Are we still fanatical?

Welcome to the 21st century. (Ok, so I'm 10 years late or something.)

2000: October 11th, in Inez, KY. Where residents arise to over 300 MILLION gallons of coal sludge in their tiny town. Why? because this is America, and we like to burn coal for energy. For over 200 years! Sorry Inez, but in New York City, our lights are shining bright. The EPA calls this "one of the worst environmental disasters ever in the southeastern United States".

2004: December 26th, in the Indian Ocean. Theres an earthquake ranging from 9.1 to 9.3 on the Richter scale. This brings a tsunami over 32 ft. high to the coast of indonesia.

2005: August 29th, New Orleans, LA residents are greeted be Katrina, a formerly catagory 5 hurricane. Over 80% of the city is flooded. Mississippi's beachfront towns were 90% flooded. Katrina is refered to as the costliest hurricane, and one of the five deadliest.

2006: July  17th, once again in the Indian ocean, off the southwest coast of Java, Indonesia. Theres a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, causing a nearly 10 ft. tsunami, taking at least 668 lives.

2008: Begining on September 1st, Hurricane Ike is formed. Reaching category 4 status at various points in its journey,  finally making landfall over Galveston, Texas on September 13th as a strong category 2, with a category 5 like storm surge. Ike moved all the way up through the midwest on into canada in tropical depression, and extratropical status before finally exiting around the Labrador Sea. This was ranked the 3rd costliest hurricane, and brought hurricane like winds and rains to places that knew nothing of such things.

It's barely December 22nd in Roane county, TN. The coal slurry impoundment at the TVA fossil plant has a damn rupture into the Emory river. Over 1 billion gallons of coal fly ash slurry goes rushing through the Emory and Clinch rivers. Surrounding property was covered in as much as 6 ft. of sludge. This spill was more than three times the size of the 2000 martin county spill. They continue to battle clean up efforts to this day.

2009: January 9th, another TVA plant, this time in northeast AL, has a spill. TVA did not deny that the material entered the creek, but figures were not disclosed as they claimed to have "contained" it.

January 25th, Areas of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, and Kentucky are hit with an ice storm that lasted up to 5 days in some places. As much as 2.5 inches of ice can be found on trees and power lines. Over 2 million people lost power, over 500,000 in Kentucky alone, 100,000 of those without power for over a week.

August 4th, Louisville, KY and southern IN are hit with a serious flash flood.

September 30th, Just off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia theres a 7.6magnitude earthquake. Killing at least 1,115, destroying 135,000 houses.

2010: January 12th, there's a 7.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Leogane, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 6th deadliest earthquake in history, killing an estimated 230,000 people. Approximately 1,000,000 people were left without homes, and many many more were severly injured. In addition to homes and business' that were destroyed. The Red Cross estimates that as many as 3,000,000 people were effected by the quake.

March 5th, once again off the Sumatra coast in Indonesia, they experience a 6.8 magnitude earthquake. to be followed by a 7.8 magnitude quake on April 6th.

April 3rd, A large coal carrying ship runs aground off the coast of Australia damaging and leaking oil into prts of the incurredibly sensitive Great Barrier Reef.

April 20th, an oil drilling rig off the coast of LA explodes causing a large fire and massive oil spill that is on going to this day, currently releasing at least 210,000 gallons of crude oil a day.

May 1st and 2nd Excessive rainfall causes the cumberland river to overflow leading to flooding in KY, MS, and most affected, TN. As of May 2nd, there are currently 29 confirmed dead, but this too is "current", so those figures could, and probably will, change.

All of this makes me absolutely sick!
But I'm just an "environmentalist hippy", what do I know?

I really hope that theres something here for my children, when they're older.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_County_Sludge_Spill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2006_Java_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill
http://www.epa.gov/region4/kingston/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/09/second-tva-dam-breaks-at_n_156605.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2009_Central_Plains_and_Midwest_ice_storm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Kentuckiana_Flash_Flood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Sumatra_earthquakes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_2010_Sumatra_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2010_Sumatra_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Shen_Neng_1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_drilling_rig_explosion
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIXWYBTpLtSayJtg41LKXpxSxVPAD9FGLT3G0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2010_Tennessee_floods

a letter

here i will attempt to write something profound. ok. maybe not. but this is what i will soon forward to every person and organization that i think may be able to assist me, in some way shape or form.

is it too wordy? if anyone would like to edit or critique it before i start to send it out. feel free.

