So apparently I’ve had this blog for over a year now. Looking back at the posts it’s been interesting. I hope in the near future to continue this blog on my own personal webpage.

Until then, looks like I won’t be updating.

Thanks for your time.

Peace.

I’ll be heading down to Washington DC to the PowerShift 09 Conderence on Friday. It looks like a promising weekend, both weather and event wise.

I believe you can sign up to attend until this evening. So if you’re not already signed up please do. Come on over to DC for a great weekend of Energy and Environment discussions.

Powershift

Hopefully I’ll get to blog while in DC!

This evening I attended the Fun-A-Day show here in West Philly, at Studio 34.

Basically the show calls for anyone to do some kind of artwork for each day of January (so 31 pieces). Some made songs, lots of drawings, photographs, paintings. There were even girls doing acrobatics. It was my first time at the studio and I have to say it was rather nice and spacious. Great addition to West Philly neighborhood.

And of course, Jimi was a part of the festivities, showing “Not Green”. What I see as a message to the quasi-green movement plaguing our environment, from pseudo-hippie music festivals to reusable shopping bags with WalMart logos. Check out his site, lots of great art to see and buy.

JimiDemetriou.com

ArtClash

Studio 34

If you’re a student you’ll want to take a look at this conference taking place in DC the last weekend in February. I’ll sure be attending, you should too! Lots to do, and well worth it.

More to come.

http://www.powershift09.org/

It is the last untouched mountain in a range plagued by the predatorial mountain top removal processes. Please read the article through the link below. For those of you who might not have visited Appalachia, it’s more than a beautiful place. My family has over 60 acres, and I will grow old there one day, just as my grandparents have.

These organizations are trying to help, you can too.

http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2009/01/29/mountaintop_removal/index.html

http://www.appvoices.org/

http://ilovemountains.org/

Within the coming weeks and months I will be posting much more often. Specifically, I will work more to present events, groups, and publications that I find to be more than interesting. With that said, please enjoy the new jessicalpl and your day, where ever you are.

I posted before, on the Clean Coal farce, and linked up a wonderful organization ilovemountains.org. I recently received an email regarding the removal of a mountain, the Coal River Mountain. They set plans to start blasting away the top today, Sept 10th.

You may ask why you should care about a mountain that might be hundreds or even thousands of miles away from where you are typing on your desktop or notebook. But take a look at what the residents of Coal River are trying to do instead of allowing the coal mining corporations to attack their land and strip it down to nothingness. They are pushing clean, renewable energy…a wind farm. What are the benefits of blasting the earth away? Since I am in the water business, I just see intensified stormwater runoff, decay, and erosion. Benefiting whom? Here in Philadelphia we saw the impact, especially with our public water system with coal mining upstream of our water sources.

I can only wonder what more will happen to what’s left of our “natural” spaces here in America after this election. What is next…possibly the pristine beauty of Alaska? or more oil spills in the Mississippi?

What are your thoughts? Does anyone see any good to these coal mining processes?

Every day should be Earth Day.

Look in your community for “greening” projects, or maybe trash clean up days today or this weekend. Bring in spring time with a beautifully clean earth and look to the future. Read up on sustainability and alternative energy. These topics are nothing new, but should be explored for the future.

Some great websites for history of Earth Day and Sustainability, check them out:

http://ww2.earthday.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day

http://rooftopkitchen.com/

Look out for a new post hopefully within a day. I’ve been pretty sick, and unable to enjoy the beautiful weather outdoors. However, I’ve been keeping up with the current events, so look for a post regarding something in the recent news.

Any guesses as to what the next post will be?? Leave one

At Friday’s Hillary rally in Philadelphia (see previous post), there was a group of people pushing for “Clean Coal.” While walking up to wait in line, I saw almost everyone wearing white hats with the phrase “Clean Coal” on them. I immediately remembered a book I read a couple years back, “Coal: A Human History” by Barbara Freese, which describes humans’ intense reliance upon coal and its environmental and social impacts. Next thing that came to mind is an organization that has been pushing the stopping of mountaintop removal for mining purposes (more to follow below).
Wondering how clean coal could actually be, I decided to look up some arguments.

Most of our energy in the U.S. is supplied by coal. Apparently this clean coal of sorts is chemically washed of minerals including sulfur dioxide. The process is deemed acceptable by industries and supporters because they say it is efficient and in turn better for the environment. It should also be mentioned here that Bush has supported the clean coal processes.

Coal, no matter how clean it is, is still coal; as you may know it produces carbon dioxide. This clean coal technology doesn’t really do anything to change the release of carbon dioxide. For those up on the “Global Warming” issue, it is a part of those oh so scary greenhouse gases (or gases in the atmosphere that impede the loss of heat up to space). There are other sources of clean energy other than “clean” coal, such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power.

Finally, as mentioned before the thing that came to mind was a group pushing to end mountaintop removal. I was introduced to the organization about a year ago, and was added to their email list. More recently I’ve been actively reading their information regarding mountaintop removal for coal mining. Beginning in the 1970s and continuing even today, mountains in Appalachia are stripped down nearly 500 feet. Their website conveys the many dangers and effects of this type of strip mining. Growing up in the Appalachian Mountains, I know just how beautiful they are, and this destruction is indescribable.

So, back to those individuals who were wearing the oh so clean white caps saying “Clean Coal”. I suppose the draw of a free hat was more important then actually understanding the issue that the hat itself was presenting. And with that, hats off to all those who wore the cap just because it was free.

http://ilovemountains.org/

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=us-cancels-clean-coal-plant