March on Blair Mountain

All photos by Madeline Collins.

This past Saturday was the final day of the March on Blair Mountain. The march, organized by Appalachia Rising with support from groups like the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council, spanned five days and over fifty miles. Activists began on June 6 in Marmet, West Virginia, and marched to Blair, West Virginia, on June 11, to commemorate the 90^th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain and to protest the destruction of Blair Mountain by mountaintop removal (MTR) mining. I joined four other people from Greenpeace for the last day of the march and for the rally on the top of Blair Mountain.

Some background on the Battle of Blair Mountain: in the summer of 1921, 10,000 to 15,000 coal miners marched that same fifty-mile route from Marmet to Blair to fight for the right to unionize in southwestern West Virginia coal mines. The miners met with machine guns, bombs, and poison gas wielded by state police, the National Guard, and, eventually, the U.S. army. Hundreds were wounded and at least sixteen miners were killed. The battle was the biggest armed conflict in U.S. history since the Civil War and is considered to have been a major catalyst for the twentieth century labor movement in the United States.

If the coal companies have their way, though, this historic site will be obliterated by mountaintop removal (MTR) mining. As I described in an earlier blog post about the Congressional hearings regarding EPA’s ability to regulate MTR, this unbelievably destructive form of surface mining involves the blasting away of a portion of a mountain to expose the coal seams underneath. Before the explosives are used, the land is deforested, and afterward, the extra soil, known as overburden, is often simply dumped into nearby valleys, creating valley fills.


Lots more after the jump...

Conference Asks: What Should the Future of Food Look Like?

Cross-posted from www.nourishingtheplanet.org. 


All photos courtesy of www.georgetown.edu.

By Mara Schechter

“What has brought us here today is the belief that our current food system is broken… and we believe this system must be changed,” said Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation” and co-producer of “Food, Inc,” at the Future of Food Conference last Wednesday at Georgetown University. Organized by Washington Post Live, this conference brought together policymakers, scientific experts, advocates and food company leaders to think about how to fix the food system.

While not everyone agreed on the best way to go about changes—for example, Susan Crockett, a head of General Mills, had different prescriptions than did Marion Nestle, an advocate for unprocessed foods—all of the conference participants agreed that the conversation was critical and timely.

Author and educator Wendell Berry blamed industrialization for a host of ills, including climate change, hunger, and poverty. “We have no time to spare,” said Gary Hirshberg, President and CEO of Stonyfield Farm. Patrick Holden, Director of the Sustainable Food Trust, urged, “Not only is the current model…unsustainable, but it needs a radical transformation.”

Sunday Blogroll

It's Sunday again, so here is our second blogroll. Take a break from studying for finals and check out some of the green news circulating online this week! If you comment and let me know which kind of articles and topics you liked best, I’ll be sure to include more of them next Sunday.

First, a follow-up to Thursday’s post about the congressional hearing on EPA regulation of mountaintop removal mining (MTR). Come to Part II of the hearing and see EPA administrator Lisa Jackson tell the other side of the story. Read this post on the blog of Appalachian Voices for an overview of the isseus.

Now, Mother’s Day news. A HuffPost Green columnist’s children celebrate Mother’s Day the green way, and Treehugger reports on how you can have a sustainable, humanitarian Mother’s Day too.

You can also take action on Mother’s Day without spending any more money. One in six mothers in the United States have enough mercury in their bodies to harm their babies during pregnancy. Greenpeace asks for your signature on a petition to EPA to limit toxic mercury pollution from coal-powered power plants.

Mountaintop Removal Mining: Seeing Government inAction

On Thursday morning, six of us from progressive groups at Georgetown went to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment hearing entitled “EPA Mining Policies: Assault on Appalachian Jobs – Part I.” (Note the title, about which more later.) Claire Austin (SFS ’12), co-president of EcoAction, works at Appalachian Voices, an environmental nonprofit focused on protecting the land, air and water of Appalachia. Appalachian Voices asked us to come pack the hearing room with me to show the committee that we oppose efforts to weaken the EPA’s authority to regulate mountaintop removal mining (about which more below). We were happy to help and to get the chance to see government in action.


Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) is a form of coal mining where the summit of a mountain is blown up with explosives in order to extract coal from the exposed coal seams beneath. The leftover earth, known as “overburden,” is dumped in an adjacent valley to create a “valley fill.” MTR is used extensively in Appalachia. Check out this helpful FAQ from iLoveMountains.org for more data on where and how coal companies are using MTR.

Sunday Blogroll

This week, I thought we'd try a blogroll. It's hard to keep track of all the environmental news online, so I compiled some Georgetown, local, and national news, both from news sites and from blogs. Comment if you like this type of post! If so, we can make it a regular feature.



In Georgetown news, The Hoya covers the DC Green Student Organization Forum! A great overview, and insightful quotes from Bettina and Maddie.

The Georgetown website (who writes these articles?) celebrates GU's improvement in Recyclemania this year. We were in the top 10% of the Grand Champion category.

In DC news, the District has ranked as the top state for LEED certified buildings, GreenerBuildings reports.

In national news, the New York Times's Green blog compiled a list of the top twenty solar states. Unfortunately, DC didn't make the cut, but maybe your home state did!

