The Dirty Lie ROAD TRIP!
I leave tomorrow morning for what I am calling The Dirty Lie road trip. I will travel to New York City for the launching of theDirtyLie.com After the party in NYC with Bobby Kennedy, Gloria Reuben, Kevin Bacon, and many others who want to debunk the myth of cleansing fossil fuel, I will travel to DC for a Green Peace demonstration denouncing the use of coal as a clean product. It can't be done!
I will stop along the way and interview people in coal country on camera going up and coming back. On my return I will edit all and post periodically on theDrityLie.com
Check in on my blog at http://creekkeeper.blogspot.com/ for trip updates and postings of the trip.
See Ya in the blogs, LEAVE COMMENTS!
Local environmentalist Hurricane Creekkeeper has been invited to a launch party in NYC for a new national campaign debunking the Clean Coal myth.
ReplyDeleteI will leave from Tuscaloosa Tuesday in about 2 hours and can be reached from the road via cell. (listed)
I will be also attending a coal protest in DC on the 2nd of Mar. While on the road, I will be stopping along the way to interview coal field citizens on video for TheDirtyLie.com web site later. You can follow my blog during the trip at Link
Clean coal is a dirty lie!
CONTACTS: John L. Wathen
hccreekkeeper@gmail.com
Bevin Gove
W) 914.674.0622 ext 13 bevin@go-pr.net
(M) 914.356.6909
Scott Edwards Go PR
Waterkeeper Alliance 917.678.3489 (
WATERKEEPER ALLIANCE ANNOUNCES NATIONAL VIRAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF COAL
“THE DIRTY LIE” CAMPAIGN WILL DEBUNK THE MYTH OF CLEAN COAL
New York, NY, February 22, 2009 – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Chairman of Waterkeeper Alliance, announced today that the group’s first national anti-coal campaign will be launched at a private party at Greenhouse, 150 Varick Street between Vandam and Spring, New York’s first “eco-lounge,” on February 26th from 7:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. The campaign, called “The Dirty Lie,” aims to create broader awareness of the destructiveness of coal—from its role in propping up an antiquated fossil-fuel-based economy to its adverse effects on the environment and the health of millions of Americans—and, ultimately, to bring about a change in national energy policy. The launch party will include screenings of videos that will be featured on thedirtylie.com as well as remarks by co-hosts Kennedy and Waterkeeper Alliance board member and actress Gloria Reuben of ER fame.
“Simply stated, clean coal is a dirty lie,” Kennedy said. “You don’t have to live in the coalfields or in the shadow of a coal-fired power plant to be affected by this filthy industry. Coal causes acid rain and demolishes ecosystems, pollutes our water and food chain with toxic mercury, destroys communities, and is grossly accelerating climate change.”
Waterkeeper programs like Hurricane Creekkeeper in Tuscaloosa Alabama, along with many others in Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and West Virginia have been fighting the coal industry for years. “This campaign is a chance for millions of others to join the effort and help make sure our message is heard in corporate boardrooms and the halls of government,” Kennedy said. “Once they learn the facts, most Americans will demand policies that protect our water and our health and promote an economy built on cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.” Information on the campaign and a petition to sign will be available at Link.
The campaign concept was created by Mouth (www.mouthny.com), a New York-based creative agency. The campaign’s hub is thedirtylie.com website, which will house video and editorial content and provide visitors with interactive tools to become anti-coal activists. The campaign will reach beyond the traditional environmental community by using the most up-to-date online viral marketing techniques, with the ultimate goal of galvanizing broad popular interest via the web. No other environmental organization taking on the coal industry has attempted something this innovative.
The website’s core is a list of lies propagated by the coal industry, including the dirtiest lie of all: that coal can ever be clean. The site exposes the lies through scientific studies, legal facts, videos, and graphics, revealing the shocking truths about the damage done at every stage of the coal life cycle.
In addition to Kennedy and Reuben, Waterkeeper Alliance has been joined in this national campaign by several prominent activists including Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Marcia Gay Harden and Matthew Modine, among others. “It’s time to create a new energy future for America,” Reuben said. “We’re going to send a clear message to the coal industry and to Washington through Waterkeeper Alliance’s thousands of grassroots activists: Profits from coal are being made at the expense of our health and the health of our children.”
Every year, U.S. coal-fired power plants release 48 tons of the neurotoxin mercury into the environment, poisoning hundreds of square miles of waterways. And mercury doesn’t just poison ecosystems; it also poisons pregnant women and their babies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that one of every six women of childbearing age now has unsafe mercury levels in her blood and, potentially, breast milk, putting more than 410,000 American children born each year at high risk for neurological damage and a grim inventory of illnesses.
And while coal-fired power plants generate about half of America’s electricity, they contribute 80 percent of the total greenhouse gases that result from electricity production. Ocean-level rise and other effects of global warming threaten barrier islands and coastal ecosystems and other irreplaceable, wild areas.
“From the mining process to the disposal of ash after it’s burned, there is no part of the coal industry that is good for the environment, good for people, or good for America,” said Donna Lisenby, Watauga Riverkeeper in North Carolina. Lisenby and John Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, recently made front-page news for their work documenting the real effects of the TVA’s billion-gallon coal sludge spill in Harriman, Tennessee, on the surrounding communities and waterways. “Waterkeeper Alliance’s unique grassroots model gives us the ability to carry the campaign to hundreds of locales in a way no other group can,” Wathen said.
