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Many assaults on the environment happen slowly and continually, almost invisibly to us: starting a car engine, buying meat at the grocery store, throwing away a plastic straw.Mountaintop removal is different. It is sudden and violent and intentionally, unmistakably destructive. Coal companies will blow off the tops of mountains with explosives in order to more easily and cheaply access the coal seams underneath vast swaths of forest, streams, and wildlife habitat. They destroy massive areas of wild land to produce a dirty energy that heavily pollutes the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. Their use of explosives also allows them to employ many fewer miners.Mountaintop removal was one of the big environmental stories in the media in the last couple decades. There were massive protests and a lot of bad press for the coal companies.Now coal production is down in the US, and dramatic and shocking stories about mountaintop removal have largely disappeared from the headlines, but mountaintop removal has not gone away. As the easier-to-access coal is mined, the amount of land that must be destroyed by mountain removal to produce the same amount of coal has increased.One report that demonstrates this is from SkyTruth, an environmental advocacy group that uses satellite imagery and remote sensing data to study environmental damage. They published a study showing that the amount of land needed to produce a unit of coal in 2015 was three times more than it had been in 1998.Vernon Haltom and Junior Walk haven't forgotten what's happening in West Virginia and Appalachia, because they live it every day. They both work for Coal River Mountain Watch, the organization previously directed by Judy Bonds, the renowned mountaintop removal activist from West Virginia, who was the daughter of a coal miner and died of cancer in 2011 at age 58.Vernon and Junior's stories are urgent environmental ones, but they are also stories about the media and how we forget and move on.This episode of Chrysalis is the first in the Chrysalis Projects series, which highlights the work of community-based environmental projects.You can listen on Substack, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms.Please rate, review, and share to help us spread the word!Vernon HaltomVernon Haltom has a BS in Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace Option) from Oklahoma State University and a BA in English Education from Northwestern Oklahoma State University. He served six years as an officer in the US Air Force, specializing in nuclear weapons safety and security. He then taught high school English for two years and English as a Second Language to college students for four years. He began volunteering for Coal River Mountain Watch in 2004 and has served on the staff since 2005, serving as executive director since 2011. He was involved in founding the regional Mountain Justice movement in 2004, the Alliance for Appalachia in 2006, and the Appalachian Community Health Emergency (ACHE) Campaign in 2012.Junior WalkJunior Walk grew up on Coal River Mountain in Raleigh County, WV, taking part in traditional Appalachian activities such as harvesting ginseng and mushrooms. He worked for a time in a coal preparation plant and then as a security guard on a mountaintop removal site, where he learned firsthand the damage coal harvesting had on the mountains and the communities below.  He began working with Coal River Mountain Watch and other groups in 2009. In 2011 he was awarded the Brower Youth Award. Since that time his work has taken various forms, including lobbying on federal and state levels, gathering data for lawsuits against coal companies, and even getting arrested doing direct action at surface mines and corporate offices. In 2021 he was awarded a fellowship with Public Lab to help support his work monitoring the coal mines in his community via drones. Junior now serves as the outreach coordinator for Coal River Mountain Watch, monitoring coal mines in his community for environmental violations and guiding tours for visiting journalists and student groups.About Coal River Mountain Watch Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW) is a grassroots organization founded in 1998 in response to the fear and frustration of people living near or downstream from huge mountaintop removal sites. They began as a small group of volunteers working to organize the residents of southern West Virginia to fight for social, economic, and environmental justice. From their humble beginnings, they have become a major force in opposition to mountaintop removal. Their outreach coordinator, Julia Bonds, was the 2003 Goldman Prize winner for North America. CRMW's efforts figure prominently in Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s book Crimes against Nature. They have been active in federal court to challenge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits for valley fills and made regional news with demonstrations against a sludge dam and preparation plant near Marsh Fork Elementary School. Find CRMW online: Website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.About Judy Bonds“Born and raised in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, Julia “Judy” Bonds was a coal miner's daughter and director of Coal River Mountain Watch. Bonds emerged as a formidable community leader against a highly destructive mining practice called mountaintop removal that is steadily ravaging the Appalachian mountain range and forcing many residents, some of whom have lived in the region for generations, to abandon their homes.” - Learn more at The Goldman Environmental Prize Website.Recommended Readings & MediaSee more of Junior's drone work here and other Coal River Mountain flyovers here.TranscriptionIntroJohn FiegeMany assaults on the environment happen slowly and continually, almost invisibly to us: starting a car engine, buying meat at the grocery store, throwing away a plastic straw.Mountaintop removal is different. It is sudden and violent and intentionally, unmistakably destructive. Coal companies will blow off the tops of mountains with dynamite in order to more easily and cheaply access the coal seams underneath vast swaths of forest, streams, and wildlife habitat. They destroy massive areas of wild land to produce a dirty energy that heavily pollutes the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. Their use of dynamite also allows them to employ many fewer miners.Mountaintop removal was one of the big environmental stories in the media in the last couple decades. There were massive protests and a lot of bad press for the coal companies.Now coal production is down in the US, and dramatic and shocking stories about mountaintop removal have largely disappeared from the headlines, but mountaintop removal has not gone away. As the easier-to-access coal is mined, the amount of land that must be destroyed by mountain removal to produce the same amount of coal has increased.One report that demonstrates this is from SkyTruth, an environmental advocacy group that uses satellite imagery and remote sensing data to study environmental damage. They published a study showing that the amount of land needed to produce a unit of coal in 2015 was three times more than it had been in 1998.Vernon Haltom and Junior Walk haven't forgotten what's happening in West Virginia and Appalachia, because they live it every day. They both work for Coal River Mountain Watch, the organization previously directed by Judy Bonds, the renowned mountaintop removal activist from West Virginia, who was the daughter of a coal miner and died of cancer in 2011 at age 58.Vernon and Junior's stories are urgent environmental ones, but they are also stories about the media and how we forget and move on.I'm John Fiege, and this conversation about Coal River Mountain Watch is part of the Chrysalis Project series. Here are Vernon Haltom and Junior Walk.---ConversationJohn FiegeI was hoping that you all could start by telling me a bit about your backgrounds and how you both came to work for Coal River Mountain Watch.Vernon HaltomMy background is, I was raised in Oklahoma, went to Oklahoma State University, went into the Air Force, went back into education, got my English teaching degree, and taught English for a while in high school, taught English as a second language. Just before I moved to West Virginia, I started learning about mountaintop removal. And while I was there I saw it in person and I met Judy Bonds and began volunteering with Coal River Mountain Watch in 2004. Came on staff at the beginning of 2005, and I've been there since.When I heard Judy Bonds on the radio in 2003, she was the Goldman Environmental Prize winner at the time. She was so inspirational and so motivational that seeing the problem of mountaintop removal and seeing what the coal companies were doing to the communities was unbearable.John FiegeAnd how about you, Junior?Junior WalkYeah, so I graduated high school in 2008. Shortly before I graduated, I realized that in this country you kind of need money to go to college. And so realized I wasn't really going to be able to do that. And so I was stuck here in southern West Virginia. And like many people who are in that situation, I went to work for the coal industry. At 17 years old, I went to work for the Elk Run coal processing plant in Sylvester, West Virginia. I worked there for about six months as I graduated high school and quickly learned that that's not something I wanted to do with the rest of my life. It's dangerous work, it's difficult work, and it doesn't pay enough.And so did some minimum wage work for a while, Dollar Store, Dairy Queen, that sort of thing. And eventually, I was offered a position as a security guard on a surface mine, and I figured sitting on my butt for 12 hours a day making money, I could handle that and so I did that. I did also for about six months, but within the first couple weeks of me working up there, I felt miserable about it. Sitting up there, watching that machinery work and them tearing down the mountains and knowing that the people who live below that mine site were going through the same stuff I went through when I was a kid. Contaminated water, dust, coal trucks rumbling by your house, trains. I felt bad about putting other people through that, continuing that cycle of exploitation.John FiegeWhen you were a kid, how aware were you of that as a problem versus just your reality that you didn't question?Junior WalkWell, we had well water at my house when I was growing up and they were doing coal slurry injection on the hillside above my family's home. And so coal slurry is a byproduct of coal processing. When coal is mined regardless if it's taken from an underground mine or a surface mine, the first stop for that coal is a processing plant. And that's where it's put through a series of chemical washes to be suitable to burn in a power plant to fit within clean air act regulations. And the byproduct of that is that coal slurry. So that's everything in the coal that they're not allowed to burn and put into the atmosphere as well as all the chemical agents that are used to take those impurities out. And they dispose of that in a few different ways, but one such way is by injecting it into old abandoned underground coal mines. And that's what they were doing right above my family's home. And so our water came out of my tap red for years, and I always knew that had something to do with the coal industry.In addition to that, through my entire elementary school career, I attended Marsh Fork Elementary, which at the time, was situated directly next to a coal processing plant and a coal slurry impoundment, which is the other way that the industry disposes of this coal waste. They put it into these huge earthen dams. So when you think about a dam, you are usually thinking about concrete and steel and that sort of thing, like the Hoover Dam. But when you're talking about a dam as in a slurry impoundment, you're talking about a bunch of dirt and rubble and trees that are dumped into the face of a valley, used to create a giant berm up to the top of the hilltop almost. And that whole holler back in behind there is back filled with liquid waste. And so that was right directly next to my elementary school.John FiegeWow. And that was one of the projects that you all did in terms of relocating that elementary school?Junior WalkIt was, yeah.John FiegeWere you part of that project?Junior WalkYeah. So essentially, while I was a security guard up there, I decided to come and have a conversation with Judy, who'd I'd known ever since I was a little kid, because I went to school with her grandson. And I think she also worked with my grandma at various times at gas stations and stuff. But from there, I started volunteering with Coal River Mountain Watch while I was a security guard. And a few months down the road, I was offered a position on staff. And I started on staff at Coal River Mountain Watch in January of 2010, and that's what I've been doing ever since.John FiegeWell, could each of you also describe the mountains and forests and waterways and biodiversity in Raleigh County and the area around Coal River Mountain?Junior WalkThe topography is large valleys with a bunch of smaller valleys jutting off from it, which are known as hollers. And then each of those little hollers have hollers branching off from it, just going way back into the mountain and up to the tops. And it can feel very isolated here because it takes so long to get to anywhere else. If you think about it, if you're up in the head of a holler that's in a holler, then you've got to travel out two hollers before you even hit the main road. In a lot of places around here, it's like an hour to your closest McDonald's or Walmart or any of that stuff.John FiegeAnd what are some of your memories from childhood of being within that?Junior WalkGoing hunting with my dad and my uncle, my papa. Traveling way back into the woods either in trucks and then later on, four wheelers caught on, and we'd take those. And just being in the forest and being taught how to bring food back out, why it's important for us to take care of these places where you can do those sorts of things.John FiegeRight. Right. Well, as the production of coal has been plummeting in the United States over the last few years, it's easy to think of American coal mining and mountaintop removal as vestiges of the past, but they're not. Can you all describe what mountaintop removal is, what it's like to witness it, and what's going on right now with coal mining in Raleigh County and in the surrounding areas?Vernon HaltomMountaintop removal is still going on. It's still expanding. They don't stop. There are new permits. The Turkey Foot permit on, it's well over a thousand acres, I want to say 1700 acres, on Coal River Mountain was approved last year. The valley fill permits for that will bury over three miles of streams, and that's just part of the overall 12 square mile complex on Coal River Mountain that includes the 8 billion gallon Brushy Fork sludge dam. So the myth that it's over is just that, a myth. And that's one of the biggest obstacles to our work because it's hard to get somebody to listen about your cause if they think that your cause is over.And our backyard is Cherry Pond Mountain, the Twilight complex there is 12 square miles and the coal company operating there, they have 81 civil penalty delinquency letters since December 14th. And they're still allowed to operate, they're still getting permits renewed.John FiegeYeah, I think that's one of the dirty secrets of our environmental regulations in this country is, industry is constantly violating those regulations and often being even fined for it, if not warned about it, but they keep operating. The money they're making is so much greater than the costs of dealing with those petty violations.Vernon HaltomOne of the permits that was recently renewed, it was actually signed on April 1st, April Fool's Day, the day after the company received a civil penalty delinquency letter. And the same company also had received a show cause notice just before that. It was something that we had requested because they had so many violations within the previous year. But the corrective action is what's called a consent order, where the company agrees to comply with the regulations and the laws, but there's really no teeth involved. They tell them they have to have three consecutive days of no coal removal and they're just going to schedule that in it. It's not going to be punitive.John FiegeAnd then there are no consequences. And the threat is, we might be mad at you.Vernon HaltomNo consequences. Sometimes the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection will wag their finger. On rare occasions, they will slap a wrist, but usually it's just a scowl.John FiegeRight. And if you compare it to the daily profits, it's just nothing.Vernon HaltomAnd one thing that I think it's important too, I always say that mountaintop removal is the cradle of the climate crisis. So many people think that this is just a local problem, but it's not just a local problem. The coal that's extracted from the mountains becomes CO2 and contributes to global heating. The trees, the forests that are destroyed, and it's not just the trees, it's everything in the forest, is demolished. So there's no longer a carbon sink there and the blasting dust that goes into the communities, and Junior has a video, a drone video of a blasting cloud coming from Coal River Mountain drifting down through the communities of McDowell Branch and Workman Creek at least two miles. And that is deadly. Those health consequences that have killed so many of our friends continue unabated.West Virginia DEP will not issue a violation for fugitive dust. They just never do. That is what the main culprit in over 30 health studies now that have been done. It's increasingly apparent that breathing this ultra fine silica that's like very, very fine glass that goes right through your cell membranes is not good for you. It causes cancer and heart disease and birth defects. We've lost Judy Bonds for the cancer. We've lost Joanne Webb to cancer. We've lost Larry Gibson to heart disease. We lost Chuck Nelson to heart disease. We lost Carol Judy to cancer. We lost Vicki Terry to cancer.John FiegeAnd Junior, can you talk about, having grown up in those forests and on those rivers, what is it like for you on an emotional and a visceral level to witness the mountaintop removal and these other side effects of it?Junior WalkWe've lost a lot of friends in the course of fighting against this stuff. And seeing some of these places that I've grown up digging ginseng and hunting and riding four wheelers and hiking, seeing some of these places go from these lush, almost tropical type of forests up on top of these mountains where you're never going to run into another human being, into just a bare rock face, just a vast moonscape. It's like losing a friend.John FiegeYeah. I think one thing that's difficult for a lot of Americans to recognize is that close connection to the land, because so many people in our country have lost that close connection to the land.Junior WalkCan you blame them? Look at the land that they're given. You know what I mean? Most people looks out their window and they see a big old four-lane with stop lights and billboards and gas station signs and all that mess. And it's hard to feel a connection to that. I'm lucky for where I come up at.John FiegeLucky on the one hand, and then feeling the pain of watching it be destroyed on the other. And can you all catalog for me the impacts on ecosystems, on water and air quality, on flood risk, on human health, of mountaintop removal and other coal production in that area?Vernon HaltomWhen I first moved to West Virginia in 2001, the place was flooding. Some of the communities lost several homes, and most of that was in areas near mountaintop removal. Now, there are more valley fills and more mountaintop removal coming so the flood impacts is one of the first things that propelled the formation of Coal River Mountain Watch. So many people concerned about their homes from flooding in 1998 that killed two people in Artie, West Virginia. So that's one of the first concerns. Then you have the blasting, which emits the ultra fine silica dust and other pollutants as well into the lungs of children and elderly and everybody in between in the communities. And blasting also cracks foundations, cracks walls.If you're prone to PTSD and hear these massive explosions every day, that's not helpful for your mental health. The health impacts from mountaintop removal are deadly, so there's that. There's water pollution. The valley fills that are created continue to pollute the water for decades. We don't know yet how long, because the earliest valley fills are still polluting after 30 years or so.John FiegeCan you describe what a valley fill is and how it's done and why it's done?Vernon HaltomOkay, thank you. Because a lot of people get this wrong. So when you take the top off a mountain, you use a lot of explosives and you break the rock up and then you bulldoze it out of the way to get to the coal. Well, that rock and rubble has to go somewhere. So what the coal companies do is they dump it into the creeks and streams and hollows that are the natural contours of the mountains. They compress it, they pack it down. And some of them are miles long, and the miles of streams, over 2000 miles of streams have been impacted by valley fills.John FiegeCovered up, and they're gone?Vernon HaltomThey're covered and they're gone. They're buried. They're completely buried. They're hundreds of feet under this rubble. And so that contributes to the flooding, but you also have that contributing to pollution in the water because all this rock that was segregated from the rain and the sun and the wind for millions of millions of years is now broken up into smaller chunks. If you imagine grinding your coffee and putting it in a basket to make coffee, that's a similar process. So the rain leeches through that and the various minerals and pollutants that were locked up in the rock for all those millennia are now seeping back into the streams. And we don't know how long that will last, but considering the vast scale of these, it'll be forever. You have sediment ponds at the toe of these valley fills where the treatment is done, and that has to be done forever.We've seen coal companies go bankrupt or those obligations not being taken care of, otherwise. The coal companies aren't going to be there forever. When they stop doing that, it's still going to be polluting the streams. So we've lost a large fraction of the species of fish in a lot of the streams and a large fraction of the numbers of fish too, at least a third. So that is a huge impact.John FiegeThe forest itself in the valley is covered in this rubble as well, right?Vernon HaltomIt is.John FiegeSo you have a functioning forest ecosystem in addition to the stream ecosystem that are both completely covered with dirt and destroyed.Vernon HaltomAnd they're all interrelated. The leaves that fall from the trees are processed by the bugs in the streams, and those bugs feed the fish and some of the fish and bugs are eaten by birds. And it's a whole system of overlapping cycles that is part of the beauty of the Appalachian forests.John FiegeWell, and the rest of the country often views folks in West Virginia, and especially folks from coal mining towns and coal mining families as being diehard coal supporters and extremely anti-environmental. And the industries and politicians who profit tremendously from coal production, love to use the West Virginia coal miner as this symbol of American freedom and hard work and that type of thing. The view from the ground is always much more complicated. Can you all talk a bit about the communities in Raleigh County and the views of folks there toward coal mining and mountaintop removal and these coal companies, like Massey Energy, that profits so handsomely from this exploitation and destruction?Vernon HaltomReally quick, just let me point out part of the myth that everybody is for mountaintop removal. Consistently the polls and surveys show that people in West Virginia and elsewhere in Appalachia oppose mountaintop removal two to one. That's not insignificant. And the idea that everybody in West Virginia works for the coal industry is also a myth. Less than 3% of West Virginia's workforce works for the coal industry. Less than half of 1% works in mountaintop removal. Some of that's clustered in specific places. There are a lot more teachers than there are coal miners in West Virginia.Junior WalkThings are always a lot more complicated than they initially seem from the national headlines, at least in most cases. And definitely, there isn't like a homogenous view that everybody in southern West Virginia shares about the coal industry. Opinions and political beliefs and everything else is just as diverse down in here as they are anywhere else. Sure, you've got people who are die hard coal industry supporters that whether they work in the industry or somebody in their family does or not, they're still going to believe whatever the right wing news media shoves down their throat about the coal industry and all that. But then you also have a lot of people who don't feel that way about it.The vast majority of people around here are apathetic about the coal industry because whether that apathy stems from just not thinking about it that much, or whether that apathy stems from a defeatist attitude of, oh, the coal industry, that's the people who have the money and the power and they're going to do whatever they want. That's probably different on a person by person basis. But then you also do have a segment of the population here who are vehemently against stripping the land. Even if they think that the economic benefits of the coal industry and of the past underground mining and stuff like that have been worth it, they'll still draw the line at mountaintop removal or surface mining.John FiegeSo one thing I see over and over again and all across the country, different industries, is this argument that industry tries to make, that the people in the communities where these polluting and destructive activities happen, they want that to go on. They want those jobs, they want the economic activity, they're supportive. The people who are against it are outside agitators or urban environmentalists or professional activists. All these terms you hear thrown around. And