SEJ2008

Clean Coal's Dirtiest Secret

By Wendy Redal

It's been a couple of months since we visited Kayford Mountain together, but I've since completed a four-part series for a blog I write for on the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining and actions citizens can take to oppose it.  The series is titled "'Clean' Coal's Dirtiest Secret." And a tip of the hat to whoever titled the field trip; I borrowed from it for my title in part two.  If you're interested, here are the links:

Part I - An Ugly Overview
http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/10/27/clean-coals-dirtiest-secret/

Part II - Almost Level: The Mechanics of Moving Mountains
http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/10/29/clean-coals-dirtiest-secret-part-ii/

Part III - Poor affected most as Environmental Destruction Agency blasts away barrier to expand mountaintop removal mining:
http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/12/04/poor-affected-most-as-environmental-destruction-agency-blasts-away-barrier-to-expand-mountaintop-removal-mining/

Part IV - Seven Simple Steps to Save Appalachia
http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/12/16/seven-simple-steps-to-save-appalachia/

Concurrent Sessions 4: THE LAND: Animal Business: Wildlife Trafficking and International Law

Here's the audio file (MP3/12.2MB/0:53:19) for this Saturday, October 18, 2008, session: Download C4_Land

By Christopher Cox

The panel on wildlife trafficking consisted of freelance environmental writer and moderator Laurel Neme; the North American director of the World Wildlife Fund’s TRAFFIC initiative Crawford Allan; the Northeast regional assistant special agent for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Salvatore Amato; and Peter Jenkins, the director of International Conservation for the Defenders of Wildlife.

Discussion covered areas including both legal and illegal wildlife trade, enforcement of regulations, and the role of the Internet. Panelist Amato informed the audience that online trafficking has drastically changed the dynamics of wildlife trade, with suppliers and consumers finding new ways of exchanging information and products. These changes in the industry have made it necessary for “undercover” agents of regulatory institutions to heavily rely on web-based investigation.

Allan presented a PowerPoint citing specific examples around the globe of illegal trade, including concerns on the emerging tiger-bone wine market, and the crisis status of the pangolin (scaly anteater) in Southeast Asia, the area Allan mentioned as the “major concern” in regard to wildlife trafficking.

Jenkins spoke on the dramatic 23 percent budget cut imposed on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, despite a 50 percent increase in wildlife trafficking over the past decade. While trafficking is on the rise, increased and consistent funding for regulatory agencies will allow for more comprehensive inspection of ports to regulate the import and export of wildlife products, while providing support for agents who track this form of illicit trade on the web.

Concurrent Sessions 3: THE LAND: Are Suburbs the Next Slums? The Subprime Mortgage Meltdown as an Environmental Story

Here's the audio file (MP3/17.6MB/1:17:14) for this Saturday, October 18, 2008, session: Download C3_Land

Panelists discussed why many Americans appear to be leaving the suburbs in record numbers. Citizens are seeking better means of transportation and affordability as a result of economic changes in the U.S. "Many people are willing to rent or buy in places with transportation options, whether they be short drives, public transit, or walking," said Parris Glendening, president of Smart Growth Leadership Institute and former Governor of Maryland.

Rising gas prices and the current state of the economy are only a few reasons why many Americans are deciding to move to inner cities and trade their cars for public transportation. Empty-nesting Boomers and Generation Xers are choosing to relocate to more walk-able urban areas rather than suburban areas.

According to the Metropolitan Research Center at the University of Utah, America adds 100 million people faster than any other nation except India and Pakistan. As the demand for urbanization increases, "We are going to be gentrifying cities and closing areas — on steroids in the next 20 years," said Arthur "Chris" Nelson, presidential professor and director of Metropolitan Research.

Concurrent Sessions 2: THE LAND: Biodiversity, People, and the Planet: An Appalachian Lesson

Here's the audio file (MP3/12.5MB/0:54:39) for this Friday, October 17, 2008, session: Download C2_Land

An endangered Appalachian salamander and a resident of American suburbia have something in common: Each stays alive by the grace of a functioning ecosystem. However, pollution, population growth, land-use changes and climate change are eroding the integrity of the natural world to a point where many experts believe we are approaching — or perhaps have passed — a tipping point. Appalachia, home to some of the Earth's oldest mountains, is the setting for a dramatic story about the challenges of maintaining biodiversity. Critically endangered aquatic life, smog, agriculture, and urban pressures all combine to make Appalachia a perfect case study whose lessons journalists can carry home and apply anywhere.
Moderator: Randy Loftis, Environmental Writer, The Dallas Morning News
Panelists:
Paul Angermeier, Professor, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, Virginia Tech
Roberta Hylton, Project Leader, Southwestern Virginia Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
John Kunich, Professor, Charlotte School of Law
Jerry Moles, Consulting Director of Land Stewardship, New River Land Trust

