FROM THE NEWSWIRE:
You are invited to:

Mountain Justice Summer Camp
May 17 - 23
Harlan County, Kentucky

Our 2008 Mountain Justice Summer camp will be at the base of beautiful Pine Mountain, with an old-growth forest and incredible hiking just above the camp - plus live mountain music, great food, films, workshops on coal mining and Appalachian culture, skills training, and plenty of time for fun and relaxing.

Best of all, the camp is extremely low-cost, only $20 plus $10 per night. There are cabins with bunk beds, plus tent spaces, a beautiful lake, awesome mountain views, and some of the best people you will ever meet anywhere (sorry - no dogs this year).

Register now at http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org

Go to the website to see pictures of the camp and some photos of our camp last year in Tennessee. This is our 4th annual camp, and we think this is going to be the biggest and best camp we have ever had, with well-known speakers like Kentucky author Silas House, Kayford Mountain Keeper Larry Gibson, Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Ed Wiley from Rock Creek, West Virginia, plus many local Harlan County residents and coal miners who are concerned about mountaintop removal mining.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: RAN activists draped a 50-foot banner reading "Bank of America: Funding Coal, Killing Communities" across the street from Bank of America's downtown Charlotte, N.C., headquarters. RAN is urging the financial giant to stop funding mountaintop removal coal mining and the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

Bank of America has invested billions of dollars in companies that practice mountaintop removal in the Appalachian region, including Massey Energy, Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources. These companies are responsible for the loss of millions of acres of forests and mountains and the decimation of communities throughout Appalachia.

SAN FRANCISCO - Activists with Rainforest Action Network's (RAN) Global Finance Campaign draped a 50-foot banner reading "Bank of America: Funding Coal, Killing Communities" across the street from Bank of America's downtown Charlotte, N.C., headquarters this morning. The group is urging the financial giant to stop funding mountaintop removal coal mining and the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

Speakers submitting comments

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: Here is your chance to get right up in the faces of the powers that be at Duke Energy and their buddies in the Dept. of Air Quality in North Carolina with a challenge they will find hard to ignore. DAQ is the agency that was formed to protect the citizens of North Carolina, but in fact has a long history of complicity with the energy industry and has allowed actions that have sickened our people, particularly the elderly and children, and poisoned our air and water.

Duke seems to feel their proposal for a coal-fired plant at Cliffside is a done deal. We need your voice to prove they are wrong.

A Personal Account

Thursday night, Oct. 18, a citizen’s hearing was held on the A-B tech campus in Asheville. Anyone who wished to speak against the coal plant was given a chance. A video was made to be sent to the DAQ demanding a stop to the issuing of a permit for the proposed plant at Cliffside. A similar meeting was held in Charlotte where over 200 people packed the hall.

I attended the hearing In Asheville and would like to relate some of what I heard. To me, this was watching democracy in action. Educators, moms and dads, the young and our elders,performers,experts with facts and those speaking spontaneously from their hearts said , not just no to the Cliffside Plant, but no to coal.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: The Division of Air Quality refuses to hold public meetings about Cliffside here in Asheville. But guess what? The public hearings are happening anyway, thanks to the efforts of our grassroots-enviro groups.

However futile an exercise you may consider public comment to be, the upcoming meetings about Cliffside communicate a pretty clear message that grassroots organizations are ready to take energy policy into their own hands. The DAQ refused to hold hearings about the massive, coal-fired power unit slated for Rutherford County in Charlotte and Asheville, but groups like MVA and the Canary Coalition have decided to run these hearings anyhow. It seems like an attempt to facilitate a public outcry about the proposed coal-burning unit, which is beginning to look more like a relic of the certifiably insane coal era (which we are still living through, and inhaling, coincidentally) than a much-needed facility for electric power. Go to A-B Tech on Oct. 18 and say your piece!

Click here for details on the hearings.

$4000 needed, click here to donate

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: As a culmination of the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action, activists took a bold direct action against Bank of America over concerns regarding their investment throughout the coal cycle and their promotion of climate injustice. Although there was much speculation regarding a protest action at the Progress Energy Skyland coal-fired power plant, protestors surprised the downtown office of Bank of America.

Two activists locked down inside the main lobby and other activists blockaded the entrance to the downtown branch of Bank of America. The protest included a large, lively group of concerned citizens dressed as canaries and polar bears. Activists carried signs and banners that read: "Bank of America Stop Funding Climate Change," "Bank of America Stop Mountaintop Removal," "No Coal, No Nukes, No Kidding" "Bank of America Climate Criminal."

Bank of America has lent hundreds of millions of dollars to companies that run and are planning to build new power plants, such as Florida Power and Light. Between 2005 and 2007, Bank of America facilitated nearly $1 billion in loans to Massey Energy and Arch Coal, two of the largest companies responsible for the destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. This form of mining literally blasts the tops off of mountains to get at thin seems of coal that lay beneath. Mountaintop removal coal mining has permanently destroyed over 500 square miles of mountains and buried over 1,200 miles of streams in West Virginia alone.