“Donna Lisenby and John Wathen are real American heroes,” Kennedy said. “We’re fighting a powerful industry with deep pockets and an absolute determination to win, but thanks to dedicated local leaders like Donna and John, the campaign’s goal is no less than to bring about a fundamental shift in national energy policy.”
ABOUT WATERKEEPER ALLIANCE
Founded in 1999, Waterkeeper Alliance is one of the world’s fastest growing grassroots environmental organizations with nearly 200 Waterkeepers defending and advocating for rivers, lakes and other waterways on six continents. For more information, visit Link.
ABOUT MOUTH
Founded by Mishele Wells in 2007, New-York based Mouth is a boutique creative agency focused on developing and implementing innovative and strategic campaigns for a variety of lifestyle and non-profit companies. Mouth’s clients’ benefit from the originality, flexibility and courageousness of a boutique firm combined with the quality and expertise of a large advertising agency. Mouth provides senior marketing counsel at every stage of program development and execution. The agency has created and implemented digital, broadcast, print, outdoor, promotional, and viral campaigns for K-Swiss Footwear and Apparel, Mahou Beer, DF magazine, and The Waterkeeper Alliance, among others. For more information, visit Link.
John L. Wathen
Hurricane Creekkeeper,
Friends of Hurricane Creek
Link
Members of
WATERKEEPER Alliance
Link
Who has the authority to say someone else
is not being a good steward of the environment
Anyone who notices
Coal is Dirty, Dangerous, and Depleting.
Creekkeeper
Here's what it's about for us in Alabama
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thedirtylie.com
Today, Waterkeeper Alliance unveiled the whole truth about coal. TheDirtyLie.com website has been launched to combat the lies that are being spread about coal, including the myth of so-called “clean coal.”
The full cycle of coal use destroys our land, uproots communities, despoils our streams, contaminates our water supplies, and poisons our air. Coal-burning power plants are the leading emitters of CO2 emissions that exacerbate climate change, their SO2 emissions cause acid rain that kills our forests, and they spew out tons of the neurotoxin mercury, this generation's lead. TheDirtyLie.com exposes all these threats and more.
There are around 100 active strip (surface) and underground coal mines in the Black Warrior watershed today. Many are operating along the banks of the river and its tributaries. They are allowed to mine within 100 feet of the river and 300 feet of homes. Water discharge permits are given to mines allowing them to discharge pollutants such as total suspended solids (muddy water), pH, and heavy metals (iron and manganese).
Coal from Alabama is used to make coke for the steel-making process, it is shipped overseas, and it is burned at power plants to produce electricity. 60% of Alabama’s energy is created by burning coal.
There are three coal-burning power plants in the Black Warrior watershed. Gorgas Steam Plant is on the Mulberry Fork in Walker County, Miller Steam Plant is on the Locust Fork in Jefferson County, and Greene County Steam Plant is on the Black Warrior River in Greene County. Miller Steam Plant was the #1 mercury emitting power plant in the entire nation in 2007, spewing out nearly a ton of mercury. Gorgas and Greene were named in the top 50 dirtiest plants list.
Here's what it's about for us in Alabama
ReplyDeletehttp://thedirtylie.com/
Today, Waterkeeper Alliance unveiled the whole truth about coal. TheDirtyLie.com website has been launched to combat the lies that are being spread about coal, including the myth of so-called “clean coal.”
The full cycle of coal use destroys our land, uproots communities, despoils our streams, contaminates our water supplies, and poisons our air. Coal-burning power plants are the leading emitters of CO2 emissions that exacerbate climate change, their SO2 emissions cause acid rain that kills our forests, and they spew out tons of the neurotoxin mercury, this generation's lead. TheDirtyLie.com exposes all these threats and more.
There are around 100 active strip (surface) and underground coal mines in the Black Warrior watershed today. Many are operating along the banks of the river and its tributaries. They are allowed to mine within 100 feet of the river and 300 feet of homes. Water discharge permits are given to mines allowing them to discharge pollutants such as total suspended solids (muddy water), pH, and heavy metals (iron and manganese).
Coal from Alabama is used to make coke for the steel-making process, it is shipped overseas, and it is burned at power plants to produce electricity. 60% of Alabama’s energy is created by burning coal.
There are three coal-burning power plants in the Black Warrior watershed. Gorgas Steam Plant is on the Mulberry Fork in Walker County, Miller Steam Plant is on the Locust Fork in Jefferson County, and Greene County Steam Plant is on the Black Warrior River in Greene County. Miller Steam Plant was the #1 mercury emitting power plant in the entire nation in 2007, spewing out nearly a ton of mercury. Gorgas and Greene were named in the top 50 dirtiest plants list.
I arrived in NYC for the Dirty Lie.com launching tomorrow night and remembered just how peeved I get when I see all of these hugh buildings lit up with no one in them. At least no one in the entire dental office across the street from me. I can see every chair has been cleaned and has new plastic for tomorrow. The computers are off and I can see all of this because EVERY LIGHT IS ON!
ReplyDelete70 acres of mountain top had to be mined for that building to be lit up with no one in it!
WAKE UP AMERICA!
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ReplyDelete