The True Cost of Coal

Bees in Action

2011-11-01T18:26:00.005-04:00

Browse sample photos of our picture-lectures and workshops in a startling variety of venues. This spring we had four separate groups touring in the Southeast, in the Midwest, in the Northeast (including Canada), and even in England!

Bees Swarming this Spring!

2011-01-31T10:43:00.003-05:00

We Bees are currently plotting our SPRING tour schedule, and we’d LOVE to collaborate with you to organize a Beehive presentation in your area. We had a record-breaking fall tour last year with over 200 picture-lectures and graphic workshops, and we are buzzing with excitement to keep up the momentum in the coming months!

From wide-spread hydro-fracking for natural gas and the continued coal exploration across the Abmericas, from the oil spill in the Gulf and Tar Sands development in Canada, the dire fight against fossil fuels has never been more evident on this continent. This spring, we have eager bees and powerful allies ready to swarm all over the Southeast, Northeast, Midwest and Gulf Coast, full of stories and graphics to share.

Plus, we are SUPER excited to announce a special collaborative tour with climate justice organizer Joshua Kahn Russell. Josh will be touring alongside in Appalachia and the Northeast offering additional organizing and social movement strategy workshops to groups and organizations throughout the Spring. And we have more awesome collaborations planned, so keep your ears perked!

YOU can help us cross-pollinate these struggles and communities by hosting the Bees this season; together let’s build this movement for climate justice!

If you are interested in collaborating, or if you know someone else who might be, please visit our TOUR PAGE (http://wwww.beehivecollective.org/booking)for complete workshop descriptions and information about hosting us at your school or venue.

Help KICKSTART the Beehive Collective's 10th Anniversary Print Run!

2010-12-21T14:22:00.002-05:00

The BEEHIVE COLLECTIVE has launched a new KICKSTARTER campaign to reprint our full body of work- over a dozen graphic posters!

There's a new-fangled way of doing what Bees do best- fundraising poco-a-poco, little bit by little bit! Through Kickstarter we’ve made a sweet little VIDEO explaining what we do, and are offering lots of special treats to share.

Support the Beehive’s 10th Anniversary Print Run through Kickstarter…… and receive a special collection of limited edition, previously out-of-print, and brand new posters, all shipped direct to your doorstep!

Every lil’ donation makes a big difference; your pledge of $25, $50, or $100 can help us cover the $12,000 total cost of this effort. This will be our biggest, and most diverse, print run to date!

And whether or not you pledge, you can HELP US SPREAD THE WORD by telling your friends, your grandparents, your boss, your siblings, and everyone who’s connected to you on the internet about this kick-startin’ campaign…we need you to help this go viral!

SWARMING South, West, North and beyond after Appalachia Rising!

2010-10-02T13:52:00.003-04:00

We bees just wrapped up an amazing week! We had two GIANT events to help us kick start our release tour of "The True Cost of Coal," the Common Ground Country Fair in Maine and Appalachia Rising- a mass mobilization against mountaintop removal coal mining in DC. Between the two events we shared our new work with thousands of people and have already distributed hundreds of posters!

What a powerful moment, to stand in the streets of DC with all of the friends, allies, community members and activists who are touched by the story of Mountaintop Removal. Over 100 folks were arrested demanding an end to the destruction, and that is only the beginning! Appalachia is still Rising and we are honored to be a part of this movement. Make sure to visit appalachiarising.org for photos and news stories about the event!

We will carry our part forward over the next few months. As we speak, four swarms of bees are traveling the country, keeping the momentum going for the largest tour in Beehive history! We already have 45 shows booked for October alone and more are in the works. Check out our tour pages to see if we are coming to a town near you!

http://www.beehivecollective.org/english/tour.htm

And please help spread the word to friends in the area!

Join the Bees at Appalachia Rising! A Mass Moblization to end Mountaintop Removal mining!

2010-09-17T21:24:00.001-04:00

Hello friends and allies,

As you know, we released our latest graphic, "The True Cost of Coal" this summer, and the timing could not be more apt, as we are approaching a historic moment in the anti-strip mining movement this month.

From September 25-27, activists and community members from Appalachia and supporters from all over the country will be converging on Washington DC at Appalachia Rising!- a mass mobilization to demand an end to all forms of strip mining! The event is being organized by a broad coalition of citizen, environmental, labor, faith and community groups and individuals who have joined together in one voice to demand an end to the destruction in Appalachia. This has not happened on this scale since 1978.

The weekend includes two full days of strategizing workshops, learning, featured speaker panels and discussions, cultural events, and entertainment. On Monday September 27, we will march, rally, and support individuals taking part in dignified non-violent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal mining.

We bees are honored to be participating in this moment of movement history, and will be bringing "The True Cost of Coal" to the streets of DC at the end of this month to kick off our nation wide release tour of the graphic. We would like to invite you to be a part of this moment as well.

Weather you live close to DC or not, there are many ways you can support this effort! Here are some ways to plug in:

Register to attend Appalachia Rising - http://bit.ly/94qKJQ

Mobilize your community to Appalachia Rising- http://bit.ly/bzweZK

Donate to Appalachia Rising- http://bit.ly/aYUf4O

and of course, spread the word! Visit http://www.appalachiarising.org/ for more info!

Thank you so much for your support! And hope to see some of you in DC!

with honey and solidarity,
the bees

Beehive in Seattle

2010-08-27T19:24:00.003-04:00

We met tons of awesome folks at the Seattle Anarchist Bookfair and InArtsNW, a new artists' coop in Capitol Hill..... We found out that 40% of Washington State's electricity comes from a coal plant in Centralia, WA, that uses coal from strip mines in Montana and Wyoming's Powder River Basin. Oregon also gets 40% of its power from coal.

For more photos of West Coast tour, click here.

West Coast Tour Underway!

2010-08-27T19:03:00.008-04:00

The Beehive's West Coast Bike Tour is on the road! We are travelling by bicycle from Seattle to the San Francisco Bay Area with a portable fabric mural of "the True Cost of Coal," stopping along the way to do workshops and storytellings about mountain top removal coal mining, coal-fired electricity, climate change and the American Dream.

