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.

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

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 [...]