Archive | Environment

Speak up for the Future

Posted on 09 March 2010 by shinai

Hello Fellow HORN Listeners,

Our Friends at ILoveMountains.org are holding a National Call-in day today (3/9/10)  to find more Co-Sponsors for S696, The Appalachian Restoration Act.  If you would like your senators to be  co-sponsors of this legislation, call the capitol switchboard at 202-225-3121 and Ask to be connected to  your Senator’s  office.  When you speak to your Senator’s Staff Person, speak politely. But do speak up, The Future is counting on you.

-Thanks So Much for all the love and care that all of you have shown us and each other in these times.

The HORN Team.

Comments (0)

2/28/10 Fox’d Up: Yes Folks we Have Show.

Posted on 28 February 2010 by shinai

Yes folks,

Believe it or not we have show.  If you’re wondering what happened, blame the Ninja. (Sake should be taken before bed to prevent yearning for Sepuku.

Comments (0)

“Tallying the True Cost of ‘Cheap’ Coal”

Posted on 26 February 2010 by trouble97018

As the Prophet Isaiah queried: “What will you do on the Day of Reckoning, when evil comes from afar?”

Click on the image to buy the book.

Having just completed my first reading of Jeff Biggers’ masterfully crafted, meticulously researched “Reckoning At Eagle Creek,” I am left feeling nigh-breathless at the scope of the evil that came from afar and visited a nigh-Biblical plague upon people in the form of the heartache, sickness and grim Death that always serves as the handmaiden of coal. Such a sensation is fitting, I suppose, for a book that recounts the history of the thousands of human beings rendered breathlessly mute by the ravages of Black Lung, slate falls, mine explosions, poisoned waters, blasted hills, choked valleys, murdered workers and whole communities literally blown off the map in the merciless, ceaseless quest for the Holy Profit of Coal.

Jeff Biggers has crafted out of family history and regional history an honest, unblinking reckoning of the costs paid by a nation and, indeed, a world for what we have been assured by the industry for more than a century is “cheap” coal. Mr. Biggers proves in the pages of “Reckoning At Eagle Creek” that the only way to see coal as “cheap” is to view the lives, history and heritage consumed in its acquisition as being even cheaper still.

“Reckoning At Eagle Creek” is the manifestation of one man’s quest for understanding of where our dependence on the nastiest fuel form on the planet has taken us and where that path ultimately leads. That quest is neither fanciful nor mythical. It is rock-hard and bone-real. With its publication, “Reckoning At Eagle Creek” becomes an immediately necessary resource for anyone who seeks to understand the ever-increasing toll we all pay for “cheap” coal, for “cheap” electricity, for “cheap” heat. In his “reckoning” of accounts within the scope of his family’s southern Illinois homeland, Jeff Biggers honestly reveals coal mineshafts and stripmine pits for what they are: the abbatoirs of the American Dream.

Read this book. Own this book. “

YouTube Link


Comments (0)

2/14/10 On today’s Fox’d: Jon’s Back!!!!!!

Posted on 14 February 2010 by shinai

Welcome one and all! After an extended stay in the real world, our intrepid host Jon Fox is back with a brand new show! So as you enjoy this celebration of Love, (or corporate manipulation depending on your point of view) Tune in and sit back and get you Green on!

Comments (0)

Tags: ,

Corporate Water Grabs coming to US Cities near you.

Posted on 30 January 2010 by shinai

Courtesy Alternet:

Corporate interests having are eyeing our water. From wastewater to drinking water, big business is looking to cash in on public water systems and they’ve got a new tactic: They’re using desperate economic times to convince city officials that they should place a corporation between families and their ability to eat, drink, and clean.

Take Akron, Ohio, for example. In September 2008 I wrote an article for Alternet about a ballot measure in Akron where voters were asked whether to lease the city’s wastewater system to a corporation in return for an immediate, one-time payment. The plan was roundly defeated. But more importantly, as the article suggested, the lease signaled a new direction for water privatization in the U.S. This involved a collaboration between water companies and Wall Street to snatch up control of water infrastructure for the better part of a century.

Since that vote, similar lease plans have been floated in Milwaukee and Chicago, presenting a dangerous possibility: In the near future, a major U.S. city could sign over unprecedented control of its water system to a corporation for a generation or longer. The silver lining in this narrative is that the same communities being targeted by water corporations for these deals are now charting out new ways to ensure their water remains in public hands. And for the moment, advocates of public control are winning.

The Lease Model of Water Privatization

-Source.

Comments (0)

H.O.R.N. Covers Live Coal Debate As We Mourn The Loss of Air America

Posted on 21 January 2010 by texas_betsy

As we at the H.O.R.N. prepare our live coverage of the momentous mountaintop removal debate between Robert Kennedy Jr. and Don Blankenship live from Charleston, West Virginia (beginning at 6pm Eastern), we also take a moment to mourn the passing of Air America Radio.