I was just wondering if you all could talk about that a little bit and this image that industry often tries to paint of the division between people from the community who are supportive and people from outside the community who are in opposition.Junior WalkFor sure. And I'll say that around here, the vast majority of the good paying coal mining jobs do not go to people who live directly around those coal mines. These people drive in an hour down into here to work, and when they get done working, they get to go back home and turn on their tap water and it comes out clean. They get to send their kids to school somewhere that ain't in danger from being too close to coal operations. They get to drive on roads in their little cul-de-sacs and middle class subdivisions and not have to be worried about getting flattened like a pancake by a coal truck.Those are the people who benefit from the coal industry. It ain't the people who lives in the trailer park right below the big strip mine who are now dealing with a bunch of runoff water and a bunch of dust and everything else.John FiegeAnd those micro differences of different communities is completely lost in the national conversation about these things, I think.Junior WalkAbsolutely.Vernon HaltomOne of the things in West Virginia is you have so much of the industry propaganda infiltrating the schools, even on Earth Day, Alpha Metallurgical Resources hosted kids from Clear Fork Elementary School onto their mountaintop removal site. They had big banners, their trucks. All that's really fun and cool if you're a kid, but Clear Fork Elementary is also within a mile of three mountaintop removal sites and a fourth one if Alpha gets their permit for that one. So there's that support, sometimes locally, but I think the people who are often opposed to it are intimidated, either intimidated by violence or intimidated by opinions of somebody's cousin's nephew's brother-in-law who happens to work for the industry.John FiegeAnd coal supporters often claim that shutting down coal production will destroy communities that grew up around coal and the economies that support them. What do you all make of those claims?Junior WalkI think if the coal industry brought prosperity and economic vitality for southern West Virginia, we wouldn't be some of the poorest counties in the entire nation. And I think that's the only argument that needs to be made about that.John FiegeRight. Well, y'all have mentioned Judy Bonds already, but she's such a big figure. She's the founder and director of Coal River Mountain Watch. She won the 2003 Goldman Environmental Prize. Her unofficial title is The Godmother of the Anti Mountaintop Removal Movement. I know you both knew her and worked with her. Can you tell me a little bit more about her and just her personality and what role she played in bringing these issues to the national stage?Vernon HaltomI first met Judy in 2004. I first heard her voice on the radio in 2003 after she won the Goldman Environmental Prize. She was not tall. What she lacked in stature, she made up with in heart and passion. She was brave. There's a story of her chasing a bear off because it was intimidating her dog. She used her grandson's track shoes to throw at the bear. She was from a coal mining family. I was one of the people who helped carry Judy's casket to her grave in her backyard. She was the last person out of Marfork Hollow in the community of Packsville, that used to be there before the coal industry made it unbearable to live there.She cared deeply about her family. That's what got her into activism, seeing her grandson standing in a stream holding dead fish. I traveled some with Judy. Driving her car, you had to remove the pillow and scoot the seat back so that you could actually get behind the steering wheel. She loved her community, she cared about her community, even the people that wished her ill. And one of my sons middle names is Jude, and that's for Judy. She had such a huge impact on thousands and thousands of people that her shoes were hard to fill and nobody's tried to fill them and nobody can. But her loss from cancer from breathing mountaintop removal dust for all those years is a huge loss.Junior WalkI was real lucky to know her when I was a kid. My mom actually volunteered with Coal River Mountain Watch in 1998 right after everything was started up. She didn't do it for very long or anything, but I can remember going in there as a kid and they had big pieces of butcher block paper, essentially, on a easel, and she'd let me draw on them and stuff. And it's one of the first places I ever messed with a computer at, was at the old Coal River Mountain Watch office there. The one story that really sticks in my mind about Judy and me is, so when I was about eight years old, this is around '98, there was a community meeting at the old Pettus School, which doesn't exist anymore. Now, it's a parking lot for coal mines. I went there, my mom brought me there when I was a little kid, and I remember standing up and asking Judy if they want to blow up the mountains, why don't we all just hold hands around the mountains and they can't? I was a little kid.And then years later, you fast forward and I started working for Coal River Mountain Watch and all that. And there's this one point in time Judy looks at me and she said, "Junior, do you know you're the first person to ever bring up direct action to me?" Referencing all the way back to that. And that ain't something I talk about an awful lot because that's kinda unbelievable. When I first started working for Mountain Watch and stuff, the actions and all that had been going on for quite a few years-John FiegeReally?Junior Walk... from when I was a teenager and stuff. And I wasn't involved in any of that, so it's crazy to think.John FiegeWow, that's amazing. And Judy's known for doing this non-violent direct action. And at this point, I know you all are doing a lot of monitoring work on foot with GPS and with small planes and drones. Can you talk about the various strategies that Coal River Mountain Watch uses and how they relate to the work the organization has done historically?Junior WalkYeah, you pretty well hit the nail on the head there as far as our current strategy, which is the monitoring work, either going up in flights with one of our partner organizations, South Wings, in small aircraft to monitor these mines or with drones or on foot and just hiking around in the mountains and trying not to get seen by security guards. And yeah, I'd say over the years, Coal River Mountain Watch has employed a lot of different tactics, and we've had a lot of different campaigns to the ends of trying to be a nemesis to the coal industry. That's always been our main goal is to be as much of a pain to the coal industry as humanly possible. And so whatever projects we can figure out to work on to meet that goal, that's what we do.And over the years, we've done everything from lobbying in the state capital in Charleston, in Washington, DC, gathering scientific data from lawsuits, traveling around and telling the story of how coal mining has affected our community at various universities or events and things like that, to doing direct action work, getting arrested, doing tree sits and blockades and things of that nature.John FiegeAnd what has changed? I know you were doing more direct action before. What has changed? Has the political environment changed? Do you feel like other tactics are more successful now? What's the thinking there about the shifts in emphasis?Vernon HaltomA lot of the shift in emphasis is the myth that the coal industry is over. In 2015, it was in pretty much every major media outlet that King Coal was dead when Alpha Natural Resources, at the time, requested bankruptcy relief. That was taken as a sign that it was over. And we had allies who said it was essentially over. That's the quotation from their fundraising letter. And some of the minor victories, I call them minor victories, in lawsuits were over-hyped, I think. So a lot of the energy from direct action campaigns went to other related issues, pipelines, fracking and things like that.John FiegeAnd Junior, you went to Marsh Fork Elementary School. What was it like, one, to be there? What did you notice about going to school there? And then secondly, what was it like to then witness this fight as you got older and became an adult and then started working with Coal River Mountain Watch that was doing all this work with Judy around relocation?Junior WalkYeah. So I went to Marsh Fork Elementary from kindergarten through sixth grade, and that would've been from 95 until 2001. And yeah, I can remember dust in the playground, just like when you'd be let out for recess, if you was the first one over to the slides and stuff, there'd be a layer of dust just laying on everything.John FiegeAnd that was silica dust?Junior WalkIt was coal dust.John FiegeIt was coal dust.Junior WalkFrom the processing plant.John FiegeBut the ultra fine silica, that would be more in the air then-Junior WalkIt would be. And that's more from-John FiegeOh, that's from the mountaintop removal.Junior WalkBlasting. Yeah, exactly. Which there is a mountaintop removal site directly behind the processing plant beside the old school, but it wasn't active yet at the time I went there.John FiegeGotcha. So this was straight coal dust?Junior WalkYeah, it was just coal dust. So it got worse after I left, essentially. And I do remember the first silo that they built there, right directly behind the school. It's the only one that they actually built, but it was there when I was a kid, and I can remember the noise of them loading train cars. So imagine a train pulling through a tunnel in the bottom of a massive silo and then just a bunch of coal dropping into each one of those cars every few seconds. It was difficult to concentrate on anything.John FiegeWell, I'm sure that Joe Manchin's kids had to deal with the same stuff in their school-Junior WalkOh yeah.John FiegeDon't you think?Junior WalkGuarantee you that. Is that his daughter's the one that hiked up the price of EpiPens a while back? Yeah, no, I bet she's breathed all kind of coal dust in her life, huh? So from the time I got out of elementary school until I graduated high school, there was two kids that I went to elementary school with that had had cancer by the time we graduated high school, and one of them passed away. And I've had other people that I went to elementary school with who since then until now have passed away. I don't even know how many, but more than a couple. There was a girl that was in my grade that just died, I think last year-John FiegeWhoa.Junior Walk... from cancer. And I solidly blame the coal operations that we were going to school next to.John FiegeWow. And what's it like to see the school moved later and then to begin working for the organization that was responsible for that?Junior WalkTo know that the kids that would be going to school there now have a safe, clean school that they can go to just a few miles up the road from that one. It's amazing. That, to me, even though I was only involved a little bit right at the very end, that's still one of the proudest things I've ever been involved in in my life.John FiegeWell, and just makes it so much more powerful having gone to that school yourself. That's really an incredible story.Vernon HaltomYeah, I guess the sad thing is the new school is two miles from the Eagle 2 mountaintop removal permit. So when they get around to that portion of it, there's kids going to be endangered from that too, if the wind's blowing from the correct direction.John FiegeRight. And I think when people think of coal mining, they think of that, you dig a tunnel in the mountain and you go down there and the coal is there and you knock it off and you put it in rail cars and you send it out. Can you talk just a bit more about why they're doing this mountaintop removal? I know you mentioned it's cheap, but why is it cheap and why are they having to go for these thin sections of coal in the mountain now?Vernon HaltomIt's cheaper because it takes fewer people. If you go and watch a mountaintop removal site, you may see just a handful of people. There will be a guy driving that truck, a guy driving that truck, a guy driving that bulldozer, a guy driving that bulldozer, a security guy and a few people operating the explosives. So the energy and work that used to be done by miners is now done by explosives. And the explosive equivalent of 20 Tomahawk missiles is pretty substantial even though the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection calls that a small blast. It does a lot of damage and it breaks up the rock, and then you just scoop it up, push it down the valley, or push it onto another section of the mountaintop removal site and then scoop up the coal. It's fast and efficient. It's the low hanging fruit of getting to the coal.And if they want to come back later, they just spray some of those grass seed and fertilizer over it and call it good until they want to come back to it. The companies get a variance. They have all these variances, all these regulations and laws that they get the approval to violate, essentially, and they're not able to comply with the regulations. They can't even maintain a ditch. Right now they have a very bad open violation on Coal River Mountain because their ditch failed. The ditch that's supposed to catch the runoff and the sediment, and it's just too steep. And the laws of physics still apply in West Virginia regardless of what the coal industry and the DEP think.John FiegeAnd what's the danger of company abandonment and bankruptcies and all of that, thinking about these issues?Vernon HaltomA lot of the companies had what was called self-bonding, where they themselves guaranteed the money to fix up any reclamation if they were to abandon it. And that's not a good idea. And there are also other companies, insurance companies or what have you, that a company can get their reclamation bond through. But so much of mountaintop removal is subject to failure with too many bankruptcies or too many companies abandoning their obligations, that there is a real potential that the actual cleanup costs could fall on the taxpayer. And frankly, West Virginia taxpayers can't afford it. The state budget already gives more to the coal industry than they get from it.John FiegeWell, in the context of all this, Judy Bonds had to deal with continual threats of violence toward her, as have so many other people who've worked to stop mountaintop removal, like Larry Gibson, well-known activist who was working right near there. How much do you still encounter violence or threats of violence in this work?Junior WalkI'll say, when I first come on staff at Coal River Mountain Watch in 2010, before Judy would start her car, she'd have me go around and look at the underside of it with a mirror to make sure that there wasn't nothing going to surprise her when she started her car. And I think that since then, between the coal industry just generally not employing as many people as they did in 2010, as well as the shift of attitude of a lot of the local people after the Upper Big Branch mine explosion and the drop off of attention from the national news media about surface mining here in West Virginia as an issue. Also, something that's went away with all that has been a lot of the real visceral threats of violence and stuff from the other side, from the coal industry supporters. And that's not to say that it don't still happen, because it most certainly does. And I'm real careful anytime I leave the house just to remember that there are people around here that would rather see me dead. But in recent years, it hasn't been as bad as what it was at the height of the resistance to surface mining here.John FiegeAnd how about you, Vernon? What have you seen?Vernon HaltomBack in 2009, in June of 2009 when we had the big rally at Marsh Fork Elementary School and the protest and the march down to the preparation plant, pretty much everybody had their lives threatened then. My life was threatened, my wife's life was threatened. Judy Bonds was sucker punched. It leaves an impression that regardless of where you are, am I safe here? When is it coming? You're always looking over your shoulder. And some people get treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. Well, when that trauma and that stress is ongoing, there's that concern, that anxiety, that it could happen. And there's also the concern and anxiety for ongoing mountaintop removal. It's a violent process. It kills people.John FiegeWell, what is y'all's vision of what a future Raleigh County or a future West Virginia could look like and how the communities there could find themselves in a much better place than what they have to endure currently?Junior WalkI do not care. It's not my problem what the future is going to look like around here. It's not my problem how a coal miner is going to make their truck payment that they went out and financed some ridiculous big old truck. You know what I mean? That's not my responsibility to come up with what a future's going to look like here. Just because I'm the one that's standing here saying that what's going on now is a problem and it needs to stop, that don't put the burden on my shoulders to tell these people what they're going to do next.John FiegeAnd Junior, is there a world that you want to live in there? For example, do you imagine, hope for, dream of a world without the coal industry operating? Or do you have a vision, not to speak for everybody there or the coal miners or anything like that, but for yourself? What would you like to see there that would be better for you?Junior WalkThe only thing I could see to make this area a better and more livable place is to do away with the coal industry, to stop them from operating completely like 10 years ago, and we haven't done that. They still get to do what they want, and it still makes this place miserable to live for most people or for a whole lot of people. And yeah, I would love to see what this area would look like without the exploitation of the coal industry. I'm sure we would be just fine. The vast majority of the people that live in these communities around here are all retired or disabled. The coal industry dissolving overnight isn't going to affect them. It's going to affect the people, like I said, driving in an hour every day. And whatever happens to them and their cul-de-sac and gated communities, I could care less.John FiegeRight. And why have you stayed?Junior WalkWell, I've stayed here because this is where my family is. Like I was talking about, I've traveled all over the country. I've been to almost every single one of the lower 48, and I've never found anywhere else that I'd rather live. This is a beautiful place. I'm lucky to be from here.John FiegeWhat keeps you going through this difficult work?Junior WalkWell, for me, personally, I'll say that I still feel like I owe it to the people who took me under their wings when I was first starting out in this stuff. Judy Bonds and Larry Gibson, Chuck Nelson, Sid Moye. There's many people that really put a lot of faith into me and put a lot of effort into molding me into who I am today. And I'll be eternally grateful for that. And I still owe it to them and to their memories to keep doing this work until it's done, until there is no more coal industry in southern West Virginia, because that's what they asked of me. And so that's what I'm going to keep doing.And then on top of all that, you can't live around here and see the way that people are exploited and the things they're expected to live through and live with and be okay with and not stand up and say something about it. If you can sit there on your hands and keep your mouth shut just to protect your paycheck from seeing some of the things I've seen, then you're not a good person, and I try to be a good person.Vernon HaltomThe persistence, I think, is something that Coal River Mountain Watch is known for since we started so long ago. We tend to be stubborn and we tend to be bulldogs in the sense of hanging on and sticking to it. I think our passion is seeing it through and not walking away from it. And that's something we do for the love of friends and family that aren't able maybe to take that stand or who would like to, but for whatever reason are intimidated by the threats of violence. But when you have family members who have died from it and you see it, or you stand in it, or you breathe it, or you feel the dust in your teeth, it's gritty. You become a part of it and it's more infused into you. And it's very much a battle, not just for the community, but for the sake of the planet. What happens in West Virginia affects people in the low-lying islands in the Pacific. It affects people impacted by hurricanes.John FiegeAnd you hinted at this idea earlier of, if we can't stop mountaintop removal, what hope do we have of dealing with these big global issues of climate change? It feels like such low hanging fruit and so obvious that if you're going to start somewhere, let's start with that.Vernon HaltomExactly. There's no better low hanging fruit in the climate crisis battle than mountaintop removal.John FiegeNot only do we not need coal anymore, but we don't need to destroy mountains to get to it.Vernon HaltomWe don't need to destroy mountains and kill people to profit a few coal barons who control the state legislatures and much of the government itself. That wealth has power, and the people who breathe air and drink water have very little power in comparison. But eventually, there are more of us than there are of them, and we'll eventually outlast them. We've gone through how many iterations of Alpha Natural Resources, Alpha Metallurgical Resources, and whatever company name they're going to pick next year, that we'll eventually wait them out.John FiegeWell, what do you all hope that listeners can take from this conversation and your stories, and how can they get involved and support some of the work that you're doing at Coal River Mountain Watch?Junior WalkIf there's some big problem in your community that you feel passionate about, do something about it. First and foremost, do whatever you can, devote your life to it. But don't just let injustice stand because when you're quiet about it, everybody else is going to be too. It only takes one person to stand up and raise hell about it for other people to get brave. And then the second part that I'd like for people to take away from this is that these issues that we deal with down here in southern West Virginia related to the coal industry, they are just one issue in a sea of similar problems that goes on around this nation and around the world when poor people get exploited by wealthy people. And that's really the root issue that we're dealing with here, is the exploitation of this land and the people who live on it by wealthy interests that live elsewhere.And this issue here, it's not the capitalist system that we live under gone wrong by any means. It's the capitalist system that we live under going directly 100% according to plan. This is their plan. We live on a planet of only a set amount of resources. And the capitalist system that we live in is based upon this concept of exponential growth of more and more and more and more, consume, consume, consume, consume. And those two facts are going to eventually come to a head. Both of those can't coexist, and that's what they're trying to make happen right now, globally. And that's just not how that works.Vernon HaltomI'd like to echo what Junior said about tackling the challenges in your own backyard. There's something everywhere that people can be plugged into and have that local voice. If somebody wants to help, if they want to help our organization specifically, it's CRMW.net. We're always underfunded. There's more work to do than we have time to do.John FiegeJunior, one more thing I wanted to ask you. Could you talk a little bit more about the drone work you've been doing and more about what it is you're filming and what impacts either you're hoping it's going to have or that you actually seen it have already?Junior WalkFor sure. So I've been using drones to film and document these mine sites since about 2016. And generally, the idea is you fly the drone, you find something that they shouldn't be doing or that's messed up on their site that they're going to have to fix. You take that information to the DEP, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, and then you make them make the coal company fix whatever it is that you found. And so generally, the fines and stuff that they get are just a slap on the wrist. They're factored into the cost of doing business. But what really hurts them is when we find stuff that they then have to take workers and equipment away from actively mining coal to then go to a different section of the site and repair, and that's what really hurts them economically. And in our hope, that is what will make it less economically feasible for them to keep their operations open.John FiegeGreat. And have you seen results from that?Junior WalkTo some extent, for sure. We've definitely had to force, or we've been able to force coal companies to have to go back to sections of their site that they're pretty far away from and fix crumbling high walls or dig stuff out of a sediment ditch. And I don't think I'm wrong in assuming that, yeah, we've been able to cost them a pretty penny.John FiegeWell, Vernon, Junior, thank you so much for joining me today, and thank you for all this amazingly difficult, but important and vital work that you're doing. Thank you. Thank you for keeping at it.Vernon HaltomThank you, John, for providing us a platform to tell the story and let people know.Junior WalkYeah, I appreciate you. It was great talking to you.---OutroJohn FiegeThank you so much to Vernon Haltom and Junior Walk. Go to our website at chrysalispodcast.org where you can find out more about Coal River Mountain Watch and the legacy of Judy Bonds. Plus, see some of Junior's drone footage of recent mountaintop removal operations.This episode was researched by Lydia Montgomery and edited by Brodie Mutschler and Sofia Chang. Music is by Daniel Rodríguez Vivas. Mixing is by Juan Garcia. If you enjoyed my conversation with Vernon and Junior, please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform. Contact me anytime at chrysalispodcast.org, where you can also support the project, subscribe to our newsletter and join the conversation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.chrysalispodcast.org

