10,000 Flags Planted in D.C. to Urge Freedom From Oil

 

Veterans, union leaders, and environmentalists gathered on the National Mall on June 30 to urge President Obama to end America's dependence on oil.

 

What started as an online campaign to plant 50,000 "virtual flags" in front of the Washington Monument turned into a real-life flag-planting, as volunteers planted 10,000 American flags on the Mall spelling out FREEDOM FROM OIL.

"These flags represent tens of thousands of Americans who have watched the BP disaster in the Gulf and want to make sure it never happens again," said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, below, at a press conference.

"We haven't even stopped the massive flow of oil from BP's gushing well yet, let alone respond to the damage it has wrought," Brune said, "yet the oil industry and many others want to keep drilling off our coasts. They claim it's the only way to boost the local economy and keep people employed. It's unconscionable that Big Oil and its allies would like to declare the region a dead zone in which the only jobs to be had are from more oil drilling."

Tens of Thousands Join Hands Across the Sand

Photo by Alissa Christine 

On Saturday, June 26, tens of thousands of people joined hands on beaches and in parks and cities across the country and around the world to recognize the tragedy of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf and call an end to offshore drilling.

Photo by Alissa Christine 

Above and at top, hundreds upon hundreds form a human chain as far as the eye can see at Miami Beach. Below, Floridians gather at Destin, in the Panhandle on the state's Gulf Coast, where tarballs have begun washing ashore.

Photo by Aleksander Phillips

Hands Across the Sands events took place in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, as well as in 83 cities in 33 countries outside the U.S.

Co-sponsored by the Sierra Club, Hands Across the Sand was first conceived in the fall of 2009 by Florida surfer and restaurateur Dave Rauschkolb, who organized a statewide gathering in February 2010 to send a message to Florida's legislators and Governor Charlie Crist that Floridians did not want them to lift the bans on near- and offshore drilling in the state's waters.

Photo by Marti Daltry

Above, a Hands Across the Sands rally at Barefoot Beach Park, Florida. Below, clean energy advocates gather a continent away in Seattle.

Photo by Ethan Bergerson 

Following the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the resulting oil spill—still uncontained and now the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history—the Sierra Club joined with Rauschkolb and other groups to organize more than 800 events in 34 countries the weekend of June 25-26.

Photo by Jeffrey Dubinsky 

More than 200 New Orleans residents, above linked hands in that Gulf Coast city. Below, 100 ralliers showed their solidarity in Louisville, Kentucky.

Photo by Lauren McGrath

Wendell Berry Pulls Papers from University of Kentucky

Photo by Trevor Humphries

Wendell Berry—author, farmer, poet, academic, community activist, cultural and economic critic, and Sierra Club member since LBJ occupied the White House—announced on June 23 that he was pulling his papers from the University of Kentucky's archives to protest the naming of a new dormitory for the school's powerhouse basketball team as the Wildcat Coal Lodge.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, "Berry excoriated his alma mater, saying the decision to name a new dorm for UK basketball players the Wildcat Coal Lodge 'puts an end' to his association with the university."

Photo by geoffandsherry

The new $7 million dormitory was approved last fall by the university's trustees in a 16-3 vote. The proposal for the Wildcat Coal Lodge came from Joe Craft, President and CEO of Oklahoma-based Alliance Coal, who pulled together the necessary funds. An Alliance subsidiary was cited three times this spring for violating conditions of a controversial mining permit in Kentucky.

The new dorm will replace the Joe B. Hall Wildcat Lodge, named for the Kentucky native and former head coach who led the University of Kentucky basketball team to the NCAA title in 1978. In an exquisitely ironic twist, university guidelines stipulate that the new Wildcat Coal Lodge will run on green energy.

Study Finds Widespread Health Hazards from MTR

Photo by Vivian Stockman, courtesy of Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

A landmark study by 12 leading ecologists, hydrologists, and engineers concludes that the damage done by mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR) goes far beyond the already-horrendous practice of blasting off entire mountaintops and burying nearby streams under the rubble, referred to by mining companies as "overburden."

Photo by Mary Anne Hitt 

Proponents of MTR argue that the method is safer, faster, and cheaper than underground mining, and that the ecological impacts are localized and short-lived. Faster and cheaper it may be, but strip-mining, like deep mining, remains a dangerous profession, and the ecological impacts of MTR appear to be anything but localized and short-lived.

Photo by Flashdark

Published in the January 8, 2010, issue of Science, the study found that MTR not only kills off aquatic life in the immediate vicinity of the "valley fills," but poisons the ecosystem well downstream, altering biological communities, reducing biodiversity, and causing a host of human health problems due to both waterborne and airborne contaminants. Below, contaminated water emanating from a valley fill in Wise County, Virginia.

 
Photo by Tom Valtin

The study, "Mountaintop Mining Consequences," represents "the first attempt to collect and assess the best available science on the potential ecological and human health impacts of mountaintop removal"

Virginians Fight Back Against Mountaintop Removal

On June 1, activists with the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS) and the Sierra Club rallied outside the offices of the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, to protest A&G Coal Corporation's proposed mountaintop removal coal mining operation on nearby Ison Rock Ridge. That's Andover, Va., resident Maude Jervis, above.

The protestors, all residents of Wise County, where Ison Rock Ridge is located, picketed with signs reading, "Ison Rock Ridge is families. Keep it standing!" and "Don't blast our homes."

Before picketing DMME's offices, ralliers with bullhorns did a "drive-around" through the coal camps, urging residents to join them.

