens, UNC Chapel Hill and many more.

water:

Tennessee Clean Water Network
in addition there is the Chattahootchie Riverkeeper and a bunch of other river and creekkeepers.

Forests and biodiversity:
Wild South (Public Lands issues)
Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project
Western North Carolina Alliance
Heartwood (mostley midwest, but allied with Southern groups as well)
Dogwood Alliance (tackling over cutting of forests for wasteful pulp and paper production and publically supported by the rock band REM)
Appalachian Voices
Southern Forests Network
Southwings
Wild Alabama
Cherokee Forest Voices
There even was a forest protection group in Mississippi a few years ago but i'm not sure what happened to them.

environmental racism
I can't remember the groups names but their used to be groups active in New Orleans around cancer alley, Memphis, Chattanooga and Atlanta. I'm sure some of 'em are still active.

climate
one of the US chapters of Rising Tide North America is in Asheville, NC.

There is also a Jobs with Justice campaign in TN and i'm sure other states as well.

There are also anti-war groups across the south many of which are hosting marches and rallies this March on the anniversery of the war.

There are also groups promoting sustainable agriculture and sustainable living across the south. Asheville, Knoxville and Chattanooga all boast the beginnings of a thriving local food scene that have locally oriented farmers markets and with Chatt and Knox both being homes to urban organic farming projects.

There are groups tackling almost every conceivable issue across the South.

The centers of southern progressiveness include
Asheville, NC and the area around Chapel Hill, NC.
Atlanta, Birmingham (AL), Chattanooga, Knoxville, Boone (NC) all have progressive scenes. some of 'em are small but they are there.

heck, you go visit Asheville and you might think you're in friggin' Eugene or Berkeley with all dang piercings, dreds, multi-colored hair cuts, organic produce, and more do-gooder groups than you can shake a stick at.

heck, even South Carolina has a progressive network - SCPronet if i remember correctly.

for independent media look up the Asheville Global Report and some of the remaining Indymedia.org sites in the south. Appalachian Voices publishes an excellent newspaper called Appalachian Voice which is distributed all over Appalachia. in east TN there is the Hellbender Press. Most of the groups listed have newsletters as well.

Don't see something you want to get involved in? by golly move here and fire it up.

seein' that we are overrun with corrupt politicians and a bunch of morons who think the planet is only 6000 yrs old and made for our overconsumption we could use all the help we can get.

This is only a small sample of who is active in the South. I used to know more but since i'm a radical on sabbatical so I can earn a stupid piece of paper from an institution of higher learning to certify that I know what i'm talking about regarding forests, I am no longer as connected as I was once to what is going on.

But, you can't say there is nothing going on here. There are all these awesome groups doing awesome work in communities that make any places outside of the South look like friggin' progressive Utopias.On Where are the environmental messengers in the South? posted 1 year, 9 months ago 13 Responses

please ditch the "clean coal" slogan

wrote this the other day in response to part 2, but then my internet conked out....

Hi y'all,
I sure wish y'all would stop using the term "clean coal." That term is some Orwellian double speak like war for peace or military intelligence. There is no, and there will never be, such a thing as clean coal.

While the discussion of burning coal was nice to read, the fact that mining of coal was not discussed shows the author and commenters are not fully comprehending all the issues here. When doing our nice little balance sheets on carbon emissions have we counted carbon released from the massive forest destruction that accompanies strip mining in many parts of the world? And where do some of our fellow Americans go on that little balance sheet? You know, the ones who have lost homes, livlihoods and loved ones to floods, dust, explosives and all that.

Coal can NOT now or ever be mined in a clean way, just like it can not be burned in a clean way. Ever. I'm not saying we won't be using it, but lets not call it what it is not so that we all feel better about poisoning ourselves and the people who dig it, blow up mountains for it or just happen to live on top of a rich seam of it.

For those of you who didn't get the memo, there is supposedly a lot of coal still here in Appalachia. Appalachia is also home to some of the most productive hardwood forests on the planet. And I mean productive in a biological and ecological sense as well as an economical sense. Over 500 square miles of Appalachian forests have been destroyed by strip mining. Over 1200 miles of headwater streams have been buried by mine "spoils". These are likely conservative numbers. You can look at it on Google Earth. It is destruction on a grand scale and all so we can have plug in cars, fast food neon signs left on all night and friggin' video games (and the internet of course!). Oh, what curtailing our consumption is too much to ask?

I understand the point of this article. King Coal is here, a bunch rich jerks who run things make a lot of money off of it, we are stuck with it. Great.

But don't call it clean. And please don't limit the discussion of its environmental and human costs to what happens when it gets burned. Thousands of Chinese coal miners die each year. American miners still die on the job. The American landscape is being destroyed, irreparably i might add, so that we can have coal. Not just Appalachia but in Wyoming and midwest as well. Critters and complex ecosystems that help make life possible and desirable in Appalachia and across the planet are forever lost to mountaintop removal and all other forms of strip mining. You just can't talk about coal without factoring all of that into the equation.

Personally, I think we need a multi-pronged attack on these problems. First and foremost, we must use  much less electricity. Advertisers do not have an inherent right to leave the lights on all damn night. And neither do you. Next, we need decentralized power production for all of those willing and able to put up with the so-called low grade power of solar panels. Those of us living low on the food chain do real well with that. And we need solar panels everywhere to contribute juice to the grid. There is so much empty space on rooftops and parking lots in this country that it is pathetic! (those panels will produced with electricity from coal mined from tunnels of course). We need some sort of public takeover of the coal industry. Sorry free marketeers, but natural resource extraction and use can not and should not be left to the market. That's what got us in this mess and it is NOT what is going to get us out of it. If the profit motive is taken out of coal mining, it can be done in a way that places a premium on the safety of the miners and surrounding communities and minimizes ecological destruction. A mining engineer from the  area of southwest Virginia where a 3 yr old boy killed by an errant boulder from a strip mine tells me that the technology actually exists to access most Appalachian coal seams without strip mining. It just costs too much. So remove profit, pay miners well, get them necessary safety gear, and put gobs of people to work cleaning up the existing messes. That, my friends would be a nice start on having a future. Not some lah-lah land snow job about "clean coal" or burning more coal or "Future Gen" or more nukes or whatever the technological hucksters who helped get us into this have to sell next.

For more on strip mining in Appalachia please see:
www.mountainjusticesummer.org
www.ilovemountains.org
www.ohvec.org
www.crmw.org

thanks for the beginnings of a realistic discussion on all these and, again, please, oh pretty please, STOP calling it "clean coal!"

for the forests, mountains, waters and folks of Appalachia,
john the tree hugger
Forester and Naturalist in Training,
formerly active with Katuah Earth First!
and Mountain Justice Summer Class of '05.
On The question for China and India is not whether to make the transition away from coal, but how soon posted 1 year, 12 months ago 3 Responses

eco songs

dear list editors,
perhaps if y'all actually participated in the grassroots environmental movment, y'all might be able to discuss "eco-songs" a tad more seriously.

There a bunch of singer-songwriters out there who have a wide body of "eco-songs" that decidedly don't suck and in fact have inspired a lot of us to action.

now y'all can say what you want about Pop "eco-songs" and their merits (or lack thereof), but don't trash the whole category just because y'all have not had the pleasure of hangin' 'round the campfire singin' along to Dana Lyon's "Drop of Water" or Casey Neil's "Dancing on the Ruins." These are songs that are not on the top 40 list but continue to be played at eco-gatherings everywhere by others long after the artists introduced them.On From Booze to Boos posted 1 year, 12 months ago 5 Responses