Audio: Concurrent Sessions 1: THE LAND: Joy Ride or Ecocide? ORVs on Public Lands

Here's the audio file (MP3/15MB/1:05:42) for this Friday, October 17, 2008, session: Download C1_Land

The panel will discuss the growing use of Off-Road Vehicles on public lands and the issues related to this use. ORVs include everything from four-wheelers and snowmobiles to jet skis. Problems created by ORVs include water, noise and air pollution, disruption of wildlife, and the spread of weeds. Currently federal and state agencies are grappling with restricting and/or banning these machines from many parts of the public land.
Moderator: George Wuerthner, Freelance Writer and Author, Thrillcraft: The Environmental Consequences of Motorized Recreation
Panelists:
Derb Carter, Director, Chapel Hill Office, Southern Environmental Law Center
Jim Furnish, former Deputy Chief, U.S. Forest Service
Brian Hawthorne, Public Lands Policy Director, BlueRibbon Coalition
Jeff Ruch, Executive Director, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

Animal Trafficking -- CSI Wildlife

Laurel Neme's session on Animal Business: Wildlife Trafficking and International Law, was as dramatic as any fictional television series could hope to be. Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the Northeast Region of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Salvatore Amato recounted the challenges of law enforcement in an era of reduced budgets confronting increasingly sophisticated organized crime. With huge profits to be made from the sale of illegal wildlife products -- "They are sold to middlemen for dimes and dollars, who turn them around and sell them for hundreds of thousands of dollars" -- poachers and smugglers are using technology and the Internet to meet the demand from wealthy buyers.

Laurel's book on the subject, Animal Investigators: How the World's First Wildlife Forensics Lab is Catching Poachers, Solving Crimes, and Saving Endangered Species will be available April 7, 2009. It's got a foreward from Richard Leakey and advance praise from Jane Goodall.

These crimes are increasingly perpetrated by organized transnational gangs. "These are not one-time crimes," he said. "They require considerable planning, forgeries of the documents, and arrangements for shipments."

Despite limited enforcement resources, actually reduced under the Law & Order imprimatur of the Bush Administration, his office intercepts over $10 million worth of contraband annually. That includes sea turtles and sea turtle eggs, ivory, sperm whale teeth and an amazing variety of other animals and he products made from them.

He's organized a Special Ops team to work JFK Airport in New York, expanded the forensics lab and created an intelligence unit. His office has improved international relationships with the International Trade Data System, http://www.itds.gov/.  Improved web services free up officers' time for field work. New equipment such as surveillance vans and portable X-ray machines provide better ways to uncover smuggled shipments.

Crawford Allan, director of the World Wildlife Fund's TRAFFIC North American program, demonstrated the ingenuity of smugglers with photos of a Thai ailrine flight attendant who wore 140 rare fish in plastic bags of water strapped around her body, under her dress.  At $5,000-$10,000 per fish, the profit was worth the risk. "The airport inspectors heard the water sloshing as she walked past," he said.

This trade is fueled by the increasing wealth being accumulated by Chinese business people. "Wealth is driving the trade," he said.

Excessive wealth was a theme that ran through the conference. Follow the Money remains a good rule for us as journalists to follow.

Cutting down Mountains for Coal – Almost Level !!

by Michael Fortune

It’s remarkable the face-to-face discussion and mingling of adversaries I saw on this field trip. Coal mine owners, employees, strip mining protesters and community organizers;  were all mixed in with a bus load of reporters, as well as professors of forestry, biology, Appalachian studies . . . ..  This close contact led to a good exchange of experiences.  Adversaries in usual life had a chance to listen to many sides of a story . . . .  how strip mining benefited their lives, corrupted others.

    At the company sponsored tour, at a hunting cabin with a panoramic view of a land turned upside down, Andrew Jordan, president of the strip mining company, calmly answered dozens of questions about his operation. Bill Rainey and Jason Bostic, president and VP of the West Virginia Coal Association, were wary and a bit defensive in the first half hour that we were there, but relaxed as they conveyed the meaning of coal mining – the only activity that has brought prosperity to their workers and the community.

Journalists Question Old King Coal

What's His Role in America's Energy Future?

By Lisa Palmer

Coal provides half of America's electricity and is the nation's most abundant domestic fuel source. Panel moderator and SEJer Bob Edwards, host of "The Bob Edwards Show," on XM Radio, led a lively panel discussion about the sweeping impact of coal use in the world. He posed questions about how power companies are mitigating carbon dioxide emissions as well as dealing with the local effects of mining on mountains, streams and forests.