We will also be stopping along the way to eat blackberries.

To find a show happening near you, or to collaborate on organizing a show in your home town, check our tour page!

We will be landing in the SF Bay Area for the first week of October, then heading out again to tour a wider area of the West Coast by (*cough*) car.

We are very grateful to our superheros at Portland's Bike Farm collective for helping us get road-ready. They stayed late, they hooked us up with gear, they helped us with vehicle logistics, they saved our butts. Thank you, Bike Farm!

Take a gander at the photo album of our bike adventure!

JOYOUS NEWS! The BEEHIVE'S COAL POSTER has HATCHED!

2010-07-29T21:31:00.007-04:00

THE TRUE COST OF COAL is finished, printed, and ready for you to enjoy!

It’s true! After 2 ½ years of discussions, feedback, eraser marks, sketches and rough drafts, THE TRUE COST OF COAL is DONE! And we can’t wait to share it with you!

It is hard to describe the mix of emotions we ‘lil bees are feeling after this final push. Somewhere between exuberance and exhaustion, all of it steeped in immeasurable gratitude to all the folks who have helped make this graphic possible. To all the powerful people and places in Appalachia who shared their stories and their struggles with us, to all the folks who have hosted shows and offered up their floors or couches, to everyone who has kicked down money to keep us going, to friends and family who have emotionally supported us through this rollercoaster of a project, and to everyone else who has touched or inspired this graphic in some way- thank you. No doubt, YOU all are what made this project possible!

Rather than us trying to describe this excitement and gratitude in words, please check it out for yourselves! Experience the full poster and read the narrative at the TRUE COST OF COAL page on our website (http://www.beehivecollective.org/english/coal.htm), and find behind-the-scenes studio shots in our Sketchbook .

The Coal Graphic Blows Up for Detroit

2010-06-15T13:02:00.005-04:00

The coal graphic, blown up to huge proportions for public display.... see the teeny tiny person holding up the edge of the banner at top center?

Next stop: the Allied Media Conference and the US Social Forum in Detroit.

If anyone is going to be in Detroit over the next few weeks, you can come and cross-pollinate with us! We're gonna be offering workshops, gallery shows, and outdoor storytellings in the following places:

Allied Media Conference:
Friday, June 18 @ 9am: Let's Draw! Kid's only drawing workshop
Friday, June 18 @ 2pm: Collaborative Mural Making workshop with Detroit Summer

*check out http://alliedmedia.org/ for more info on times and places!

USSF:

Monday, June 21st: Bees will be tabling all day and doing informal storytellings at Detroit River Days at the USSF cultural space. (http://www.detroitriverdays.com)

Thursday, June 24th @ 1pm: Collaborative Workshop with the Chiapas Support Committee on "Megaprojects and the
Militarization of Mexico" in Cobo Hall D2-09

Friday, June 25th @ 1pm: Graphics for the Commons:
Collaborative Graphic Design for Movement Building in Wayne
County Community College: 124

We will also be displaying graphics (including the recently finished True Costs of Coal poster!) as part the USSF's Official Art show at the Hart Plaza Gallery throughout the USSF

And of course we will be tabling all week at the USSF OUTSIDE in the Hart Plaza!

visit: http://www.ussf2010.org/ for more info!

Hope to see you in Detroit!

It's DONE!!!

2010-05-30T18:35:00.004-04:00

It's been a marathon, but the "True Cost of Coal" poster is all wrapped up and ready to go to print. By the end of June, we'll start distributing paper posters and accompanying booklet to activists, educators, and other folks involved in coal field and climate justice struggles. We'll blow this image up into giant portable murals and tour the country, doing presentations and workshops about coal, climate change, and art activism.

Book us this fall for your community space, high school or college!

15 Days....

2010-05-16T20:22:00.002-04:00

More blank areas take on shape and form....

An accomodating local moth poses as our live model for moth characters in the sky....

A steady accumulation of "X"s on our to-do list.....

Countdown to the Finish

2010-05-04T11:32:00.004-04:00

As spring tour is wrapping up, in the studio we have one month left til we go to print! Draw, draw, draw!

Ink spreading across the paper....

Dragline scooping up a town

The coal-fired Power Plant and American Empire

Storytelling, craft and cycles of life

Resistance

Resistance (wide view)

Working for the company

Around the base of the hemlock tree

Sustainable land and water use

Solutions: community kitchen, native land rights, microhydro

PPP poster, meet Coal poster. Coal, meet PPP.

2010-04-29T16:02:00.003-04:00

The Beehive's two major drawing projects cross paths in Asheville. Folks working on the Mesoamerica Resiste! project came through North Carolina with giant rolls of paper in tow. After clearing our horizontal table of miscellaneous debris, we were able to stretch the Mesoamerica Resiste graphic out next to the coal graphic, prompting lively art geek discussion about different media, image choices and impacts.

Ink Spreads....

2010-04-15T14:00:00.004-04:00

Preliminary washes done, detailing underway...

Tools of the trade: bottles of ink wash, pencils, brushes, erasers, and books on tape....

The bottom and right hand side of the poster begins to take shape....

Scenes of miners' resistance to company power....

Pencilling in the creek waters.....

INK!!

2010-03-11T11:23:00.009-05:00

Bees just got back from a visit to Rock Creek, WV to check in with on-the-ground organizers in the coal fields (Coal River Mountain Watch, Climate Ground Zero and allies) and get last-minute feedback on our imagery as we're committing it to ink.

We got a lot of juice out of this visit and made a few more tweaks to the poster. We were excited to meet the folks who are creating "Journey Up Coal River," an online mapping project that opens windows on the current and historical complexities of life in the Coal River Valley. In many ways, it parallels the stories we're trying to tell in visual form.

Our educator bees are fine-tuning our presentation methods and educational materials in preparation for Spring Touring. Bring us to your school or community center!

Meanwhile, in the studio, we're in the final stage of postermaking. We're using ballpoint pen, microns, pencils, brushes and ink washes to build up shading and texture in the landscape and characters in preparation for printing in early summer. We are still open to mutually-beneficial print collaborations with organizations who would like bulk posters--get in touch soon.