On college campuses, synthetic herbicides are predominantly used only for aesthetics. These institutions are opting to use chemicals linked to human health issues rather than exploring organic options that are safer for the grounds crew members, students, faculty, and other community members. Using synthetic herbicides to eradicate weeds for aesthetic purposes is neglectful, prioritizing landscapes that require such inputs threatens the health of community members and our environment. Enter Mackenzie Feldman! Mackenzie is the Founder and Executive Director of Herbicide-Free Campus. This organization works with students and groundskeepers around the country to advocate for an end to the spraying of synthetic herbicides at schools and a transition to organic land management. Her campaign resulted in the entire University of California system going glyphosate-free, and Mackenzie worked with a coalition to get herbicides banned from every public school in the state of Hawaii. Mackenzie is also a Food Research Fellow for Data For Progress and received the Brower Youth Award in 2019 for her work with Herbicide-Free Campus. Follow Mackenzie: Website: https://www.herbicidefreecampus.org/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/herbicidefreecampus/?hl=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/herbicide_free?lang=en FB: https://www.facebook.com/pg/herbicidefreecampus/community/?ref=page_internal&mt_nav=0&msite_tab_async=0 Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@herbicidefreecampus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/herbicide-free-campus Follow Therese "Tee" Forton-Barnes and The Green Living Gurus: Tee's Organics - Therese's Healthy Products for You and Your Home: https://thegreenlivinggurus.com/shop-tees-organics/ The Green Living Gurus Website: https://thegreenlivinggurus.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenlivinggurus/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW7_phs1GZUPzG21Zgjnqtw Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenLivingGurus Healthy Living Group on Facebook Tip the podcaster! Support Tee and the endless information that she provides: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheGreenLivingGurus Venmo: @Therese-Forton-Barnes last four digits of her cell are 8868 For further info contact Tee: Email: Tee@TheGreenLivingGurus.com Cell: 716-868-8868

