Larry Gibson, Activist, and his dog, at Kayford Mountain, WV

GAL has made exposing the “dirty truth” about coal as a “clean” energy source one of its top priorities.

As our society’s wants and needs grow, the pressures being put on our natural resources are overwhelming. The environmental diversity of our flora and fauna is collapsing around the world under this strain. Here, in our own country, the seed bed of the North American continent, our mountains and forests are being burned, bulldozed, and exploded daily, all because behind closed doors in Washington, a group of people decided that the Appalachian Mountains and its people could be sacrificed so the rest of our country could have a cheap and readily available fossil energy source —coal. We are talking about ground zero for our nation’s energy.

The burning of coal emits hundreds of toxic chemicals into the air we breathe and is a leading contributor to global warming. For every ton of coal burned, 3.6 tons of CO2 enters our atmosphere. Although coal supplies about 52% of our nation’s energy, it is responsible for 97% of the particulate matter in our atmosphere generated from all of the various power industries combined. All of the mercury raining down on our land, polluting our waters, poisoning our fish and our people, comes from burning coal. Sulfur Dioxide, a contributor to acid rain, comes from burning coal. Ground-level Ozone air pollution is caused by burning coal.

Mountain top removal coal mining (MTR) is how most of our coal is obtained. MTR is a fast and relatively inexpensive operation for the mining companies. MTR sites can be manned by fifteen or twenty men, using giant equipment, and working round the clock —twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Mining companies are blowing the tops off mountains, often 1,000 feet down, to extract the thin seams of coal. For every ton of coal extracted, approximately 100 tons of rock and earth called “over burden” is bulldozed into the valleys below. Two thousand miles of rivers, streams, and headwaters have been buried in Appalachia by coal company operations. On our planet where water seems so abundant, only 1% is actually drinkable. Water is our lifeblood, and is too precious to squander.

After the coal is mined it must be washed before it can be transported. For every ton of coal washed, 95 gallons of water is poisoned forever, turning it into a toxic sludge that weighs four times what it did to start. The sludge is stored in man-made impoundments, held back by earthen dams, many of which are leaking. These ponds often store billions of gallons of sludge.

The time has come to end the tyranny of mountain top removal coal mining. Three thousand five hundred people (3,500) die prematurely every year in West Virginia from the effects of coal mining and its resulting pollution. We must all spread the word about how damaging coal is, and how coal companies are laying waste to our beautiful Appalachian Mountains and their people.

This new age of awareness means we can no longer hide from our energy problems. We have an ear in Washington now. We must inform our legislators on the issues, and get them to act. Let’s make clean renewable energy happen. We have the technology. All we need is the will.

We are all culpable in this destruction of Mother Earth. In Massachusetts 50% of all electricity comes from coal extracted from mountain top removal mining.

What can you do?

Reduce and use clean energy:

National Grid now offers 50% and 100% green energy options through their “GreenUp” renewable energy program in Massachusetts. Click on the following link to find out about this program: http://tinyurl.com/greenup.

To see if there are any similar programs in your state, look here: http://tinyurl.com/greenelectricity.

National Grid also offers a free energy audit. This is a great way to save money and save the planet at the same time. (http://tinyurl.com/energyaudit)

Go to the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (www.ohvec.org) and www.stopmountaintopremoval.org to find out how you can use the democratic process to stop the destruction.

(All photos in this post courtesy of Mark Schmerling. Click on each photo below for more information about it.)

Erin Stack

GAL created several temporary installations of site-inspired “Green Haiku” along the Newburyport waterfront. The installation site at an urban park and river boardwalk, brings into focus how the natural environment is “developed” and tamed for human consumption. Pedestrians discovering these “Green Haiku” were given the opportunity to reflect on their experience and influence on Nature. .

GAL has installed Green Haiku at the Newburyport Waterfront in 2007 and 2008. The photo above is a haiku by Erin Stack.

In our 2008 installation, twelve GAL haiku and five short poems from guest poet Richard Wolman from his series, “Morning Songs,” were inscribed on raw canvas and posted along the Waterfront for ten days in April coinciding with Earth Day and the Newburyport Literary Festival.

After the installation, the surviving poems were retrieved (some were stolen) and “recycled” into two books, with images by GAL members. These books will be used to inspire 4th and 5th graders at Newburyport’s Molin Upper Elementary School in the Spring of ‘09.

GAL will also be creating Green Haiku for Amesbury, MA in the Spring of 2009.

The Green Artists League offers these Green Haiku as an opportunity to reflect on our community environment. GAL invites those who are also inspired by their local environment to post their own Green Haiku (along with image and location of inspiration) on our Citizen Green Haiku blog. (More info on this to come…)

Selected text from GAL’s Green Haiku…

Fragile Seed Pods
Blown onto black asphalt road
Picked up by warm hands

Salt Spiced air
On the banks by the river
Uplifting Source

Eva Maria Lee

Stolen Sand
On my feet
Stolen Land

Rat-a-tat-tat construction
Autos growl over Merrimac
Bird songs spring

Drumming noise of cars
Bare feet over the river
Warm October day

Salt filled air
On my thirsty skin
Wipes off tears

-Eva Maria Lee

Cold hidden alive
Black reflection moves
In the cold river

Plum tree rusted
Blackened over time
A dark rainy day

- Jeannie Dunnigan

Brick stands upon brick
Leaves turn within and without
A tree grips its roots

- Deborah Szabo

Trees
Listen… They speak.
Cars rush by.