To see more pix of poster-making in action, go to our online gallery.

Shading the Mayapple

Shading the Pedicularis

Inking the Minepit

Closeup of Coal Trucks and Hard Choices

Coal Graphic hits the Toronto Stock Exchange

2010-01-07T10:14:00.003-05:00

Activists pose as the "speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil" monkeys in front of the coal banner, at a protest in front of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Getting Ready to Ink

2009-12-17T21:24:00.006-05:00

As our fall tour winds up, we've settled into our winter studio outside of Asheville and stocked up on firewood. We're testing out pens and brushes and washes, and putting in shading and details on every scene in the poster. Here's a teaser of how we're imagining doing the deep background.....

BREAKING NEWS: Blasting Started on Coal River Mtn.

2009-10-25T14:55:00.002-04:00

The following is an excerpt from Jeff Biggers' article on the Huffington Post - read the full article here.

The Battle at Coal River Mountain has officially begun.

At the same time President Barack Obama invoked the "legacy of daring men and women" in our nation's quest for renewable energy initiatives, and as millions of concerned citizens rallied in support of 350.org climate change events around the world this past weekend, Big Coal bulldozers reportedly clear cut a swath of lush deciduous forests in the carbon sink of Appalachia and fired the opening salvos in the mountaintop removal mining blasting process to destroy the historic range slated for the Coal River Mountain Wind Project--the most symbolic clean energy project in the nation.

But not without a fight.

In the Final Stages of the "True Cost of Coal"!

2009-09-14T21:22:00.009-04:00

We've finally completed the entire pencil sketch version of the "True Cost of Coal" poster. Now all that remains is to render the final drawing in graphite and ink and make it beautiful.

Click here for a higher-resolution version of the redraw. Or download it here.

We've also done a major update of our gallery with closeups and crops of new and revised scenes. Check it out!

We're in the final months of drawing and will be printing this winter once we raise $10,000. Excited? Want to help us? Prepay for a poster and get one hot off the press! Want to get a bunch of posters and educational materials to distribute to your own networks? Get your school or organization to collaborate with us on our print run!

Vote for the Beehive Online

2009-07-21T23:01:00.000-04:00

The Beehive just applied for a poster-printing grant from a new clothing company that will make its decisions partially according to online voting. Help make the Coal Graphic a reality by visiting their site. Register and vote for us.

While we normally work anonymously under the Beehive label, we were required to choose two names for this grant application; but there is a whole team of artists and educators who've put in tons of work on this project.

Thank you for your support!

Collaborate with the Bees on the Coal Poster Print Run

2009-07-15T21:28:00.007-04:00

We’ve been hard at work to bring The True Cost of Coal graphic illustration to life on the page. Grounded in the stories and suggestions our allies in Appalachia have shared with us over the last year, we have worked collaboratively to design a poster that can be a multi-tool for inspiring critical reflection and strategic action. We have tried to honor history, respect complexity, be real about our own relationship to the story, ask for lots of feedback, and depict every image - from the biggest dragline to the smallest ant - with care and accuracy.

We are nearing completion and are eager to bring the illustration to the world, distributing thousands of copies both within the coal fields and across the world. Please help us reach this goal by pre-purchasing posters at a highly discounted bulk rate. Your group can get 50-200 (or more!) posters “hot off the presses” and become an integral part of this popular education project by distributing them in your community.

Why collaborate with the bees on a print run?

Printers charge a hefty fee for every “run” of posters (because of the high cost of initial set-up), making it most economical to print posters in bulk. Unfortunately, to do so involves substantial up-front costs, more than we can muster on our own or secure in grants.

As an all-volunteer collective operating on a shoestring budget, we work our wings off to make sure that we squeeze all the potential out of every dollar donated to support this work. If we combine our resources to get this new graphic printed, we can all have posters to distribute for fundraising, organizing, and education. That’s why we’re asking our friends and allies who are committed to justice in Appalachia to help us pull together the final funds needed to make THE TRUE COST OF COAL GRAPHIC CAMPAIGN a reality!

Every day we are losing ground, literally, to mountain-top removal mining, and we need to work together to expose and educate as many people as possible, to help build the movement for grassroots resistance before more mountains are lost. By pre-purchasing a bulk package of posters at just above cost, you are becoming a part of this graphics campaign in two very important ways: you are helping us with the initial cost of printing, and you can become an integral part of the "pollination" process by distributing these posters throughout your community.

How can we use our share of the print run?

So many ways! You can:

distribute posters as a fundraiser (we suggest a sliding scale donation of free to $10-20 depending on your community’s resources) for your organization and/or others engaged in justice work
use the funds generated to bring the bees to your school or town for a presentation or workshop
use the posters to fund the purchase of a beehive banner and do the presentation yourself!
start a dialogue at your school or with your members (ask us for tools & ideas)
donate posters to area high schools or other educational programs
talk to your membership or community base for the best ways to use beehive posters to tell stories, catalyze or sustain dialogue, make connections between different struggles, and fight for justice in Appalachia!

Want more info? See more details on our website!

Coal Graphic on Tour: a Video

2009-07-13T23:19:00.001-04:00

We just found out that somebody posted a YouTube video of one of the Bees presenting the coal poster at the Earth Day Duke Energy Cliffside Coal Action during spring tour. See a sampling of how we're already using the graphic-in-progress to share stories about coal and climate change.

BREAKING NEWS: Activists Risk Arrest to Stop Mountaintop Removal

2009-06-18T09:01:00.004-04:00

BREAKING NEWS: Activists Risk Arrest to Stop Mountaintop Removal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday June 18th, 2009
Hi-Res Photos, B-roll and Video will be available,

www.mountainaction.org.

Activists Risk Arrest to Stop Mountaintop Removal

Scale 20-storey tall machinery to call attention to nation’s worst form of coal mining; This is the first time a dragline has been scaled on a mountaintop removal site

COAL RIVER VALLEY, W. VA.—Moments ago, four concerned citizens entered onto Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal mine site near Twilight WV and have begun to scale a150-foot dragline machine to drop a banner that says, ‘stop mountaintop removal mining.’ The climbers plan to stay on the enormous dragline, a massive piece of equipment that removes house-sized chunks of blasted rock and earth to expose coal, until police arrest them. Equipped with satellites phones and a web camera, the climbers will be available for interviews.