Relevant Links: https://www.dirtroadrevival.com https://www.instagram.com/chloe.maxmin/ https://www.instagram.com/canyonwoodward/ Chloe Maxmin Hailing from rural Maine, Chloe is the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine State Senate, at 28 years old. She was elected in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent and (former) Senate Minority Leader. In 2018, she served in the Maine House of Representatives after becoming the first Democrat to win a rural conservative district. She also received an honors degree from Harvard College, where she co-founded Divest Harvard. Chloe is the recipient of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes and the Brower Youth Award. She was also named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone. She was named the 2020 Legislator of the Year by the Maine Council on Aging. Canyon Woodward Canyon was born, raised, and homeschooled in the Appalachian Mountains of rural North Carolina and the North Cascades of Washington. He was the campaign manager for Chloe Maxmin's successful 2018 and 2020 campaigns. He was previously regional field director for Bernie Sanders 2016, field director for Jane Hipps for NC Senate, and vice chair of the NC District 11 Democrats. He earned an honors degree in social studies from Harvard College, where the bulk of his education took place outside of the classroom co- coordinating (with Chloe) Divest Harvard, a 70,000+person movement that succeeded in pressuring Harvard to divest its $53 billion endowment from fossil fuels. He is also an avid trail runner.

The Supreme Court's Citizens United and related rulings have not only unleashed a flood of dark money into elections, they are also being used to block initiatives to transition to a just and sustainable economy. Join local, state and national organizers to learn about efforts to push back against these rules and to find out how you can help restore democracy and challenge the misuse of corporate power. With: Sarah Stranahan, Strategic Development Director at Free Speech For People; Derek Cressman, long-time fair election activist/current candidate for California Secretary of State; Arielle Klagsbrun of Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment/2013 Brower Youth Award recipient.