- Ruth Trussell

Erin Stack

Scattered gold
Mired
In mud

Ancient Pine
Sliced bit by bit
Still stands

Swift water
Moves November
Fish traps

A treasure discarded
Blackened brambles sprout green growth
Faded bauble remains

Brazen Autumn blooms
Evening’s frozen embrace
Black garden morning

- Erin Stack

Savage Rituals

Erin Stack
Stephenie Strogney

Erin Stack and Stephenie Strogney collaborate annually on an interactive performance called a “Savage Ritual.”

“Savage Rituals”, Earth Day, 2008, Newburyport, MA

This roaming interventionist performance, addressed Americans’ ambivalent, veiled as romanticized, relationship to Nature. Our “friendly” polar bear offered gifts of cards to people on the street and in commercial establishments. These cards were inscribed with one of twenty-six “Savage Rituals”. These rituals, when performed, would press for a more intimate relationship with Nature and were often humorous and always challenging.

Selected Savage Rituals

1. For the duration of one month from this day, place a cup outdoors every time there is precipitation. Allow the cup to fill for as long as the rain or snow lasts. When the weather changes, drink the contents of the glass.
2. In your mind, determine a length of time: a specific number of hours, days, weeks, or years. Next, pick up a rock. Any size that you can carry is fine. Keep the rock with you at all times: in bed, in
   the shower, at work… Always have the rock within arm’s length of you. At the end of the specified time, return the rock to the exact location where you found it.
3. Assign a name and one character trait to every item you throw away or recycle today based either on a another piece of property, the item, or a feeling you were experiencing when you discarded it. Write all of these names and character traits down. At the end of the day, write a fictional story that uses all of these characteristics.
4. Locate sources of food. Find a produce, a dairy, and a meat farm nearest to the place where you slept last night. Walk to each of these food source locations some time this month.
5. Do not flush a toilet today.  If the toilet that you typically use seems to be in danger of exceeding its capacity, find another toilet.
6. Waste feed
   Take the remains of your dinner today. Place it outside as food for wild animals. Visit the remains morning, noon, and night, until all traces are gone.
7. Wind Turn
   Close your eyes and stand. Note the sensation of the wind on your skin. Turn to face the direction from which the wind is blowing. Open your eyes and walk in that direction until you can no longer feel the breeze on your face.
8. Conversation piece
   Place cheese on a decorative tray and place the tray in the center of the dinner table. Leave the tray for 8 weeks.
9. Think of an animal that frightens you. Dress up as this animal and stand in front of a mirror. Have a conversation with this animal about your hopes and fears.
10. Go to a forest. Learn to identify 12 plant and tree species by touch.
11. Remove all electronic media from you home. Open a window and listen to the ambient sounds of Nature instead of the nightly news.
12. Follow piece.
    Follow the next ant you see to its nest. Sit down and wait until your particular ant exits its nest.
13. Animal Empathy
    Prepare chicken for your next meal. Take a bite and imagine the life of the chicken. Continue chewing until you have imagined the places where it was born, lived, and died. Swallow.

Hungry Ghost on Bartlett Mall, Newburyport, MA

Inspired by Kafka’s short story, Metamorphosis and Buddhist Cosmology, GAL’s roaming intervention, “Metamorphosis: Hungry Ghost” is a cautionary tale of excessive consumption.  A GAL barker led our character, the Hungry Ghost, through an Earth Day fair announcing the tragic news that Stephenie, a savvy, yet profligate shopper, awoke one morning transformed into a ravenous Hungry Ghost. She is now doomed to roam the world consuming without ever being satisfied. The public was encouraged to feed the hungry ghost by putting their waste water bottles, napkins, candy wrappers, etc. through the many gaping red mouths of the ghost. This waste could then easily be seen through the translucent “digestive sacs” that lay exposed on the outside of her body.

Hungry Ghost Getting Sugar Fix at Convenience Store

New Eden Gardeners Plotting the Garden 3/21/2009

Vegetables in Flower at Community Garden

In July 2008, First Parish Church, Newbury worked with GAL other New Eden Collaborative members on the  the design and construction of a float for Newburyport’s Yankee Homecoming parade. The theme of the float was The Octopus’s Garden – One Earth One Family. Our float won the coveted Mayor’s Award for originality and best exemplifying Yankee Homecoming’s theme of “Family”. GAL also began working on a 9′ x 60′ mural on “Visions of a Sustainable Future” based on input from New Eden Collaborative members. GAL artists worked on the mural during the hours of the Greater Newburyport CSA weekly vegetable share distribution to create an opportunity for dialogue with New Eden members on vision and hopes for a sustainable future.

New Eden Collaborative projects for 2009 include:

• GAL-taught organic gardening classes and seed exchange
• Community garden design
• Design and construction of compost heap (Waste Folly) and cold frames (“We Reap What We Sow”) made from reclaimed materials
• Design and Construction of a children’s cottage and garden from recycled materials

GAL will be working with the three communities documenting their experience of working together through out the growing season.

Adam's Garden, First Parish Church, 2008