Forest Service Reloads Assault On Colorado Roadless Area

Coal is dirty. It’s the dirty fuel that gives us mercury in our lakes, acid rain in our skies, carbon pollution, leaky ash ponds, and scraped-off mountains and buried streams in Appalachia. And just like the coal itself, Arch Coal’s proposed West Elk mine expansion into the Sunset Roadless Area in western Colorado will be…

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Friday Finds: Australia Plans World's Largest Marine Reserve

Australia announces world’s largest marine reserve Just in time for this week’s Rio+20 Earth Summit, Australia has announced its plans to create the world’s largest marine reserve, reports the BBC. The protected zone will cover more than a third of Australia’s waters (about 3 million square kilometers) and will include restrictions on fishing as well…

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Death Valley Wilderness Is Safe

A 6-year legal battle to save some of Death Valley National Park’s wilderness areas from development paid off this week. The national park (biggest in the lower 48) is in Inyo County, California. Inyo County asserted it had legal title to several dirt paths in the park under a Civil War-era federal law intended to…

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Tr-Ash Talk: Is Poisoned Water Necessary for Jobs?

So, you’d think we’d all be in agreement here: clean water is a boon for everyone. That means, keep coal ash (full of mercury, arsenic, hexavalent chromium and other nasty stuff) out of our drinking water, right? Sadly, that doesn’t hold true for everyone. Some members of the House of Representatives think that funding 2.9…

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Friday Finds: Big Win for Great Barrier Reef

Coal project kept out of Great Barrier Reef This week, Australian environment minister Tony Burke put a stop to a billion dollar coal project that could have negatively impacted the Great Barrier Reef, reports CorpWatch. The world’s largest coral ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef contains an abundance of marine life, is one of the seven…

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The Many Humble Heroes of Appalachia

As we were working on our new campaign ("Mountain Heroes") to stop mountaintop removal coal mining, many of the folks who shared their stories told us they felt bashful about being called "heroes." In our society today, when we talk about a hero many of us imagine a caped figure flying through the sky, lifting…

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Introducing Our New Mountain Heroes Website and Campaign

Be a Mountain Hero.

Over our years of working to stop mountaintop removal mining, we at Earthjustice have met so many brave and dedicated people fighting for their communities, mountains and waters. In 2010, Earthjustice launched our “Mountain Heroes” campaign to share their inspiring stories and show that this is not just a fight for the environment—it’s a fight…

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Friday Finds: Backpacking Brain Boost

Taking a hike may boost your brainpower Spending time outside doesn’t just make you happier and calm your frazzled nerves, reports the Wall Street Journal. It can also improve creativity. According to a yet-to-be-published paper by University of Kansas researchers, a group of hikers that spent four days in the woods outperformed another set of…

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Judge Jumpstarts Action on Deadly Soot

Nothing cuts baloney like a court order. Today, in response to a request made by Earthjustice, a federal judge gave the Environmental Protection Agency one week to sign a proposal for tightening standards on soot, an airborne mixture of tiny particles that causes tens of thousands of early deaths every year. The court’s action is…

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