This is the first time a dragline has been scaled on a mountaintop removal site, and marks the latest in a string of increasingly dramatic protests in West Virginia by residents and allies from across the country. This act of protest against mountaintop removal comes just days after the Obama Administration announced a plan to reform, but not abolish, the aggressive strip mining practice.

“It’s way past time for civil disobedience to stop mountaintop removal and move quickly toward clean, renewable energy sources,” said Judy Bonds, Goldman Environmental Prize winner and co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch of West Virginia. “For over a century, Appalachian communities have been crushed, flooded, and poisoned as a result of the country’s dangerous and outdated reliance on coal. How could the country care so little about our American mountains, our culture and our lives?”

An increasing number of concerned Appalachians and environmentalists are calling for the end to mountaintop removal, a practice that harms the people and places of Appalachia, destroys the economic potential of the Appalachian Mountains for long term clean energy opportunities and jobs, and furthers the burning of climate-killing coal.

"I've written letters, attended hearings and called my congressman, so far they have done nothing to stop the disastrous and unnecessary practice of mountaintop removal,” said Charles Suggs, a 25-year old of Rock Creek, WV who is one of those climbing today. “It has come to the point when we must take direct action to abolish this practice that is immorally robbing Appalachian communities of their culture, their health and their future.”

Every day, mountaintop removal mines use more explosive power than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Mining companies are clear-cutting thousands of acres of some of the world's most biologically diverse forests. They're burying biologically crucial headwaters streams with blasting debris, releasing toxic levels of heavy metals into the remaining streams and groundwater and poisoning essential drinking water. According to the EPA, this destructive practice has damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 miles of streams and threatens to destroy 1.4 million acres of forest by 2020.

“We are all complicit in mountaintop removal whenever we turn on our lights, and we are all responsible to stop it. Mountaintop removal, the world's worst strip-mining, is unacceptable. Period.” said Rebecca Tarbotton of Rainforest Action Network, a lead supporter of the action today. “This is not a practice that needs to be reformed. It is a practice that needs to be abolished. By sacrificing the Appalachian Mountains for the country's coal addiction, we undermine future investments in 21st century clean energy solutions that will protect our planet, produce more jobs and preserve our natural resources.”

Mountaintop removal coal provides less than seven percent of all coal produced in the United States, and could be replaced with energy efficiency initiatives or renewable energy sources, instead of permitting massive environmental destruction of historic mountain ranges and essential drinking water for a relatively tiny amount of coal.

Recent studies have shown that the Appalachia Mountains could support commercial scale wind energy facilities, which would bring long-term, sustainable jobs to the region – but only if the mountains are left standing. In West Virginia, jobs from mining account for just 3.3% employment in the Mountain State – that is less than 20,000 jobs total. A recent University of Massachusetts study found investing in clean energy projects like wind power and mass transit creates three to four times more jobs than the same expenditure on the coal industry. The wind power sector has grown to employ more Americans than coal mining as demand for clean energy has jumped over the past decade.

Just days before this action, the Obama Administration announced steps to end the fast-tracking of certain mountaintop removal coal mine permits and to add tougher enforcement in Appalachia. However, it remains unclear what, if any, improvements this will have on-the-ground in Appalachia or elsewhere. Without a significant change in policy, mining companies will continue to destroy historic mountain ranges and bury community’s drinking water in toxic waste.

Following this protest, on June 23^rd leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, Michael Brune, the Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network, and former Representative Hechler will join Coal River Valley residents in a second round of protests in West Virginia.

###

For more information, video and photos, please visit www.mountainaction.org

Settled Into Our Asheville Studio

2009-05-27T16:04:00.002-04:00

Drawing continues in our freshly-built studio in a former walk-in freezer in the basement of the Phil Mechanic Studios in Asheville, NC. Our satellite location here in the Southeast keeps us closer to coalfields activism as we push towards a completed poster. The Asheville community has been very supportive and welcoming and we're in a good spot to hunker down and draw, draw, draw.

Southeast Tour Yields Valuable Feedback

2009-04-27T15:41:00.002-04:00

In March and April, six bees crisscrossed the Southeast region with giant banners of the coal-poster-in-progress, talking to tons of folks about coal mining and gathering valuable feedback about our developing imagery.

In addition to college and university presentations, we also paid visits to community groups who are helping us get our story straight. In the photo above, we're consulting with elders from the Traditional Native Survival and Cultural Center about our depictions of Native experience in Appalachia.

During our tour, we found out what's making sense, what's still hard to read, and how best to tweak our drawing to make it most effective. After a week in Asheville sorting through piles of post-it notes and notebooks, we're well poised for the final leg of the drawing!

More images and sketches are viewable on our gallery.

Photo: Reunited touring bees share feedback from our audiences and allies

EPA Freezes Hundreds of MTR Permits!!!

2009-03-24T21:14:00.001-04:00

by Jeff Biggers @ Huffington Post

It's been a long time coming, but the EPA made a breakthrough announcement today, calling for a halt to hundreds of mountaintop removal permits, in order to address their impact on water quality. Whether this is the beginning of a transition to abolish mountaintop removal is yet to be seen, but it is a huge step forward for our country.

(Washington, D.C. - March 24, 2009) The United States Environmental Protection Agency has sent two letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expressing serious concerns about the need to reduce the potential harmful impacts on water quality caused by certain types of coal mining practices, such as mountaintop mining. The letters specifically addressed two new surface coal mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky. EPA also intends to review other requests for mining permits.

"The two letters reflect EPA's considerable concern regarding the environmental impact these projects would have on fragile habitats and streams," said Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "I have directed the agency to review other mining permit requests. EPA will use the best science and follow the letter of the law in ensuring we are protecting our environment."

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Cliffside Climate Action

2009-03-19T14:21:00.002-04:00

Mass Rally and Nonviolent Civil Disobedience To Stop Construction of Duke Energy’s Cliffside Coal Plant

April 20, 2009 – Charlotte, NC

Join us as we converge on Duke Energy’s headquarters in downtown Charlotte to demand that Duke cancel its climate change time bomb, the new Cliffside coal plant. If built, Cliffside would emit 6 million tons of CO2 each year from coal extracted through mountaintop removal mining.

