States of Emergency
Now online: portions of "Acts of God?", the latest issue of Southern Exposure (Winter 2004/2005), the Institute's award-winning magazine of culture, politics, and investigative journalism.read more
View ArticleWhat have Obama's first 100 days meant for the South?
Everyone else is chiming in with their grade on President Obama's first 100 days in office, so we thought we'd join in, too.As we and others noted after Obama's election, his candidacy had enormous...
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VOICES: Strip mining Black History Month
Few realize Black History Month's ties to the history of coal miners in West Virginia. And as mountaintop removal mining continues there, that history is in danger of being erased.Image:Â Facing South...
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Mapping the health toll of mountaintop removal
A new mapping tool helps illustrate the serious health impacts of a particularly destructive form of coal mining.Image: Facing South Appreciate this post? Please donate & share below. Donate »...
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INSTITUTE INDEX: The real obscenity of mountaintop removal
Mountaintop removal activist Maria Gunnoe of West Virginia was questioned about child porn by U.S. Capitol Police after submitting a photo of a child bathing in mine-polluted water to a House committee...
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Anti-mining protests heat up in West Virginia as evidence of damage builds
Twenty people were arrested over the weekend while blocking the largest mountaintop removal operation in West Virginia. Meanwhile, scientific evidence of the human and environmental health damages...
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Video documents miner, state police harassment of mountaintop removal...
Activists are calling for a federal investigation of alleged police brutality and harassment of mountaintop removal protesters following a nonviolent action at a West Virginia mine last week. Image:...
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On Appalachia Solidarity Day, remembering a mountain hero
Larry Gibson, a leader in the campaign to end mountaintop removal coal mining, died Sunday on the West Virginia mountain he fought so hard to protect. Today, his fellow activists will gather at the...
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A turning point on mountaintop removal?
There were two big developments this week in the fight to end mountaintop removal, with a federal appeals court upholding the EPA's authority to revoke permits for such coal mining operations, and a...
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UN human rights group calls for investigation of mountaintop removal mining...
The United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights recently visited West Virginia communities affected by the controversial mining practice and said allegations of health damage, water...
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Carrying water for an end to mountaintop removal
Activists hauled polluted water from Appalachia to Washington, D.C. this week to draw attention to the plight of communities affected by mountaintop removal coal mining. The action comes as legislation...
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INSTITUTE INDEX: Promoting the myth of 'sustainable coal'
A group of prominent Democrats has launched a project to promote the idea that coal is part of a sustainable U.S. energy future -- even as new evidence emerges showing just how environmentally...
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Coal ash polluting NC river was once Appalachian mountaintops
Before its coal-fired units were shuttered in 2012, Duke Energy's Dan River plant burned coal from mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia. The reality that the arsenic-laden ash now contaminating a...
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Earth Day: What are we fighting for?
The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation has launched a "Southern Voices" oral history project to capture the stories of Southern leaders working for social and economic justice. This special Earth Day...
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Remembering Appalachian folksinging legend Jean Ritchie
Born into a renowned Kentucky ballad-singing family, Ritchie went on to earn fame for preserving old songs and composing original tunes protesting the destructiveness of coal mining. She died earlier...
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