This is a quote from the translator of a book of Chinese poetry who explains that the views of the poets are molded by the three basic Chinese philosophies: Lao Tzu (Taoism), Buddhism and Confucius. In aspiring to the larger vision of things, relying on Nature as the model for process, he says:

To Lao Tzu the problem of solving the ills of human life was to do nothing, to be carried along by the mighty current of the cosmos. The way, he said, to clear the world of its dirt and muddy aspect was identically the way one cleared a bucket of muddy water. Agitation, an attempt to be rid of the impurities merely prolonged their evil influence and presence. The thing to do was to do nothing. The sediment would settle to the bottom, the water would clear itself. So with man and his world. With a wise passivity the eternal Way would exert itself.

Beautiful.

Photo by Robert Gates (omni@ntelos.net), thanks to OVEC.org

The coal industry got their “going away” gift today as the Bush Administration gave final approval to the last minute regulation change that will allow mountaintop debris to be deposited in streams and valleys. Obama and Congress are the last hope for saving our environment by reversing these regulations. PLEASE write or call your Congressmen!

Again I refer you to the following websites for more information on what mountaintop removal mining really is and the impact it has on the environment:

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

West Virginia Highlands Voice

EarthJustice

Stop Mountaintop Removal

I love Mountains

One more photo of valley fill, from OVEC.org:

Joe Barnett of Artie, W.Va. lives below this White Oak Creek valley fill. During the July 2001 floods, the sediment pond below the valley fill filled with mud, and raging runoff waters dug a channel into the pond’s dam. During heavy rains in 1997, a boy and a woman on their way to church drowned in a similar flash flood from this valley fill. Photo by Robert Gates (omni@ntelos.net)

The Bush Administration, as it limps along in lame duck mode, has quietly begun proceedings to soften all kinds of environmental, wildlife and conservation regulations. Issues such as mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, the public’s ability to provide input on national forest decisions and the de-listing of the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List are on the administration’s attack list. Completely irrelevant in the foreign affairs arena, sinking to lower job approval percentages every day with the American public and ineffective with Congress, Bush and his administration are now isolated and can do the only thing left — modify departmental regulations.

Photo courtesy Vivian Stockman/www.ohvec.org, Oct. 19, 2003; flyover courtesy SouthWings.org

This is the first of a multi-post series addressing these issues. I hope to raise your awareness of the issues as well as invite you to learn more and then SPEAK OUT, write a letter to the editor, join or contribute to an advocacy group, call your congressmen regarding the administration’s actions and methods, just do something!

Mountaintop removal mining has become a critical battleground for both environmental and fish and wildlife advocates as they desperately fight the coal industry which has the blessing and regulatory backing of the Bush Administration. The stated opposition to this mining procedure by both presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, has motivated the current administration to rush through and lock in pro-industry regulation modifications.

Here is the case brief on mountaintop removal from EarthJustice:

Mountaintop removal is one of the most environmentally destructive activities in the country. The Army Corps of Engineers has issued permits for four mines that will dump millions of tons of rock and debris into nearby streams and valleys, burying them forever. The permits were issued without the required environmental studies and impact statements. On March 23, 2007, a federal judge agreed and rescinded the permits.

That was in 2007. In 2008 the Bush Administration, along with energy and coal industry groups, is appealing earlier court rulings with hopes of reversal which will allow mining companies to proceed. The Administration’s motto seems to be that they never found an environmental or conservation rule yet that they can’t or at least won’t try to at least soften if not do away with completely. The New York Times editorial on Oct. 20, 2008 gives more information and part of the disturbing history of the Administration regarding mountaintop mining, and the latest proposal that has come from the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining.

Do you think this is only an Appalachian problem? Do you think that because you live far away from West Virginia and the other Appalachian states threatened by this devastating form of mining that it doesn’t involve you and therefore you don’t need to be involved? Go to ilovemountains.org and type in your zip code. You’ll be surprised. I live in Utah, a coal producing state in its own right, but when I saw my own connections to mountaintop removal coal I determined to do something, anything.

The effects of this mining process are multiple, negative and permanent. To physically remove the tops of the mountains destroys habitat, forest, natural drainage. Filling the valleys pollutes water, kills streams, destroys communities. Processing creates air and water pollution. All of these combine and destroy in a matter of months a mountain system that took natural systems hundreds of millions of years to create. I refuse to accept that “we need the coal, we need the energy from the coal.” There MUST be a better way. This process, from a human perspective, destroys permanently. The mountains will never be the same; the streams and valleys will never be the same; this is their end. It is more than rape, it is murder.

From Stopmountaintopremoval.org

Please learn more about this issue and speak out to your congressmen, to advocacy groups, to your power company, to anyone because this last photo is what these mountains, valleys and streams are supposed to look like.

Originally printed in the Appalachian Voice, June 2005, photo by Kent Kessinger

Here are some useful links for more information:

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

West Virginia Highlands Voice

EarthJustice

Stop Mountaintop Removal

I love Mountains

Photos: iLoveMountains.org

I still haven’t finished my film reviews from Toronto International Film Festival! Pretty sad when I let myself get distracted by Sarah Palin. Good Grief!

Back to films:

Maman est Chez Le Coiffeur – French

The sadly tender story of three children left to deal with their mother’s leaving the family. I’m not sure how believable it is to think that a mother, seemingly satisfied with living life at home with her children, when she learns her husband’s secrets she reacts by leaving husband and children to develop her own career. The kids are delightful — the oldest daughter with the beginnings of adolescent curiosities, a middle son who stays busy building a go cart/mini car with a lawnmower engine and the youngest boy with special needs. The husband tries to take over, the cause of the marriage meltdown is never addressed, and they all seem to bumble through, hoping that she will just appear again as if she’d never gone away. Most of the film follows the oldest daughter as she is working through her mother’s absence, telling the neighbors that “Mama is at the hairdresser’s” as well as adjusting to her father’s presence even though she knows, without understanding, at least part of his story. Set in the suburban ’60s, there is a poignancy throughout for innocence lost.

***

I have been waiting to find out the results of the the eight Republican four Democrat ethics legislative investigation by Stephen Branchflower and now it’s out. The news over the weekend is the Governor Palin abused the power of her office but that since, as Governor, she has the power to fire her Public Safety Commissioner, she didn’t do anything legally that she can be indicted for by firing Commissioner Walt Monegan. Palin has expressed relief, claiming that the report exonerates her. If she means, “Whew, I’m glad I won’t end up in jail over this,” yes, I suppose it does but we’ll see. It seems to me that there were actually three options:1) Not Guilty, 2) Guilty and legally accountable and 3) Guilty but only Ethically Accountable. The investigation found her guilty of abusing her power but she did nothing illegal.

Now it’s up to the Alaskans.

Link to Anchorage Daily News.

Have you been wondering what Alaskans think of their governor, Sarah Palin? They, after all, will get her back if Obama wins in November.

Here’s a link to find out: http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/ and be sure to watch the videos!

Oh, is that what you meant?!

Don’t let anyone tell you Sarah Palin doesn’t “love” animals.

Photo by the Anchorage Daily News

]]> http://laelyn.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/sarah-palin-animal-lover/feed/ 0 laelyn Sarah Palins Office http://laelyn.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/cabbagetown-percussion-ladies/ http://laelyn.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/cabbagetown-percussion-ladies/#comments Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:38:28 +0000 laelyn http://laelyn.wordpress.com/?p=384 ]]>

Street music in Cabbagetown (Toronto)!