This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, pulls some weeds with Mackenzie Feldman & Arianna Maysonave from Herbicide-Free Campus (http://herbicidefreecampus.org), a campaign to ban herbicides at schools! Mackenzie is a 25 year old from Honolulu, Hawai'i, and is the Founder & Executive Director of Herbicide-Free Campus. She graduated from University of California-Berkeley in Spring 2018 with a degree in Society and Environment and a minor in Food Systems. While attending UC Berkeley, Mackenzie and Bridget Gustafson created Herbicide-Free Cal after the two got herbicides banned from their beach volleyball courts and decided to expand the campaign to the rest of the campus. Upon graduating in 2018, Mackenzie expanded the campaign to the rest of the UCs, and then nationwide, and Herbicide-Free Campus (HFC) was born. The campaign resulted in the entire University of California system going glyphosate-free; HFC also worked with the Protect Our Keiki Coalition to get all herbicides banned from every public school in the state of Hawaii. Mackenzie received the 2019 Brower Youth Award for her work with HFC. Mackenzie is also a Food Sovereignty Research Assistant for the FAO and a Food Research Fellow for Data For Progress, where she writes food and agriculture policy for the Green New Deal. Arianna is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Public Health and Psychology and a minor in Food Systems. Her interdisciplinary background includes Global Health education at the University of Geneva, research on international women's empowerment, and non-profit experience in the food space. She is interested in the growing field of planetary health, and sees HFC as a cutting edge organization at the intersection of human and environmental health. Arianna serves as the Director of Development, and is working to expand the breadth and depth of Herbicide-Free Campus' reach. Read the Poison Parks report about herbicide use in NYC parks that was produced by the Black Institute in January 2020: https://theblackinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/TBI_Poison_Parks_Report._010820_FINAL.pdf Learn about the legacy of pesticides in Louisville at the BlackLeaf Superfund site in Parkland. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/tech/science/environment/2017/05/10/black-leaf/312671001/ In May, WDRB reported that a new USGS study of pesticides in U.S. rivers and streams found that, on average, 17 pesticides were detected at least once at the 74 river and stream sites sampled 12 to 24 times per year during 2013–2017. Herbicides were detected much more frequently than insecticides and fungicides. https://www.wdrb.com/weather/wdrb-weather-blog/pesticide-problems-potential-toxicity-to-aquatic-life-in-u-s-rivers-is-widespread/article_00d21a26-c003-11eb-a01f-739ca6bfcc17.html Learn more about Mackenzie's story at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNpXc0bZa3c Learn more about Dwyane Lee Johnson's trip to Hawai'i at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvjJvECuDww As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW! Sustainability Now! airs on Forward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at http://forwardradio.org The music in this podcast is courtesy of the local band Appalatin and is used by permission. Explore their delightful music at http://appalatin.com

