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STONE'S THROW
EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL --

High in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, on a small island of green above a desert of rock and mud, a man in blue jean overalls wanders through an overgrown cemetery and struggles to contain his emotions. What happened to the graves down here?” the man asks. “There were three graves over here and one over here.”

Larry Gibson has the desperate sound of a man who has just realized a terrible loss. He points to an area where the forest ends abruptly, having beenscoured by enormous bulldozers. He wonders if the driver even saw the headstones.

Gibson, an environmental activist in his mid-50s, is on an inspection of his family cemetery that has been isolated by mountaintop removal (MTR) mining. He has been asking for permission to inspect the cemetery for a year and a half. Finally, on August 4, 2007, he is allowed to visit, and his worst fears are confirmed. Most of the graves are still in place, covered with vinesand short plants, but there have been losses.

“The people who are buried over there – or who were buried over there – are my great-great-great-grandparents,” Gibson says, his voice choking. “It’s my history they’re wiping out – 200years of my past.”

The land that spawned Larry Gibson and generations before him is very different today than it was only a few years ago. Not far away from the cemetery, the earth suddenly drops off hundreds of feet in jagged man-made cliffs of gray-brown rock.

Across the gaping mine site, running creeks fall from the living edge of the forest. The waterfalls appear tiny in the distance, and make no sound against the monstrous diesel cacophony of gigantic earth movers that eat awayat the mine pit below.

Down in the pit, the earth is laid open like a cadaver on a dissecting table, and near the bottom, coal seams stretch horizontally like thick black wounds.

This is all that is left of the mountain that Gibson grew up with – a few dozen headstones rising above the rest of the land like a cemetery in the sky. . .

-- By Bill Kovarik
For more on MTR, see the iLoveMountains site.

Coming to RU fall 2008

Appalachian Environments

A series of speakers and events at RU hosted by the Appalachian Regional Studies Center, the Center for the Environment, the School of Communication, and other schools and departments.

Larry Gibson with students
"I say to you, and to you, what do you hold so precious in your own circle of life that you don’t have a price on it? What would it be? For me, it’s Appalachia. For me, it’s the mountains. For me, it’s a whole way of life that they’re wiping out here, and nobody seems tocare” --- Larry Gibson shows RU journalism students the impacts of mountaintop removal mining on Kayford Mountain in central West Virginia. (Photo by Bill Kovarik)

RU, Hollins, Roanoke, and Virginia Tech students are encouraged to attend the Society of Environmental Journalists conference at the Hotel Roanoke Oct 15 - 19

Student registration at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference is only $75 (as opposed to $190 for regular members). Among speakers will be Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau, ocean explorers and grandchildren of Jacques Cousteau, XM Satellite Radio's Bob Edwards, "Big Coal" author Jeff Goodell, along with Robert Bullard, Wendell Berry and Ann Pancake.

 
Click for full conference event map  
Kovarik

About Prof. Kovarik:

Bill Kovarik, Ph.D. isa Professor of Communication at Radford University in southwestern Virginia. He teaches science and environment writing, journalism, web design, media history and media law, among other things.

Kovarik is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University (1974), the University of South Carolina (M.A., 1983) and the University of Maryland (Ph.D., 1993). His Ph.D. dissertation, The Ethyl Controversy, explored the role of the news media in protecting the public interest in a 1920s scientific controversy over leaded gasoline and safer alternatives (especially ethanol).

Kovarik has also served on the faculty at Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland. His professional experience as a journalist includes reporting and editing for Jack Anderson, the Associated Press, The Charleston (S.C.) Courier, The Baltimore Sun, Time-Life Books, Business Publishers and the National Center for Appropriate Technology. He is a co-author of "The Forbidden Fuel" (1982, with Hal Bernton and Scott Sklar), "Mass Media and Environmental Conflict" (1996, with Mark Neuzil), and author of "Web Design for the Mass Media" (2001), Kovarik also serves as an academic representative on the board of directors and conference chair for the Society of Environmental Journalists and on the editorial board of Appalachian Voice.

Prof. K's Historical research

How New York World editor Walter Lippmann rescued The Radium Girls

The editor who tried to stop the Civil War

Dr. North and the Kansas City Newspaper War

Newspapers and the environment (AEJMC paper)

 

The Ethyl Conflict
Early lessons never learned: Leaded gasoline, the news media and the environment

Henry Ford, Charles Kettering and the Fuel of the Future

More Papers by  Prof. K

About Us | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | ©* Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau, ocean explorers and grandchildren of Jacques Cousteau, will co-host the SEJ Awards for Reporting on the Environment Ceremony.
* XM Satellite Radio's Bob Edwards will moderate Friday's Opening Plenary on coal and its role in our nation's future energy diet. Debating the issue will be American Electric Power CEO Michael Morris, and "Big Coal" author Jeff Goodell.
* Noted expert Robert Bullard will lead a diverse panel of experts in Saturday's Breakfast Plenary Session on Environmental Justice and the Poor.
* Saturday Lunch and Plenary Session: Election 2008 and the Environment: The invitations are out. If we can't lure the actual candidates themselves, then we'll at least expect the top environmental advisors from each camp, as well as congressional leaders, to meet head-to-head to discuss their candidates' and parties' visions for our future environmental policy.
* Wendell Berry, Ann Pancake and others will be featured during Sunday's Bestsellers Breakfast Session.
* Computer Labs and Craft Workshops on the Cutting Edge2003 Company Name