Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Asheville residents this week are calling attention to the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal mining. Asheville filmmaker Kurt Mann is one of those folks, and he passes along this message in response to one of my earlier posts about hearing that he and fellow protesters had been arrested and jailed. Mann was arrested – back in June – and continues to work to call attention to this issue. There are several events happening this week folks should check out.
Here’s Mann:
yes I was arrested and jailed (along with 13 others) but the heart of the story is saving the mountains of West Virginia and drawing a line in the sand on how we are going to consciously evolve as a species and face climate change. I’ve done a lot of work in WNC around economic development and the green economy. This community has the ability and power to rise up and tell the EPA to STOP MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL and to let Progress Energy know that coal from Mountaintop Removal isn’t acceptable.
My family and I are also going on the road for two months to campaign for Climate Ground Zero (climategroundzero.org) and their efforts to fight dirty coal by ending mountaintop removal. More about that at the end of this email. We hope that the ENTIRE Ashvegas community can not only support our efforts but join us via Ashevegas with regular updates.
The Jail Thing
As you may know I was arrested and jailed for documenting a team of activists committed to bringing the worlds attention to the war being waged against dirty coal in West Virginia. There will be events all week and the one Monday at the WriteMind Institute is one not to miss. Mountaintop Removal Mike Roselle (co founder of Rainforest Action Network, EarthFirst! and The Ruckus Society) and International human rights photographer will be presenting pictures and stories from the front lines of the silent war being waged in West Virginia.
WNC Activists Arrested and Jailed after occupying Massy Dragline
On June 18th 12 activists and two journalists were arrested and jailed as an embedded filmmaker in a direct action that include WNC residents and business owners including; Dave Holister, Kurt Mann, Greg Yost, Dave Pike and others. In order to win the war on Climate Change, we need to be victorious on the battle to end the criminal practice of mountaintop removal for cheap fuel. There is a silent war being waged in coal country and we need to defend the communities being destroy because of greedy coal companies. If we can’t draw the line on blowing up mountains for coal, we will surely not meet other critical milestones.
Join us all next week and especially Monday night at WriteMind – 7pm