"We recruited two new members during the drive-around," says SAMS organizer Hannah Morgan. "Lots of folks are behind what SAMS is doing and no one wants their home blown up. Some folks are reluctant to take a stand because of their employment, fear of intimidation, or general allegiances to the mining company, but a huge majority of folks we talk to are very concerned."

Maude Jervis and Judy Needham, below, delivered a "Certificate of Failure" to the DMME for failing to protect communities in Southwest Virginia.

Residents of Inman, Derby, Arno, and Andover—directly adjacent to the pending 1,200-acre MTR site—took turns addressing the crowd to express their outrage over DMME's May approval for a portion of the proposed mine above Inman.

"The DMME and the State of Virginia seem to be ignoring regulations protecting our waterways," said Jane Branham, below at left, Vice-President of SAMS and a resident of Big Stone Gap. "It's a shame we have to contact Washington, D.C., to get our state officials to obey the law."

Minnesota Sierra Club Honors 'Green Heroes of Color'

The Sierra Club's North Star Chapter and the Minneapolis NAACP teamed up recently to honor six "Green Heroes of Color" in Minneapolis. That's Leslie Fields, above, the Club's national Environmental Justice director, giving the keynote speech.

Minnesota Sierra Club EJ organizer Karen Monahan, below at right with Fields and Minneapolis NAACP President Booker T. Hodges, put together the event with help from fellow staffers Stacey Kawakami and Michelle Rosier.

Monahan, speaking below, is helping develop a new environment committee for the Minneapolis NAACP. Sierra Club Midwest Field Director Alison Horton also participated in the Green Heroes of Color celebration.

The event drew well over 100 people and included a panel of environmental justice initiatives, a demonstration garden, and youth performances by the Climate Change Crew and the Arts Us dance crew. Below, Arts Us does its thing.

"I started out as a baby lawyer at the Washington Bureau NAACP, working with community leaders all over the country as folks created and advocated for the environmental justice movement," Fields said in her keynote remarks.

"From toxics reform to climate change, this nation needs to have the combined resources of the Sierra Club and the NAACP. As we move from a carbon-based economy into a green economy, this partnership will be critical to the success of any local and national advocacy."

Sierra Club, BLM Launch Latino Youth Outings Project

Latino students from inner-city Philadelphia participated in a weekend-long outing this spring to the Meadowood Recreation Area in northern Virginia, part of a partnership between the Sierra Club and the Bureau of Land Management to launch the Latino Youth Outings Project.

Isabel Long (holding baby, above, and at left, below), the Sierra Club's National Representative for Latino Partnerships, joined Alvarez Dixon of the Club's Inner City Outings program in Baltimore, Virginia Chapter volunteer Paul Elliott, and Roger Rivera of the National Hispanic Environmental Council in leading the trip.

Students fished, hiked, camped, canoed, gardened, and planted a tree at the end of the weekend. That's Long, below, with Juan Palma of the BLM, Paul Eliot of the Virginia Sierra Club, and Richard Royball of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), undaunted by rain while planting a Redbud tree.

"The students were enthusiastic about all the activities," says Baltimore ICO's Dixon, "although the boating and fishing seemed to be the most popular."

One student was afraid of tipping over in the canoe. "I encouraged him to try a row boat, which is more stable, and offered to row with him," says Dixon. "He agreed, we had a wonderful time learning to row, and he overcame his fear."

Students also learned to load fishing lines with bobbins, hooks, and anchors, and how to cast. "Girls and boys alike caught fish and even a couple turtles—all of which they released," Dixon says.

"We had a great outdoor weekend thanks to the Sierra Club people," says Kelly Acuna of LULAC, who went on the trip. "It was amazing for me and for the kids. Ninety percent of the students never had these kinds of experiences before."

Joining LULAC in lending support to the trip were the Washington, D.C., Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs, the Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools, and the George Washington Carver Outdoor School, which organized activities and meals and provided mentorship.

Along with Inner City Outings, the Club's Water Sentinels, Sierra Sportsmen, Building Bridges to the Outdoors, and National Outings programs pitched in to help launch the Latino Youth Outings Project. More trips are planned for June, September, and October.

Sierra Club Fights for Clean Air in the Lone Star State

Readers of the May 28 Austin Chronicle were greeted by a photo of Texas Sierra Club organizer Eva Hernandez sporting a pair of red boxing gloves.

The cover story, Environmental Cage Match, details the EPA's recent efforts, in tandem with environmental groups, to compel the state—specifically the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)—to clean up Texas' air.

Hernandez moved to Austin to head up a grassroots statewide campaign to fight the permitting and building of a dozen new coal power plants in Texas.

"I have to admit, I moved to Texas without really understanding how big the problem was," the Kansas native, who earned a degree in environmental quality from the University of Kansas in 2004, told the Chronicle. "The biggest surprise to me, when I got here, was that TCEQ doesn't do what the name says."

The TECQ has a long record of catering to the needs and demands of business—the oil and gas industry, petrochemical companies, coal-fired power plants, and other major polluters—at the expense of public health. Texas has led the nation in mercury, ozone, and other emissions over the years.

Hernandez has been criss-crossing the state, helping communities organize and take action to protect themselves from the air pollution that new TCEQ coal-plant permits will inevitably bring.

"The exciting thing about it is we can win!" she says.

Indeed, as Environmental Cage Match went to press, the EPA announced it was taking over the issuance of an operating permit for a Corpus Christi refinery, and was considering intervening at 39 other "major facilities" around the state. EPA's proposed actions have ignited a long-simmering fued between the agency and the state right as the Texas gubernatorial race is beginning to heat up.