We cannot be silent as Duke poisons our air, destroys the Appalachian Mountains, and fans the flames of climate change for the sake of profit. We demand clean energy, climate justice and a livable planet. This Earth Day, join us as we take direct action to stop the construction of Cliffside and all new coal-fired power plants. The future is up to us. The time to act is now!

We will be offering trainings in nonviolent direct action, Sunday, April 19th.

Come early, learn new skills, meet new friends, and get ready for action!

RSVP Here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5797/t/5284/questionnaire.jsp?questionnaire_KEY=108
More info here: http://www.stopcliffside.org

Rising Tide releases guide to bogus climate change solutions

2009-03-19T14:11:00.004-04:00

Only a few years ago, some companies were saying climate change wasn’t a problem. Now, as its impacts become apparent, corporations are suddenly scrambling to claim leadership on the issue. Desperate to avoid regulation that may hit their profits, they present a dizzying array of “false solutions,” quick fixes that perpetuate inequalities in our society while allowing them to cash in on the crisis. Upon closer examination, many of these technologies and policies are merely dangerous detours on the road to a just, livable planet, distracting us from the root causes of the crisis.

Rising Tide North America is pleased to announce the release of the first short yet comprehensive survey of these bogus climate change solutions.

The 20 page pamphlet -- “Hoodwinked in the Hothouse” -- covers topics as diverse as Clean Coal, Agrofuels, Geoengineering, Carbon Offsets and over a dozen other non-solutions to the climate crisis, all in concise, colorfully illustrated and information packed essays.

You can order these booklets *FREE* from Rising Tide by contacting

FalseSolutions-AT-RisingTideNorthAmerica-DOT-org. (If you cover shipping costs that’s great, and of course donations to our 100% volunteer run organization are greatly appreciated!).

You can also download the booklet in it’s entirety at
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/special/fsbooklet.pdf

The book includes contributions from the World Development Movement, Corporate Watch, the World Rainforest Movement, Rachel Smolker, Rory Cox, the Transnational Institute, Oscar Reyes, and Alter Eco, as well as photography and artwork from Ben Powless, Tamra Gilbertson, Mike Wells, Appalachian Voices, Jorge Alcoreza, Andy Singer and the Beehive Design Collective.

We are currently seeking funding for an expanded version of the booklet for release during the 2009 UN climate meetings in Copenhagen that would include information on several additional false solutions including waste incineration and hydrogen fuel cells as well as an expanded section on genuine climate solutions and much more.

If you are interested in supporting this endeavor, want to order copies
of the book, or have other questions please contact
FalseSolutions-AT-RisingTideNorthAmerica-DOT-org.

United Mountain Defense Member Arrested by TVA

2009-03-09T22:28:00.001-04:00

On Thursday, March 5 United Mountain Defense member Matt Landon was arrested by TVA police while giving a ride home to an elderly disabled Swan Pond resident, Eva Hewitt. The two were returning from the Tennessee Environmental and Conservation public meeting held earlier that day where Eva was one of several community members who spoke at a citizen’s press conference about health concerns relating to the TVA disaster.

Eva is blind in one eye and does not drive so Matt was returning her to her home on South Swan Pond Road. There continues to be a TVA check point on this road even after the citizens of Roane County were promised that the road blocks would be removed more than a month prior to this event. As Matt and Eva slowed down at the TVA check point Matt saw the TVA officer sitting in his patrol car “it looked like he was waving us through just as they have done many times in the past” said Matt Landon. Eva said “when we slowed down at the road block there was no officer at the guard booth, so Matt drove on to take me home”.

Once in Eva’s drive way, two TVA police pulled in and at that time searched and arrested Matt. Video documentation shows the TVA cops telling Matt he was being arrested for running the stop sign at the TVA check point. Matt was taken to the Roane County jail and is being charged with trespass by motor vehicle, violation of restricted access, and obedience to traffic control advice.

Eva said “It’s a shame they arrested him when he was just trying to help me out and give me a ride home.”

“I feel that arresting me today is just a continuation of the ongoing harassment I have experienced from the TVA police. TVA has tried to prevent United Mountain Defense from conducting independent water testing, deploying independent air monitoring, delivering bottled water to locals and working with the community of Roane County and they have consistently harassed me while doing this work. The citizens of Roane County deserve more from TVA and I do not plan on abandoning them in this time of need. ” said Landon.

Please support United Mountain Defense by sending jail
support donations to the pay pal account at
www.unitedmountaindefense.org

You can also send checks to:
P.O. Box 20363
Knoxville, TN 37920
Please Mark Check: “For Jail Support”

True Cost of Coal Tour

2009-02-09T21:46:00.004-05:00

Capitol Climate Action - March 2nd, 2009

2009-02-05T17:17:00.003-05:00

We're taking our action to the Capitol Coal-fired Power Plant in Washington DC - a plant that is literally powering Congress with dirty energy.

It will be the largest mass civil disobedience to stop global warming in US history. Join us.

Help make history on March 2nd in Washington DC.

Beehive Collective Spring Tour 2009

2009-02-02T21:03:00.003-05:00

Long exploited as a resource-extraction colony within the US, the Appalachian Mountains are home to a fight for survival whose outcome will determine in part the industrial power of this country. Without coal, there would be no 'cheap' electricity. Today’s energy corporations and government bodies are continuing to show the extent of their violence and greed as they push their extractive agendas in the “New Coal Rush.”

Our insatiable demand for cheap power has lead to the most extreme, devastating form of coal mining yet, Mountaintop Removal (MTR). The TRUE COST OF COAL graphic uses MTR in Appalachia as a lens through which to understand the historical and contemporary story of ENERGY, RESOURCE EXTRACTION and of AMERICAN EMPIRE accelerating throughout the world. We will expose the DECEPTIONS of CLEAN COAL technologies and bring to light the ensuing CLIMATE CHAOS facing the world today.