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FROM THE NEWSWIRE: Today a massive police operation was deployed in Buncombe, Henderson, and Transylvania Counties to prevent activists from protesting a dirty power plant responsible for climate change. Dozens of uniformed and undercover cops surrounded the site of the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action as a police helicopter hovered over the site.

In addition, dozens more police were deployed at Progress Energy's Skyland coal power plant to prevent legitimate protest against dirty energy and climate change. "This shows which side of the climate debate the government is on. They have spent tens of thousands of dollars to protect the coal industry today. Clearly if the government wanted to address climate change, they would be sending the police in to arrest the heads of Progress Energy for perpetuating the greatest threat humanity has ever faced - climate change," an anonymous polar bear said.

In spite of the overwhelming police presence, Climate Convergence activists took a bold direct action against Bank of America over concerns regarding their investment throughout the coal cycle and their promotion of climate injustice. Although there was much speculation regarding a protest action at the Progress Energy Skyland coal-fired power plant, protestors surprised the downtown office of Bank of America.

Two activists locked down inside the main lobby and other activists blockaded the entrance to the downtown branch of Bank of America. The protest included a large, lively group of concerned citizens dressed as canaries and polar bears. Activists carried signs and banners that read: "Bank of America Stop Funding Climate Change," "Bank of America Stop Mountaintop Removal," "No Coal, No Nukes, No Kidding" "Bank of America Climate Criminal."

Come to the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action

FROM THE NEWSWIRE:

Southeast “Convergence for Climate Action� to combine low-impact living with high-impact civil disobedience
August 8-14, near Brevard, NC
You must register at http://www.climateconvergence.org/southeast to get directions!

The Southeast Convergence for Climate Action, near Asheville, North Carolina, will bring together activists across the region who are fighting mountaintop removal mining and coal and nuclear power plants. Mountaintop removal coal mining is currently devastating the ecologically diverse southern Appalachian Mountains. The coal companies have literally flattened hundreds of square miles of mountains, destroyed thousands of miles of our life giving streams, and terrorized countless communities in the process. Meanwhile southern utility companies are planning a blitzkrieg of new dirty coal plants, despite our regions already dismal air quality. To add insult to injury these same utility companies are using climate change as a justification for building a new fleet of dangerous nuclear reactors.

With extreme weather, massive species extinctions, and melting ice caps becoming a more urgent and dire reality each day, it is high time for us to come together to take direct action against the root causes of climate change. This summer, environmental and social justice groups throughout the Southeast will come together for the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action, a gathering to learn and take collective action against climate Change.

The convergence will consist of a week of information and skill-based workshops, strategy sessions, and direct action aimed at building a no-compromise climate justice movement. With some of the Big Green environmental groups selling out to the nuclear and "clean" coal industries, and large, corporate-led climate initiatives designed to preempt any meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions being pushed in DC, grassroots groups need to join forces with affected communities to fight the fossil fuel empire and create truly sustainable, community-based solutions outside of the capitalist system.

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: Early in the morning of June 14, windows were smashed out, locks were glued, and spray paint was left behind at the offices of Beverly Hanks Realtors and Private Mountain Communities in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. These two companies play a major role in the destruction of our beautiful mountains by perpetuating sprawl. BH and PMC both have exclusive rights to the marketing of gated communities, where the priveleged build second homes in one of the most diverse ecosystems in the US. Thousands upon thousands of acres of Western North Carolina's mountains are stripped bare every year for these exclusive developments where the rich attempt to shelter themselves from the rest of the world.

We will not stand for the desecration of the trees, streams, and creatures at the hands of greedy developers. Despite overwhelming public opposition to these developments, the real estate companies and development firms continue on their path of ecocide.

So we decided to hit them in the only way they understand--money. As long as these scumbags continue their rape of the Earth, we will inflict economic damage on them. Join us in taking militant direct action against the developers in your neck of the woods. We must take responsibility for the land that sustains us!

In defense of the wild,
Concerned Citizens of WNC

FROM THE NEWSWIRE: It seemed as though it was an average Asheville afternoon; the birds were chirping, the tailgate market was the “going on�, and the French Broad food Coop was having an event that brought an interesting crowd. The spandex wearers in the crowd seemed to be congregating towards the store front and at 1:00PM it was on. Cheeky environmentalists threw off their clothes with the slogan “as bare as you dare�� and the Asheville naked bike ride began.

Around 30 cyclists and two runners were present to emphasize the damage that is caused by auto dependency. The ride consisted of various people differing widely in age, bodies, motivation, and of course levels of clothing.

The cyclists moved at a slow and steady pace. We obstructed traffic as a key point in an ongoing argument. Upon mentioning the ride to a friend, I asked “Whats the point?� When asked about what the Asheville naked bike ride meant, Hattie said “ to me, it is about the words indecent exposure, referring to emissions from fossil fuels and the irony that we can’t even look directly at the natural human body, or display it without that being a crime.� to Hattie it seems as though gender role dynamics are also a critical part of the meaning of the ride. “to me it’s also about inequality; some people can expose half their body while so many people can’t. To say that because a person identifies as a woman that they can’t display a part of themselves is ridiculous.