Appalachia banks on natural gas, chemical plants
In George Vacheresse’s lifetime, Appalachia has fallen from its prime when steel mills and coal mines anchored middle-class communities and offered hope there always would be enough work to go around. In this historically poor region nestled in the misty mountains of the eastern United States, most steel mills shut down long ago and the coal workforce has shrunk by 90 percent in the past 40 years. During the last recession, Appalachia lost all the jobs it gained from 2000 through 2008. Personal and small business income is roughly 25 percent lower than the rest of the United States and poverty is rife. (Earth Tribe Editor: This is a story about the employment and economic opportunities brought by mining and chemical plants)
Solar power firms in Mojave desert feel glare of tribes and environmentalists
Presence of horned toads and desert tortoises are holding up production at multimillion-dollar solar energy sites in California.
As eco-terrorism wanes, governments still target activist groups seen as threat
Ben Kessler, a student at the University of North Texas and an environmental activist, was more than a little surprised that an FBI agent questioned his philosophy professor and acquaintances about his whereabouts and his sign-waving activities aimed at influencing local gas drilling rules.
“It was scary,” said Kessler, who is a national organizer for the nonviolent environmental group Rising Tide North America. He said the agent approached him this past fall and said that the FBI had received an anonymous complaint and were looking into his opposition to hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking.” The bureau respected free speech, the agent told him, but was “worried about things being taken to an extreme level.”
Concerns voiced about Ethiopian dam
