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Videos on Coal and Mining Issues

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT (COAL) — 11.FEB.2015

Radio EcoShock

Talking Dirty... About Coal — Coal is a world-class environmental wrecking ball, with impacts affecting climate, mountains, streams, air pollution, food quality, and more. But hey don't worry about that; American jobs are at stake. That's the message coming from the National Center for Policy Analysis, or the NCPA. It's a tax-exempt organization that's been pumping out the big-business message for over 30 years. Here's an example of some recent NCPA coal propaganda: "Increasing US coal exports could be good for the US economy, workers, and the environment..." Really? Coal, good for the environment? Not so fast, mister...
Go to page  |  Download/listen   12:01

GP comment:  Despite all the talk about moving away from coal, the pace is slow and mostly driven by economics, not concern for the environment or climate change.

Original Show Pub Date: 04.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT (COAL, CLIMATE) — 12.NOV.2014

Radio EcoShock

India's Mega-Coal Plants — Targeted for 4,000 megawatts, the Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) in India is ten times the size of the average coal power plant in the United States. Worse still, we find ourselves in an Orwellian world, where a mega coal plant in India is classified as "environmentally friendly technology"; where electricity customers in Europe can buy credits from a coal plant as a "clean development mechanism"; and where hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars help build a dirty coal project. Nicole Ghio of Sierra Club International explains.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   21:55

GP comment:  The project in India is just another example of our collective inability to sacrifice power demand for carbon reductions. It's just not going to happen. Alex Smith plays a brief sidebar at the end of this interview that sums it up perfectly. Listen, and awaken to climate reality.

Original Show Pub Date: 05.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT (MINING) — 25.OCT.2014

Living on Earth

Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining Increases Cancer Risk — Overburden removal during mountain-top-removal coal mining in Appalachia blasts dust into the air that is then carried on the wind for miles and inhaled by nearby residents. Michael Hendryx is a Professor of Applied Health Science at Indiana University Bloomington and co-author of a study linking that dust to lung cancer. He's calling for a halt to this type of coal mining.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   6:41

GP comment:  MTR mining is an obscene thing to do to a landscape. Don't believe the industry flacks when they say they "restore" the area once they are done. Sure, they plant stuff, but the ecosystem is not at all "restored."

Original Show Pub Date: 24.Oct.2014

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