The Green Moms Carnival On Coal
| February 9, 2010 | Filled under Uncategorized |
This months Green Moms Carnival is about coal. This is an issue I have written about before, it’s one that is very important to me. There is coal mining about 130 miles from me in the McAlester area. Hearing the stories from the people who live around the mining is just heart breaking. And the mining here in Oklahoma is nothing like the mining in the Appalachian mountains. We so often forget the people that are being harmed by our use of coal.
Here is a video of one of the people living in the town of Bokoshe, Oklahoma where coal ash is dumped.
The coal ash she is talking about can contain arsenic, barium, beryllium, boron, cadmium, chromium, thallium, selenium, molybdenum, mercury, and many other toxins. That is what she is cleaning off her windows and breathing in everyday.
Coal ash can also spill and create a major disaster like the Tennessee spill back in December of 2008. About 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash spilled over Tennessee. It’s not an easy spill to clean up either. Treehugger.com reported this past December that the clean up is far from over.
Lynn at Organic Mania talks about not really knowing much about coal before this carnival. I think this is where most Americans find themselves, it was long ago I was the same.
Karen at Best of Mother Earth says “A bit like my wish for fast food restaurants to be shut down. Ain’t happening. I wish I could feel optimistic about this one. I don’t.” I sadly agree. She also shares some of coals history and why clean coal isn’t really clean.
Diane at The Big Green Purse talks about Obama’s State of the Union address and why clean coal and nukes shouldn’t be on the table for helping our energy problems.
Green Bean over at The Green Phone Booth talks about reading Lost Mountain and about mountaintop removal coal mining and what it’s doing to Appalachia.
Deanna at Crunchy Chicken talks about one of the many ways the coal industry is working to make sure everyone thinks coal is wonderful, this time their target is kids.
Hope you have learned a bit about coal from the Green Moms. Making people aware of the problem is the first and biggest step.