*We need your support to continue the show! If you've listened to more than a few episodes and have learned from our work, please join our Patreon today: www.greendreamer.com/support   About Kate Weiner: Kate Weiner is the Creative Director of Loam as well as a 2015 Brower Youth Award winner, a 2017 recipient of the John Goddard Prize for Environmental Conservancy, and a 2018 Spiritual Ecology Fellow. Kate was a beneficiary of the Boulder Arts Commission Professional Development Grant and is currently organizing an Artist-Activist-in-Residency at BPL.   About Kailea Frederick: Kailea Frederick is a mother of Tahltan, Kaska and Black American ancestry. She is a graduate of the International Youth Initiative Program and a Spiritual Ecology and Boards & Commissions Leadership Fellow. She has served twice as a youth delegate to the United Nations Climate Change conferences. Currently, Kailea is the Editor for Loam and the Vice - Chair of the Petaluma Climate Action Commission. You can reach her through EarthIsOhana.com.   Song featured in this episode: Over by Luna Bec Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne is a podcast exploring our paths to holistic healing, ecological regeneration, and true abundance and wellness for all. Find our show notes, additional resources, and newsletter on our website: www.greendreamer.com

Kate Weiner and Kailea Frederick share about creativity, art, and beauty as integral to activism work. You’ll also hear about: Co-creating a world that values and priorities the health and wellbeing of future generations Embodied, reciprocity and holding space for nuance  A reimagining of the matriarchy Kailea and Kate share a special announcement and new project by Loam   ♥♥♥ Join The Earth Speak Collective Membership! Join like-hearted folks in a sacred container and community where you'll: Connect deeply to yourself, others, nature & spirit Learn to trust your intuition Activate your Earth magic Expand your healing & divination skills Put your intuition into practice in everyday life Stop feeling lonely on your spiritual path Embody & express your creative power & truths Experience safe space without agenda or judgment   When you join the Collective, you get access to all of our past workshops, any live workshops happening while you're a member, live weekly energetic reset calls, monthly community rituals, all the secret episodes, member-run meetups to explore magical topics, and a lively members-only forum (that's not on FB!). ▶▶▶ Learn more and sign up for the Collective membership here: https://www.earthspeak.love/collective ***** Kailea Frederick (Loam Editor) is a mother and First Nations woman dedicated to supporting individuals of all cultures in remembering their ties to the earth. A graduate of the International Youth Initiative Program, she has in-depth training in interpersonal communication, community building across cultural and linguistic boundaries and large group facilitation. She is a Spiritual Ecology Fellow, and has served as a youth delegate twice to the United Nations Climate Change conferences (COP). Currently, Kailea offers facilitation and project consultation through her project Earth Is `Ohana and is a Climate Commissioner for the city of Petaluma.  Kate Weiner (Loam Creative Director) is an environmental educator, writer, and gardener. Kate is a 2015 Brower Youth Award winner, a 2017 recipient of the John Goddard Prize for Environmental Conservancy, and a 2018 Spiritual Ecology Fellow. Kate was an Artist-in-Resident at Woodland Keep in the San Juan Islands as well as a beneficiary of the Boulder Arts Commission Professional Development Grant. She facilitates workshops across the country on low-waste living, permaculture in practice, and resilience, and has a Certificate in Permaculture Design from the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.  In this episode, we talk about: Kailea shares a spell by Brontë Velez on repatriation How flowers, activism, and literature, weave within Kate and Kailea’s story Kate shares the co-creation story of Loam How beauty is perceived as supplementary and not integral Flowers as an entry point into compassion and activism On why it’s easy to become cynical and overwhelmed in the current climate How Loam holds space for the unraveling of the human experience We speak on how to navigating crisis with beauty and art Creating spaciousness for future visioning How beauty helps us evoke the world we want to live in Why imagination is necessary for moving forward with hope and compassion How honoring beauty is honoring the sovereignty of other beings How beauty invokes gratitude Tuning in to the sensual and spiritual nature of the matriarchy A reimagining of the matriarchy How does it feel to be embodied How embodiment work invites in greater empathy and spaciousness How our bodies are the Earth The matriarchy as power within, not power over Creating a path to healing with plants Kailea and Kate share stories of how the plants speak to them On how the plants feel like home Kailea and Kate share a special announcement about a new project with Loam On Compassion in Crisis How we are born of crisis, yet have the capacity and the resilience to make it through challenging times Kate and Kailea share about the Loam Listen podcast and on current Loam publications and projects Plus so much more!   Secret Episodes! 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Theme music is “It’s Easier” by Scarlet Crow http://www.scarletcrow.org/ and “Meeting Again” by Emily Sprague  https://mlesprg.info/ ► Join the Earth Speak Collective Membership at https://www.earthspeak.love/collective Follow Earth Speak on Instagram and tag us when you share @earthspeak https://www.instagram.com/earthspeak