The announcement, which appeared on Air Amercia’s website a few minutes ago, took AAR late night host Nicole Sandler by surprise.  In part, the statement by Air America reads as follows:

It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.

The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America’s business. This past year has seen a “perfect storm” in the media industry generally. National and local advertising revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media companies nationwide to fold or seek bankruptcy protection. From large to small, recent bankruptcies like Citadel Broadcasting and closures like that of the industry’s long-time trade publication Radio and Records have signaled that these are very difficult and rapidly changing times.

….

[C]urrent employees will be paid through today, January 21. A severance package will be offered tomorrow to full-time current employees with more than six months of tenure.We will strive to assist affiliates and partners in achieving a smooth transition. Starting at 6 pm EST today, we will provide our affiliates, listeners and users a selection of encore programming until 9 pm EST on Monday, January 25, at which time Air America programming will end.

With your continued assistance, the H.O.R.N. continues to provide liberal conversation radio.

Comments (0)

Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals

Posted on 13 January 2010 by trouble97018

Huffington Post | Katherine Goldstein/Gazelle Emami Posted: 01-12-10 05:30 PM

GM-CORNIn a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.

According to the study, which was summarized by Adam Shake at Twilight Earth, “Three varieties of Monsanto’s GM corn – Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603 – were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities.”

Monsanto gathered its own crude statistical data after conducting a 90-day study, even though chronic problems can rarely be found after 90 days, and concluded that the corn was safe for consumption. The stamp of approval may have been premature, however. Source Article

Comments (0)

Tags: ,

Scientists Urge End to Mountaintop Removal After Review

Posted on 08 January 2010 by shinai

Courtesy McClatchy:

The consequences of this mining in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and southwestern Virginia are “”pervasive and irreversible,” the article finds. Companies are required by law to take steps to reduce the damages, but their efforts don’t compensate for lost streams nor do they prevent lasting water pollution, it says.

The article is a summary of recent scientific studies of the consequences of blasting the tops off mountains to obtain coal and dumping the excess rock into streams in valleys. The authors also studied new water-quality data from West Virginia streams and found that mining polluted them, reducing their biological health and diversity.

Surprisingly little attention has been paid to this growing scientific evidence of the damages, they wrote, adding: “Regulators should no longer ignore rigorous science.”

New permits shouldn’t be granted, they argued, “unless new methods can be subjected to rigorous peer review and shown to remedy these problems.”

-Article continues @ Source.

Hear Bob Kincaid’s interview with  Scientists on the Review: 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Comments (0)

Tags:

Follow Up: MN Enacts World’s First Carbon Tariff, ND Not Happy

Posted on 05 January 2010 by shinai

Courtesy  Treehugger:

There’s been a lot of talk about carbon tariffs–taxing imported goods from polluting industries in nations or states that don’t regulate CO2–over the last year or so. Many rust belt and coal state Democrats have called for federal climate legislation to include a such a carbon tariff. This would impose a tax on goods imported to the US from nations with no carbon controls on manufacturing (say, China). So it might come as a surprise to some that the first carbon tariff actually enacted isn’t between nations at all–it’s between Minnesota and North Dakota.

….Of course, North Dakota is none too happy about any of this–the state promptly decided to sue Minnesota, saying the tariff unfairly gives renewable energy an advantage over coal powered energy. Perhaps North Dakota missed the memo–that’s precisely the point. The move will hopefully cause speculators in North Dakota to start seriously thinking about wind power projects–the state has been called ‘the Saudi Arabia of wind’ because of the vast potential it has there….

-Full Article @ Source. See Prior Article here.

Comments (0)

ND Mulling Suit Against MN over Carbon Tax

Posted on 30 December 2009 by shinai

Courtesy The Bismarck Tribune:

North Dakota’s attorney general said he expects the state to sue Minnesota over a plan there to tax carbon created by electrical generation.

After discussing the issue with the state Industrial Commission in a closed session this month, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said “It is very likely that we will be suing the state of Minnesota.”

At issue is a measure by Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission to add a fee of between $4 and $34 per ton of carbon dioxide to the cost of electrical generation starting in 2012. The majority of electricity in North Dakota is generated by coal-fired power plants, which emit a large amount of carbon relative to other fuels sources. North Dakota officials argue that the move would place an unfair tax on electricity from the state and discourage its use by Minnesota utilities.

Stenehjem said possible legal action would relate to constitutional protections against restrictions on commerce between states.

-Article Continues @ Source.

Comments (0)

Listen Live! Test drive our new JAVA player. Win/Mac/Lin
The H.O.R.N. on Ustream

    What's on

    Best of the H.O.R.N. <br> (Replay Stream)
    Best of the H.O.R.N.
    (Replay Stream)

    Up Next

    The Guy James Show<br>3-5P.M. Eastern U.S.
    The Guy James Show
    3-5P.M. Eastern U.S.

Support The H.O.R.N.

Keep the conversation alive!







Write your comment within 199 characters.

Friends Of The HORN