With a gigantic portable mural-in-process teeming with intricate images of plants and animals from the most bio-diverse temperate forest on the planet, the Bees will share (and seek) stories of how coal mining and Mountaintop Removal affect communities and ecosystems throughout Appalachia and beyond.

This graphic also looks to the future, raising questions about resistance, regeneration, and remediation while celebrating stories of struggle from mountain communities. The TRUE COST OF COAL will challenge all of us who casually flip on a light switch to examine our own connections to MTR- and to think about what we can do to stop it from within our own communities.

BOOKING NOW ACROSS THE U.S.

Another Coal Spill in Tennessee.

2009-01-15T15:45:00.003-05:00

"A coal train operated by National Coal Corporation over turned on Friday, January 9, 2009, spilling approximately 1100 tons of coal next to the New River in Scott County, Tennessee. Eight rail cars, which typically hold 120 tons of coal, were involved. The contamination was discovered on Monday, January 12, 2009 by Steve Bakaletz, a Wildlife Biologist with the National Park Service at the Big South Fork (BSF) Recreation Area’s Oneida Office.

According to Mr. Bakaletz, cleanup had been ongoing through the weekend following the wreck but had not been completed by the time he discovered it. Video of the spill was taken by BSF employees. Mr. Bakaletz notified Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on Monday after he discovered the spill. TWRA’s Sundquist WMA is nearby but was not directly impacted. The New River supports 2 endangered species of fish."

- From SOCM Press Release

Reality Check.

2008-12-24T11:00:00.005-05:00

In the article below you will read about the devastating collapse of a coal slurry pond in Tennessee. This is not the first time this has happened, and there must be measures taken to ensure that it is the last!

There are a number of amazing teams and activist groups giving all their time to help the people (and animals!) who have been hurt in this dam break and you can help too by getting in touch with these groups, donating, or calling TVA directly to get some questions answered about the safety of these dam projects:

Tennessee Valley Authority
400 W. Summit Hill Dr.
Knoxville, TN 37902-1499
865-632-2101 800-882-5263

tvainfo@tva.com

Refer to our links section in the right hand column to take a look at some of the amazing organizations fighting against the carelessness of the coal companies.

Toxic Ash Pond Collapses in Tennesse

2008-12-24T10:52:00.003-05:00

Despite industry efforts to promote clean coal, answers to the problems of coal ash are lacking

The residue of millions of tons of coal burning at Kingston Fossil power plant in the Watts Bar Reservoir in Tennessee burst the bounds of the pond in which it was contained, burying as many as 400 acres of land in up to six feet of sludge. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which owns the coal-fired power plant—first operated in 1955—announced that 15 homes were buried and no injuries were reported.

A combination of rains and accumulating sludge likely contributed to the disaster—one of two major ash pond collapses in the past decade. All told, about 2.6 million cubic yards of so-called coal ash slurry escaped, the TVA says. The collapsed pond is one of three on the site.

"We deeply regret that a retention wall for ash containment at our Kingston Fossil Plant failed, resulting in an ash slide," said Tom Kilgore, TVA president and CEO in an official statement today.

Such slurry worries environmentalists and public health activists because it is the residue of coal burning. The burning concentrates the impurities in the coal, including arsenic, lead and mercury, among many other potentially toxic contaminants. Coal ash is also radioactive.

But dealing with the 129 million tons of coal ash produced in the U.S. every year is not easy. Some 25 million tons of it is dumped in old coal mines, and some companies incorporate it into cement. The rest is typically dumped in landfills or stored in large coal-ash ponds like the one that collapsed. But many environmentalists argue for only disposing of it in lined landfills, to prevent contaminants from leaching out.

"A risk assessment released by the U.S. EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] revealed that coal ash poses extremely serious threats to human health and the environment when disposed in waste ponds and landfills," says Lisa Graves Marcucci, a founding member of the Jefferson Action Group, a Pennsylvania environmental group that is among 38 environmental organizations calling for the incoming Obama administration to review coal ash disposal rules. "Significant pollution from mine disposal has been documented in New Mexico, West Virginia, Indiana, North Dakota, as well as Pennsylvania."

Statement from Climate Justice Now! on the UN climate talks in Poznan

2008-12-16T09:41:00.003-05:00

The Poznan statement:

12 December 2008

Members of Climate Justice Now! - a worldwide alliance of more than 160 organisations — have been in Poznan for the past two weeks closely following developments in the UN climate negotiations.

UNFCCC IN CRISIS
Governments and international institutions have to recognise that the Kyoto mechanisms have failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - common but differentiated responsibilities, inter-generational equity, and polluter pays — have been undermined in favour of market mechanisms. The three main pillars of the Kyoto agreement –the clean development mechanism, joint implementation and emissions trading schemes — have been completely ineffective in reducing emissions, yet they continue to be at the center of the negotiations.
Kyoto is based on carbon-trading mechanisms which allow Northern countries to continue business as usual by paying for “clean development” projects in developing and transition countries. This is a scheme designed deliberately to allow polluters to avoid reducing emissions domestically. Clean development mechanism projects, which are supposed to support “sustainable development”, include infrastructure projects such as big dams and coal-fired power plants, and monoculture tree plantations. Not only do these projects fail to reduce carbon emissions, they accelerate the privatisation and corporate take-over of the natural world, at the expense of local communities and Indigenous Peoples.
Proposals on the table in Poznan are heading in the same direction.

In the current negotiations, industrialised countries continue to act on the basis of self-interest, using all their negotiating tactics to avoid their obligations to reduce carbon emissions, to finance adaptation and mitigation and transfer technology to the South.
In their pursuit of growth at any cost, many Southern governments at the talks are trading away the rights of their peoples and resources. We remind them that a climate agreement is not a trade agreement.

(READ MORE)

EPA repeals rule that restricts mountaintop-removal mining

2008-12-03T13:02:00.006-05:00

by Margaret Williams on 12/02/2008

Despite vocal opposition from environmental groups, the public and politicians, the Environmental Protection Agency repealed a stream-buffer-zone rule that — since 1983 — had prohibited surface coal-mining activities within 100 feet of flowing streams.