Kate Weiner and Kailea Frederick share about creativity, art, and beauty as integral to activism work. You’ll also hear about: Co-creating a world that values and priorities the health and wellbeing of future generations Embodied, reciprocity and holding space for nuance  A reimagining of the matriarchy Kailea and Kate share a special announcement and new project by Loam   ♥♥♥ Join The Earth Speak Collective Membership! Join like-hearted folks in a sacred container and community where you'll: Connect deeply to yourself, others, nature & spirit Learn to trust your intuition Activate your Earth magic Expand your healing & divination skills Put your intuition into practice in everyday life Stop feeling lonely on your spiritual path Embody & express your creative power & truths Experience safe space without agenda or judgment   When you join the Collective, you get access to all of our past workshops, any live workshops happening while you're a member, live weekly energetic reset calls, monthly community rituals, all the secret episodes, member-run meetups to explore magical topics, and a lively members-only forum (that's not on FB!). ▶▶▶ Learn more and sign up for the Collective membership here: https://www.earthspeak.love/collective ***** Kailea Frederick (Loam Editor) is a mother and First Nations woman dedicated to supporting individuals of all cultures in remembering their ties to the earth. A graduate of the International Youth Initiative Program, she has in-depth training in interpersonal communication, community building across cultural and linguistic boundaries and large group facilitation. She is a Spiritual Ecology Fellow, and has served as a youth delegate twice to the United Nations Climate Change conferences (COP). Currently, Kailea offers facilitation and project consultation through her project Earth Is `Ohana and is a Climate Commissioner for the city of Petaluma.  Kate Weiner (Loam Creative Director) is an environmental educator, writer, and gardener. Kate is a 2015 Brower Youth Award winner, a 2017 recipient of the John Goddard Prize for Environmental Conservancy, and a 2018 Spiritual Ecology Fellow. Kate was an Artist-in-Resident at Woodland Keep in the San Juan Islands as well as a beneficiary of the Boulder Arts Commission Professional Development Grant. She facilitates workshops across the country on low-waste living, permaculture in practice, and resilience, and has a Certificate in Permaculture Design from the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.  In this episode, we talk about: Kailea shares a spell by Brontë Velez on repatriation How flowers, activism, and literature, weave within Kate and Kailea’s story Kate shares the co-creation story of Loam How beauty is perceived as supplementary and not integral Flowers as an entry point into compassion and activism On why it’s easy to become cynical and overwhelmed in the current climate How Loam holds space for the unraveling of the human experience We speak on how to navigating crisis with beauty and art Creating spaciousness for future visioning How beauty helps us evoke the world we want to live in Why imagination is necessary for moving forward with hope and compassion How honoring beauty is honoring the sovereignty of other beings How beauty invokes gratitude Tuning in to the sensual and spiritual nature of the matriarchy A reimagining of the matriarchy How does it feel to be embodied How embodiment work invites in greater empathy and spaciousness How our bodies are the Earth The matriarchy as power within, not power over Creating a path to healing with plants Kailea and Kate share stories of how the plants speak to them On how the plants feel like home Kailea and Kate share a special announcement about a new project with Loam On Compassion in Crisis How we are born of crisis, yet have the capacity and the resilience to make it through challenging times Kate and Kailea share about the Loam Listen podcast and on current Loam publications and projects Plus so much more!   Secret Episodes! Get past secret episodes at https://www.earthspeak.love/secret. Links: Join the Earth Speak Collective Membership at https://www.earthspeak.love/collective Learn more about Kailea and Kate’s offerings at https://loamlove.com/ Support Loam on Patreon @loamlove Explore the Loam Listen Podcast Get the secret episodes at https://www.earthspeak.love/secret    References: Embodied Plant Medicine workshop https://www.earthspeak.love/embodied-plant-medicine Alissa Maya https://akashaapothecary.com/ Cacao Ceremony workshop https://www.earthspeak.love/cacao-ceremony Naomi Love https://www.wisewombmedicinepath.com/ Episode 6 with Kailea Fredrick https://www.earthspeak.love/shows-1/spiritual-ecology-compassion-in-crisis-kailea-frederick Brontë Velez https://www.instagram.com/littlenows/ Alyssa Gonzalez https://www.instagram.com/alyssajgonzalez9/ Monsanto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto Sweet Alyssum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobularia_maritima Borage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borage Calendula https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendula How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong https://amz.run/4K6I California Poppy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschscholzia Lilacs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syringa_vulgaris Spiderwort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradescantia Nasturtium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropaeolum Dahlia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlia Compassion in Crisis https://loamlove.com/shop/compassionincrisis Compasión en tiempos de crisis https://loamlove.com/shop/compasion-en-tiempos-de-crisis  Milla Prince https://www.instagram.com/thewomanwhomarriedabe Nourishing the Nervous System by Tayla Shanaye https://loamlove.com/shop/nourishing-the-nervous-system   Living Through Liminality https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ_ysUmHeU9/ Black Histories / Black Futures Bookshelf https://bookshop.org/shop/loam  Loam listen https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/loam-listen/id1477513600 Amirio Freeman https://www.instagram.com/plantasia_barrino/     ► Leave us a written review on iTunes, and get shouted out on the show! Theme music is “It’s Easier” by Scarlet Crow http://www.scarletcrow.org/ and “Meeting Again” by Emily Sprague  https://mlesprg.info/ ► Join the Earth Speak Collective Membership at https://www.earthspeak.love/collective Follow Earth Speak on Instagram and tag us when you share @earthspeak https://www.instagram.com/earthspeak

We Rise has been partnering with Mycelium Youth Network for over a year, and together, we are so excited to share this two-part podcast series with you. Here is the first of two keynote speeches from MYN's Autumn 2020 conference entitled Apocalyptic Resilience: An Afro-Indigenous Futuristic Adventure. This first episode features the unstoppable Isha Clarke with Youth vs. Apocalypse, and Atekpatzin, indigenous educator (bios below).Mycelium Youth Network prepares young people for climate change, using a combination of our ancestral knowledge and practices, and the best of science technology engineering arts and math (STEAM) thinking. For the past year We Rise, MYN, and Bioneers have been collaborating to bring you an amazing project to support young people telling their stories of climate resilience and environmental justice. You can learn more and support the work by going to MyceliumYouthNetwork.org. Feel free to follow @MyceliumYouthNetwork on Facebook & Instagram and @MyceliumYouth on Twitter for more updates.Isha Clarke is a West Oakland resident, organizer, advocate, activist, and co-founder of Youth Vs Apocalypse. Isha is a recent high school graduate who was born, raised, and educated in West Oakland, CA. Isha recognizes that climate change is the consequence of fundamental systems of oppression like white supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism, and therefore, disproportionately impacts people of color, indigenous communities, and working-class people. Knowing this, Isha’s work is focused on building a movement that shapes the leadership of frontline communities, creates solidarity between other fights for justice, and works to dismantle the systems of oppression that fuel climate change. As a result of this work, Isha was awarded the 2019 Brower Youth Award, 2020 Diller Tikkun Olam Award, and has become a nationally recognized speaker, presenter, and writer.Atekpatzin Young is an independent researcher, consultant, writer, artist, and musician. Mr. Young has done extensive research on the Indigenous peoples of Tehuayo, Indetah and Aztlán and their present-day descendants. He has also studied the relationship of ancient and contemporary Nahua religious practices. He spent fifteen years studying with traditional Indigenous healers. Mr. Young is the recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship award, and the Cesar Chavez Peace and Justice Leadership Award.Thank you to Dani Ahuicapahtzin Cornejo for generously contributing your music to this episode. Original music: Wayñumi Aswan Allin from new album Debajo del Agua.

On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we're speaking with three of this year’s Brower Youth Award winners. Every year, the awards honor young leaders for their accomplishments in the environmental movement.