In case you haven't had enough of the royal wedding already, an Ecouterre columnist is making the case that Kate Middleton's ring was eco-friendly because it was locally mined and repurposed.

Did you miss our screening of The Vanishing of the Bees in March? You can learn all about Colony Collapse Disorder in the Beekeeper's column on the Daily Green this week.

A blogger on HuffPost Green asks a question that plagues many environmentalists who have troubling giving up meat products: Is Half a Vegan Better Than None?

We were all jealous of GWU's and American's progress at the forum last night, and now we can be jealous of Germany and Brazil too. Visit Grist to learn about how climate change legislation is advancing in other countries.

Finally, if you need to be cheered up, check out this Treehugger article about lessons the writer learned about eating from her ridiculously adorable puppy. And yes, there is a picture.

D.C. Green Student Organization Forum

Tuesday night’s D.C. Green Student Organization Forum was a success! Organized by Scott Breen (COL ’11), Claire Austin (SFS ’12), and Betina Bergoo (SFS ’11), the forum brought students from environmental groups at George Washington Unversity, American University, Catholic University, Georgetown Law School, and the University of the District of Columbia together for a night of discussion in the Leonard conference room in Reynolds Hall. We ate some free Chipotle burritos and had a great talk about the successes and struggles of environmental organizing on campus.



Sarah Murphy, who works with Weatherize DC and is a former employee of the Sierra Student Coalition, gave a great talk about how she got started as an organizer. She told a story we can all identify with: as an undergraduate, she exhausted herself trying to put together a great Earth Day event all by herself and practically failed a class in the process.

This experience inspired her to learn more about grassroots organizing, and taught her that you need a team of dedicated individuals to help make change happen. She quoted Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”; and Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s Little Prince: ‘“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Murphy encouraged those looking for green opportunities in DC this summer to check out Weatherize DC’s fellowship programs. They’re currently seeking applicants, and some of the fellowships may even pay. Murphy also had great thing to say about the Sierra Student Coalition Summer Training Program (known as “Sprog,” but don’t use that word in Australia). These are week-long, intensive training programs in grassroots organizing, and there’s one just forty-five minutes south of DC this summer.

Read about the student groups after the jump...

Upcoming EcoAction Events

The semester is winding down, but EcoAction still has a variety of events to tell you about!

First of all, like us on Facebook!

Our last meeting for the semester will be next Monday, May 2 from 8:15-9:15 in ICC 102. Be there to learn about what we've done this semester and what we're hoping to work on for next year!


The DC Green Student Organization Forum is TOMORROW, Tuesday, April 26, at 7:00 PM. This is a forum where representatives from green organizations at the various DC universities will come together to learn from each other and learn how we can better engage the students on our campuses. The forum is in the Leonards Seminar Room in Reynolds Hall. There will be a guest speaker and free food! All are welcome, but please RSVP. Check out the Facebook event for more information.



Sign up to TABLE! From April 27 to 28, from 11 AM to 3 PM, we will be handing out free eco-friendly compact fluorescent light bulbs in exchange for not so friendly incandescent ones. This is a great chance to help out for however long you're free, and to spend some time outdoors. Sign up here, and read the blog post about CFLs from when we did similar tabling last semester.



On Thursday at 6:30, the Garden Club is holding a Vegan Dinner at the Magis Row Green House.



On Tuesday, May 3, EcoAction will be having a study break picnic at lunch time. Come eat delicious organic food with EcoAction and take a break from studying! Respond to the Facebook event here.

Off-campus events after the jump...

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and the Environment

This past Wednesday night, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut came to campus to speak to Georgetown students. As a Democrat and a Connecticut resident, I was eager to hear him speak. After a short delay, he arrived in the White Gravenor classroom where we were waiting. He gave some opening remarks about his recent campaign, the budget, and issues specific to Connecticut before opening the floor for questions.



I was eager to ask a question about energy and the environment, but before I knew it, Blumenthal’s aide signaled that he would take only one more question. Luckily, the final question—by a student named Richard—was a great environmental question. In fact, it was directly related to the question that I brought up in my earlier post about Obama’s speech on energy policy. Richard asked if Blumenthal could address the impact that environmentalism has on areas other than the economic and sociopolitical.

Calling all photographers!

EPA is launching a State of the Environment Photo Project!

"In the spirit of Earth Day, help us capture images of the state of the environment today. Submit your best photo of the environment you experience: where you live or where you travel. While there is much cause for celebration, there is still work to do and what better way to show it than through all of our lenses? What makes this year stand out for such a project?

Georgetown Energy: Rooftop Solar Panel Petition

The following post is by Michele Jaeger from Georgetown Energy.

“And you also happen to go to a school [in a town] that for a long time has suffered from a chronic unwillingness to come together and make tough choices.” President Obama’s recent slip-of-the-tongue in reference to energy policy, in our very own McDonough Gymnasium, has stimulated more conversation about its validity than error.



One of the more enlightening (literally) proposals circulating for the highly anticipated allocation of the Student Activities Fee Endowment (SAFE) is Georgetown Energy’s idea to install solar panels on 43 townhouses. If this passes, the university will throw its name into the vastly and exponentially growing pool of universities prioritizing sustainability on their campuses, yes, but the real light at the end of the tunnel for part of the $3.4 million is the student benefit.