"to whom it may concern,

my name is jessica deis, i am a 27 year old mother of two. i homeschool my oldest, who is almost 8, and in doing so, this has forced me to open my eyes and mind in a new way.
more important that all of that (for this letter anyway) is that i am a professional photographer. i do mostly freelance portrait work, but ive long had an affinity for documentary photography, i guess its just that nothings pulled at me hard enough to motivate me to dedicate the time, money, effort, skills, etc. neccessary... until now.

in august of 2008 me and my family relocated to louisville, ky, and my eyes were opened to the reality that is mountain top removal. i now spend much of my time thinking about and researching this subject, and it tears at me. so ive decided to do a photo documentary on coal. from its source, the mountains, to its destination, the power plants, and everything in between.

i hope to work with residents in appalachia who have experienced the devistation first hand, right on to those affected by power company "ash spills".

not being able to devote every hour to this will no doubt make it a bit more challenging, but im ready to accept that challenge. if you have any sources, information, advice, etc. to offer me, i would be greatly appreciative, and would gladly give credit anywhere i share my work.

thank you for your time,
-jessica"

i love mountains

it was less than a year ago, i had never heard the term "mountain top removal". i barely understood the purpose and dangers surrounding (deep) coal mining.

i was almost ignorant enough to think my electricity came from the energy fairy.

then in august, my little family relocated to louisville, ky. it was here that i recognized my first power plant. scoffing at the giant smoke stacks and nasty smoke billowing out from its tower.

by december, we decided to visit a church. since we dont exactly identify with christianity, we choose a unitarian universalist congregation, first unitarian. and we havnt looked back.

so, from here ill lead you into something ive posted at various other places i "reside" on this mass web of inters.

"i picked up "lost mountain" ... http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Mountain-Erik-Reece/dp/1594489084 at the "louisville loves mountains" ... festival? theres nothing celebratory about it though.

i cant even begin to summarize what all is going on. with the mountains, the coal, the people. not only in this book, everywhere.
heres a photo story of a lady in tenneessee... http://www.alexblackwelder.com/stories.html
she also keeps a livejournal (the lady, not the photographer, though they may as well.)

i wish i had a mountain, i wish below it there were billions of americans, that didnt witness what goes on in them every day. so i could somehow shout down to them what was happening in our nation.

there are zillions of issues. all with valid reasons for concerns. but right now. somehow, this one peaks for me.
no longer do i think much on the nations eating habits. our endless war on "terror", stupid "bailouts". i dont worry much about religious insanity, or prejudice. i can hardly think really. its plaguing my mind. coal. coal is all i think about.

ill thank my "faith", or lack thereof. the "church" we attend, which of course is only valuable because of those in attendance with us. i think one can learn a lot from UUs, including myself. we saw bumper stickers reading things like "topless mountains are obscene", with no clue what they were referencing. at some point we saw a flyer somewhere, touching on mountaintop removal, or "strip mining". and i began to piece it together. began being the operative word.

when my church announced a group going to a "rally" in frankfort (the capital) to encourage legislation forcing coal companies to be slightly more responsible, we joyously went. we walked a mile to the capital steps in an attempt to represent all the miles of streams destroyed (if only 1400 people were in attendance.)

during this rally, listening to people speak, from ashley judd to a young lady that recently moved from an affected area, i learned much more, and came home to continue.

for the first time in my life (that im aware of) i can view the power plant. not only that, but i can see it from the highway, its thick cloud of smoke. i like to think im pretty smart. and i feel confident this stuff cant be good.

i continue to read stories. on the net, in books, from people (those of course involve listening, not reading) and each one tears at my heart.

i am no better than anyone, and anyone no better than me. this earth belongs to each one of us, and beyond. it belongs to the deer, and the snakes, the lady bugs, and the humming birds. even the trees, and carrots, have every right to be here. and sure, its all for the taking, but only take what you can give back. there is no way to give back an entire mountain, no matter how much "energy" provided.
there is no way to give back lives taken by a sludge pond breakage. and id be willing to live in the dark if i thought itd end there.

im small, and im meager. my confidence sits fairly low most days. but im moved. i am brainstorming on how to compile the resources to do a photo documentary on coal. from start (mountains) to finish (power plant) and anyone involved/affected in between.
i long to be as unbiased as i possibly can, while remaining completely raw. draw your own conclusions. just know that knowledge is power.

if you wish to provide ANY form of support in my journey (from spiritual cheerleaders, to linking me someone with a first hand encounter, to helping me apply for grants) i would be forever grateful.

although, my only goal with this is to open eyes and minds. i am in no way searching for financial gain."