Kyle Thiermann, born 1990, is known as “The Renaissance Surfer.” As a conduit between athletes and intellectuals he surfs professionally for Patagonia, works as a documentary correspondent, hosts a weekly podcast and is a freelance writer. In 2018 Thiermann co-created The Motherfucker Awards, a comedy awards show that aims to create corporate accountability through comedy. At a sold-out gala in LA, famous comedians represented the corporations that did the most to fuck Mother Earth and gave acceptance speeches on their behalf. From ages 18-25 Thiermann created and hosted the YouTube series Surfing For Change. While traveling to the best waves around the world, he created gonzo-style mini-documentaries about current environmental issues happening in the regions. From 25-27 he worked as a correspondent for Discovery Digital Networks covering issues ranging from a little-known indigenous conflict in Chile, to the impact wild pigs have on coral reefs in Hawaii. His first YouTube video in the Surfing For Change series detailed how money kept in multinational banks can be used to finance destructive projects all over the world. This video inspired people to move large amounts of money out of centralized banks and into local banks and credit unions, and reached people throughout North America, South America, Africa, and much of Europe. Thiermann has covered controversial stories all over the world. These stories have included the Indonesian trash epidemic, GMO protests in Hawaii, working conditions in Sri Lanka, nuclear power in South Africa, and the adverse effects of surf tourism in Nicaragua. Thiermann speaks at universities throughout the country and in 2011 gave a TEDx Talk in his wetsuit. His surfing and filmmaking successes have earned him the Brower Youth Award, American Clean Skies Award, Blue Vision Youth Award, and Surfrider's Pro Surfer Environmental Achievement Award. Thiermann is a columnist for Adventure Sports Network, Inertia, and Santa Cruz Waves. He graduated from Gaia University with a Bachelors of Science in Green Business with a focus in Media. EverlyWell: For 15% off an EverlyWell at-home lab test, visit everlywell.com/wodcast and enter code WODCAST. EverlyWell—at-home lab tests. Your answers. Your way. Listen to “The Gun Industry Speaks,” at NSSFRealSolutions.org/podcasts.

Terra Verde host and Earth Island Journal editor Maureen Nandini Mitra in conversation with two young Bay Area climate activists who had helped coordinate this week of climate action — Oakland resident Isha Clarke, one of the original members of Youth Vs Apocalypse and recipient of this year's Brower Youth Award, and Joe Glass an organizer with the Sunrise Movement. The post The Kids Are All Right! #Climate Strike – September 20, 2019 appeared first on KPFA.

Tsechu Dolma is the founder of Mountain Resiliency Project, a not-for-profit social enterprise dedicated to building climate change resilient communities through women's empowerment in sustainable agrobusiness. She runs indigenous honeybee farms, apple orchards, and greenhouses remote Nepali mountain villages. Her interest is in refugee rights, biodiversity conservation, climate change policy and inclusive development. Her work has been featured on Reuters, Forbes, NBC News, and Sierra Club. Tsechu was recognized as one of Forbes 30 under 30 in Social Entrepreneurship, Fulbright-Clinton Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow and Brower Youth Award winner. She has a BS in Environmental Science and MPA in Economic Development from Columbia University.

Kyle Thiermann, is a professional surfer, podcaster and filmmaker from Santa Cruz, CA. When he's not chasing building-sized waves around the globe he works with Discovery Digital Networks as an on-camera correspondent and producer. He also works closely with his main sponsor, Patagonia to beat up products and help implement solutions to the environmental crisis. From ages 18-25 Kyle created and hosted the YouTube series Surfing For Change. While traveling to the best waves around the world, Thiermann created gonzo-style mini-documentaries about current environmental issues happening in the regions. In the series, Thiermann focused on the power people have to create a better world through everyday decisions. His first YouTube video in the series details how money kept in multinational banks can be used to finance destructive projects all over the world. This video inspired people to move over $360 million dollars of lending power out of centralized banks and into local banks and credit unions, and reached people throughout North America, South America, Africa and much of Europe. Kyle has covered controversial stories all over the world. These stories have included the Indonesian trash epidemic, GMO protests in Hawaii, working conditions in Sri Lanka, nuclear power in South Africa, and the adverse effects of surf tourism in Nicaragua. Kyle Speaks at Universities throughout the country and in 2011 gave a TEDx Talk in his wetsuit. Kyle’s surfing and filmmaking successes have earned him the Brower Youth Award, American Clean Skies Award, Blue Vision Youth Award, and Surfrider’s Pro Surfer Environmental Achievement Award. Show Notes:  Kyle’s website: http://www.kyle.surf/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000814746343 Hunting Wild Pigs: http://www.kyle.surf/blog/2016/11/4/hunting-wild-pigs-could-save-hawaiis-coral-reefs-documentary Surf For Change:Indonesia Trash Tubes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDGpn_wknzc Kyle’s Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQIt2JUF-sg Stewart Brand: the Whole Earth Catalog: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/05/stewart-brand-whole-earth-catalog The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journey by James Fadiman.   https://www.amazon.com/Psychedelic-Explorers-Guide-Therapeutic-Journeys/dp/1594774021/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515036281&sr=8-1&keywords=the+psychedelic+explorer%27s+guide Documentary: The Internets Own Boy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvsxnOg0bJY Movie: Jim and Andy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB15UFO5ebA Buckminster Fuller: https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller If you enjoy this show Please Help Make It Better By Subscribing and Sharing. Help Spread The Message Even Further By Leaving a 5-Star Rating ★★★★★ and Review on iTunes. Click Here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/m... If You Really Like The Show, There Are 2 Ways You Can Show Extra Support. You Can Donate On Patreon for as little as $1 a month.You Will Get access to weekly bonus continent and great rewards.   Click Here To Become A Patron: https://www.patreon.com/mikebranc or Click Here To Make A One-Time Contribution On PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/mikebranc/ Email/ContactMe: https://www.mikebranc.com/contact/ Website:https://www.mikebranc.com/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Mikedelicpodcast/?ref=bookmarks Twitter Personal: @mikebranc | https://www.twitter.com/mikebranc Twitter Podcast: @mikeadelicpod | https://twitter.com/mikeadelicpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeadelic_podcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/mikebrancatelli Snapchat: mikebranc | https://www.snapchat.com/add/mikebranc Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3k5pBevX3Rcj4GzD99DYci GooglePlay:https://play.google.com/music/m/Iw6z7gcqennysuv73ioiiguzgjy?t=Mikeadelic__Liberty_Psychedelics_Self-improvement Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mikedelic SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/mikedelicpodcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mikedelic/id1109139637?mt=2   Thank You Intro Song: Uprising By Muse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KQm... Outro Song: That Good Good Rave By JForigno: https://soundcloud.com/jforigno  

Kyle Thiermann is a professional big wave surfer, Patagonia surf ambassador, documentarian, journalist, and pal of mine. We took a drive down to Baja to get some work done and hang out. As a correspondent for Discovery Digital Networks, Kyle Thiermann covered important issues ranging from a little-known indigenous conflict in Southern Chile, to the impact wild pigs have on Hawaii's coral reefs. Thiermann's surfing skills earned him a spot among an elite group of athletes as a Patagonia Surf Ambassador. With Patagonia’s support, Thiermann created and hosted the award-winning documentary series, Surfing For Change. The series included stories about the Indonesia trash epidemic, Hawaii’s Monsanto protests, and the adverse impacts of surf tourism in Nicaragua. Thiermann speaks at universities throughout the country and in 2011 gave a TEDx talk in his wetsuit. His surfing and journalistic successes have earned him Surfrider’s Pro Surfer Environmental Achievement Award, the Brower Youth Award, the American Clean Skies Film Award, and the Peter Benchley Blue Vision Award. Thiermann has spent years becoming an expert in the ocean and is an alternate in the prestigious annual big-wave event at Mavericks. He hosts a weekly podcast that explores subjects that include psychedelics, sex, and surfing.   Website link: http://www.kyle.surf/ Video Links:   Chasing Mavericks In Real Life  Chile's 500-Year Secret Conflict  Who Is Kyle Thiermann? 

Erica Fernandez, a remarkable eighteen-year-old environmental justice activist and Brower Youth Award winner, helped mobilize her diverse community in Oxnard, California to defeat the placement of a liquefied natural gas facility just offshore. This speech was given at the 2008 Bioneers National Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Oakland's illegal dumping; a conversation with Brower Youth Award-winner, Lynnea Shuck; learning to ride a bike the 21st Century way; StoryCorps: a mother remembers meeting her adopted daughter; and Oakland band Lumerians.