The Human Cost of Coal

The Environmental Studies Program at Swarthmore sponsored a great talk tonight centered around mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia. Ken Hechler (Swarthmore Class of 1935), the former long-serving Secretary of State of West Virginia, and Larry Gibson, an environmental activist, shared their perspectives on the harms of coal inherent in its mining, processing, and combustion. I met both of them before the talk and was impressed by their passion and energy. At 94 years old, Ken was a little hard of hearing, but had a vast amount of experience and perspective to share. Larry shared some deeply personal stories about his childhood in West Virginia; more about his work is available at the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation. While Appalachia is a vastly different setting than Roxbury, MA, where I was working this summer, I definitely consider the issues they discussed tonight to be ones of environmental justice.

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Email]

September 24 2008 12:16 am | Swarthmore and Updates from Swarthmore |

Related Posts:


E90 Update – Trip to the Bus Yard

Parrish falling into disrepair
Parrish Declared Structurally Unsound


The Matrix (of WAs)


Palin Fights Against Environmental Justice in California

One Response to “The Human Cost of Coal”

  1. WVFILM » Blog Archive » Ken Hechler at Swarthmore - The Human Cost of Coal on 25 Sep 2008 at 12:31 pm #

    [...] “The Human Cost of Coal.” His good friend Larry Gibson was the co-presenter with Ken. Here is a story written about the event. Below is a story about Ken’s famous version of the Swarthmore song that he sang when he [...]