Opponents say the repeal clears the way for an expansion of mountaintop removal. “The EPA’s decision is a slap in the face of Appalachian communities, which have already endured enough injustice from mountaintop removal,” said Vernon Haltom, co-director of the West Virginia-based Coal River Mountain Watch. “My home and thousands of others are now in greater jeopardy.”

The repeal was proposed by the Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining (OSM), which sought written approval from the EPA before it finalizing it. On Dec. 2, EPA administrator Steven Johnson signed off on the proposal.

Last month, Kentucky Gov. Steven Beshear, Attorney General Jack Conway, and Reps. Ben Chandler and John Yarmuth each wrote letters to Johnson asking him not to allow the repeal. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen also voiced concerns on behalf of his state.

“The regions most affected by this rule, in the Appalachian Coal Belt, are some of the poorest in the nation,” said Lane Boldman with the Sierra Club Cumberland (Kentucky) Chapter. “All they are asking for is some fundamental protection of their waterways so that they can continue to fish and swim downstream.”

In October, a nationwide poll on mountaintop-removal mining found that two out of three likely voters opposed the rule change. An Oct. 21 NY Times editorial noted that “more than 1,200 miles of streams in Appalachia already have been buried or destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining.” And then-presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama both voiced their opposition to the practice.

“Once again, the Environmental Protection Agency has failed to live up to its name. With less than two months left in power, the Bush administration is determined to cement its legacy as having the worst environmental record in history,” said Joan Mulhern, senior legislative counsel at Earthjustice.

By some measures, more than 400 mountaintops have been stripped of trees and flattened, 1,200 miles of mountain streams buried under rubble. The forests that once cloaked 387,000 acres of the world’s most ancient mountain range have been razed. If the industry is allowed to proceed at its current pace, an area the size of Delaware will have been lost, say environmental groups.

— Margaret Williams, contributing editor

Mountain Xpress (www.mountainxpress.com)

SOA and the end of Fall Tour

2008-11-26T12:54:00.004-05:00

The School of the Americas Protest in Fort Benning, GA marked the end of Fall Tour for the Beehive Coal Campaign in the Southeast. With huge banners of the Plan Colombia, FTAA and True Cost of Coal Graphics centered in the street, Bees told stories of militarization and solidarity economics to more than 20,000 people over the weekend. Though this event is enormous and inspiring, the work does not stop here. We all have a lot of work to do (and new political celebrities to pressure).

After all the pollen we've collected and shared throughout the Fall season, it is now time to return to our Hives for a short time this winter and finish up some over-due collaborations. Illustrator ants will be busy with their pencils and ink pens in both Maine and Florida, and we are eager to share the honey this Spring as we plan to swarm the country, AGAIN!

Want to Host the Hive?? Get in Touch!

Protest Drummond Coal!

2008-11-14T10:22:00.003-05:00

Thursday, November 20; 3:30 PM Downtown Birmingham, Alabama

Start your weekend of action against the SOA with a demonstration at the Drummond Inc. home base in Birmingham, Alabama. Drummond is a major supplier of United States coal, the majority of which comes from one of the world's largest open-pit mines in La Loma, Colombia. The corporation has been accused of serious human rights abuses of Colombian workers, including the deaths of three union leaders.

At the demonstration, hear about the life-threatening risks union leaders Estivenson Avila and Jesús Brochero face as they fight to protect mine worker rights and safety.

TIME Magazine: Taking on King Coal

2008-11-10T13:39:00.007-05:00

read original article on TIME.com [HERE] | Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2008

Taking On
King Coal

By Bryan Walsh

Nothing could sway the Dominion 11 from their mission--not the cops and certainly not the prospect of free food. Early on the morning of Sept. 15, activists from a range of environmental groups formed a human barrier to block access to a coal plant being built by Dominion in rural Wise County, Virginia. As acts of civil disobedience go, this wasn't exactly Bloody Sunday. The police took a hands-off approach and even offered to buy the protesters breakfast if they unchained themselves. (They declined.) But the consequences were far from trivial. The activists who had formed the barrier to the construction site were arrested and charged with trespassing, and they eventually paid $400 each in fines. That's nothing, of course, compared with the punishment the Dominion plant will inflict on the environment. If completed, the plant will emit 5.3 million tons of CO2 a year into the atmosphere, roughly the equivalent of putting a million more cars on the road.

The future of coal will dictate the future of the climate. Plants in the U.S. that burn this low-cost, high-carbon fuel account for about 40% of the country's greenhouse-gas emissions, not to mention other air pollutants. Right now there are about 600 coal power plants in the U.S., and an additional 110 are in various stages of development. Without ways to capture the carbon burned in coal and sequester it underground, new plants all but guarantee billions of tons of future carbon emissions and essentially negate efforts to reduce global warming. "Business as usual can't continue as long as coal is destroying the climate," says Hannah Morgan, 20, one of the Dominion 11. "We are not going to back down."

Environmentalists are fighting new plants with every weapon in their arsenal, from launching lawsuits over CO2 regulations to lobbying financiers to stop investing in coal. Governors in states like Kansas and Florida are blocking new plants. But to some greens, the threat of new coal plants coming online is so dire that it demands a more corporeal level of engagement. This fall, at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, Al Gore announced, "I believe we've reached the stage where it's time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal-fired power plants that do not have sequestration."

Hard-core activists like Morgan have already heeded Gore's call. Many work in groups like the Rainforest Action Network (motto: "Environmentalism with teeth") and Rising Tide. But this isn't just the work of coastal élites; on Oct. 26, dozens of locals in Kansas picketed the massive Lawrence Energy Center, the 12th most polluting coal plant in the U.S. Similar protests pop up anywhere a new plant is being built.

continue reading this article on TIME.com by clicking [HERE]

November 14-15 Day of Action Against Coal Finance

2008-10-31T21:40:00.000-04:00

Join Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, Coal River Mountain Watch, Ohio Valley Environmental Network, Southern Energy Network, Rising Tide North America and a cast of thousands on November 14-15 for the National Day(s) of Action against Coal and Coal Finance. Things are heating up for the coal barons and the banks and politicians that love them. Across the planet a mass movement has emerged challenging King Coal from Appalachia to Australia.