Journalist Jeff Goodell, author of Big Coal: The Dirty Secred Behind America's Energy Future, said the biggest thing journalists are missing in telling the coal story is the magnitude. "Coal is the 800 pound gorilla in the energy revolution," he said. "If, as Fred Palmer said, the world continues toward its expected 11 billion tons a year by 2030, then life on this planet will not be the same. It is far beyond dangerous. How do we communicate the scope of this issue?"

Healthy Food Shed Challenges America's Food Practices

By Sharon Stringer

The visit to Joel Salatin's 550 acre Polyface Farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley was awesome.  What a wonderful way to get indoctrinated to SEJ's conference day tours.  The trip was worth  waiting stand-by to board the 7:30 a.m. bus.

Joel Salatin is a character in his own right ,who is not bashful about sharing his disdain with Washington's farm policy makers. He said that if it comes out of Washington, don't believe it.

How Land Conservation Preserved an Appalachian Jewel: McAfee Knob

By Lisa Palmer

We went to McAfee Knob seeking a view of the Catawba Valley. But, we found a richer understanding of a land with a 350 year history of human development. What are human impacts the environment along the AT? Recreation ecologist Dr. Jeffrey Marion, of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and adjunct professor at the Dept of Forestry at Virginia Tech, provided an outstanding lecture on how human use of backcountry affects the land. On McAfee Knob, our view extended 30 miles past Catawba Ridge. About 25 miles of the Appalachian Trail goes through Roanoke County.

Topics of conversation on the hike ranged from how AT through-hikers obtain their trailnames to Leave No Trace ethics and how to pick a campsite.

Cousteaus: A Sneak Peak

By Lisa Palmer

Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau, of Earth Echo International, presented awards to journalists at the SEJ 2008 conference awards ceremony Wednesday evening.

Alexandra for the last two years was living in Central America studying water ecosystems. Her new book, tentatively titled "This Blue Planet," will present her take on the different water ecosystems around the world, including the practices of sustainable fishing and will explain how ecosystems are interconnected and interdependent.

I first met Philippe when he was a student of mine at the Longshore Sailing School in Westport, Connecticut. Today he's exploring bigger waters. As host of a Discovery Channel/BBC co-production called "Oceans," he's bringing the message of ocean advocacy and sustainability to mass media audience. 

Guest Blogger Christine Heinrichs

I'm from Cambria, California, the Central Coast. I joined SEJ in 2001 when I was reporting on golf course maintenance and poultry was an avocation. Since then, Voyageur Press has seen the wisdom of publishing my book on chickens, How to Raise Chickens. It has been well received -- I'm big in Tractor Supply's books section --so they asked me to write another on poultry. How to Raise Poultry, with chapters on ducks, geese, swans, turkeys, guineafowl, game birds, ratites (ostriches, emus and rheas), and, of course, chickens, will be available in April 2009. My blog is http://poultrybookstore.blogspot.com.

Being involved with poultry has led me into so many environmental areas: agricultural practices of all kinds sustainable and industrial, herbicide and pesticide use, watershed management, water and air quality issues, humane farm animal treatment, food-borne illness, food quality, global hunger and saving the world.

Introducing guest blogger: John Sutter

Hello from Roanoke! This is John Sutter, a guest blogger on this site. I'm in Roanoke early for a fellowship with the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. The weather is beautiful, the leaves are turning and the class sessions have been quite informative so far.

I live in Oklahoma City and recently started an environmental news blog at http://concretebuffalo.blogspot.com. My portfolio is up at http://jdsutter.com.    I'm pumped for this week full of learning and fun, especially a rafting trip down the James River, where we'll learn about the impact of agriculture on water quality. That particular trip interested me because Oklahoma's attorney general is suing several poultry companies over alleged water pollution. I made my first hike in the mountains here on Saturday with a friend who works for the Roanoke Times. She was an excellent tour guide, and the view of the Blue Ridge from "sharp point" at the top of the hike was stunning. 

Introducing Guest Blogger Fred First

Hello SEJ-ers. My name is Fred First. I am one of the newest members and possibly the only one to claim a public writing start (at age 54 no less) by way of a blog.  Fragments from Floyd has, since 2002, given me a medium by which to share my passion for natural history-field biology, the culture and landscapes of the Blue Ridge Mountains and local and regional environmental matters.

My blog posts more often than not spring from my photographs close to home--just up the western slope from Roanoke in Floyd County. Those who take the Parkway field trip on Thursday at the conference will travel about 30 miles along the Floyd County's southern border on their way to Mabry Mill. I'd be happy to answer any questions a local resident from the area might be able to answer.