View Larger Map

OVEC Action Alert

2008-10-31T21:15:00.000-04:00

"In coal-bearing regions of West Virginia, the disposal of coal prep-plant waste is contaminating drinking water. Once clean, healthy water now is laden with toxic chemicals. The negative health impacts of this coal slurry cannot be tolerated. Clean water is a right - not a privilege. We need volunteers like you to join with the citizens’ Sludge Safety Project to help protect West Virginia's water.

Help the Sludge Safety Project (SSP) by hosting a meeting to inform your community on
how to fight for water justice. Learn about SSP’s efforts to improve your health and hear how people are making a difference in communities across West Virginia. Recruit individuals to lobby with the SSP this upcoming legislative session. Don’t be intimidated - we’ll help you learn how to lobby. Your voice is your power - claim it! "

Click Here to learn More!

Northwest Caravan To Support The Struggle For Survival On The Front Lines Of Resistance at Big Mountain, Black Mesa, AZ. 2008

2008-10-29T00:03:00.000-04:00

News from Rising Tide North America:

Northwest Caravan To Support The Struggle For Survival On The Front Lines Of Resistance at Big Mountain, Black Mesa, AZ. 2008

Indigenous nations are disproportionately targeted by fossil fuel extraction & environmental devastation and Black Mesa is no exception. At this moment Peabody Coal Co. is planning to seize tribal lands and massively expand dirty coal strip-mining operations. In 30 years of controversial operation, Peabody’s Black Mesa Mine has been the source of an estimated 325 million tons of CO2 that have been discharged into the atmosphere.* If expansion plans are permitted, it would exacerbate already devastating environmental and cultural impacts on local communities and significantly add fuel to the fire of the current climate chaos we face globally. Coal from the Black Mesa mine could contribute an additional 290 million tons of CO2 to the global warming crisis!*

Continue Reading »

Pieces of the Path.

2008-10-24T21:24:00.000-04:00

Along the Southeast tour this October, Bees have been working with and evolving the material for presentations and workshops surrounding the developing Coal campaign. Folks that we've spoken with have had varying degrees of exposure to the stories we share. An ideal circumstance, as we are still learning from these experiences as well, discovering the ways in which this campaign can be most effective in all spaces.
In places like James Madison University, in Harrisonburg, VA, we were delighted to be surrounded by inspired student activists and educators, while also presenting the story as new material to others. This resulted in some great cross-pollination! (our favorite).

Other spaces we've visited have included the Virginia Powershift Conference in Blacksburg, VA, an incredible source for contacts and conversations;the ACRe Space, a community and collective operated event space, library and infoshop, in Raleigh, NC; and SONG(Southerners on New Ground), an incredible organization, 'founded in order to advance Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer multi-racial, multi-issued education and organizing capable of combating the Right’s strategies of fragmentation and division.'

(so good!)

Visit our CURRENT TOUR SCHEDULE to see where we've been and where we're off to next!

NY Times - "More Sadness for Appalachia"

2008-10-24T13:53:00.000-04:00

"The Bush administration is writing one more sad chapter in the long, tortured history of Appalachia’s coal-rich hills. Last week, the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining proposed a revision, amounting to a repeal, of one of the last regulatory protections against an environmentally ruinous mining practice called mountaintop removal."

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Coal Graphic on TOUR through the Southeast!

2008-10-20T13:22:00.000-04:00

We Bees are currently on the road with the coal graphic in the southeast and with other projects across the country. CHECK OUT our tour page on the website to see when we'll be near you. We're still booking new shows all the time, get in touch and visit!

Coal poster in process hits the streets and galleries

2008-09-23T20:48:00.001-04:00

Halfway through our drawing process, the Beehive is beginning to share the Story of Coal with diverse audiences through two banners: one explaining our research trip and one outlining the upcoming graphic.

We took the coal campaign to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota and the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine. Until October 26th, it will also grace the walls of the Katzen Art Center of the American University in Washington, DC, as part of Provisions Library's show Close Encounters: Facing the Future. In every case it's been a great way to start conversations about coal mining, energy policy, and climate change.

Beginning in October, we will also be travelling the Southeast and Florida, sharing this upcoming campaign on our Fall Tour. If you are interested in having the Bees come to your college or community venue, let us know!

Support the Coal Valley Wind Project!

2008-08-13T16:33:00.000-04:00

While we 'lil bees have been busy in our studio this summer, other ants have been moving some big pieces of the struggle against MTR forward in Appalachia. In a historic moment, citizens from the Coal River Valley of West Virginia and across the US are working together to block a Mountaintop Removal coal mining operation that would destroy 6,600 acres of forest and mountain. How? By proposing the construction of a wind farm that would create healthy sustainable jobs and clean energy.

To get the wind farm built, an incredible grassroots effort is needed! You can learn more about the project and show your support for the future of Coal River Mountain by signing the petition at www.coalriverwind.org

Please pass this message onto your friends, tell them to sign the petition, and encourage your organization to sign on as a supporter of the Coal River Mountain wind project. By saving Coal River Mountain for wind power, we will all be helping to move West Virginia and the nation forward in the pursuit of a more diverse and clean energy future.

Coal Networking at the Northeast Climate Confluence

2008-08-04T18:17:00.000-04:00

Several bees just got back from the Northeast Climate Confluence organized by Rising Tide. We attended kickass presentations, showed preview slides of the Coal Poster, and traded contacts and ideas with folks from the Rainforest Action Network and organizers starting up a Northeast solidarity group for Mountain Justice. All these activists expressed enthusiasm about having a Beehive coal graphic in their organizing toolboxes, which is great for us to hear as we settle back down to draw, draw, DRAW!

Poster in Progress!

2008-07-22T17:20:00.000-04:00

Visit the New Beehive Gallery

After months of research, travel, conversation, sketching, arguing and head-scratching, our poster telling the Story of Coal is starting to take shape on paper. Layers of vellum are piling up on our eight-foot drawing table as we piece together this complicated visual narrative as a tool for organizers defending coalfield communities and pushing for a sustainable future. Our ambition is audacious: to draw a unified image covering the beginnings of coal 360 million years ago through to a future without it; at a scale that starts with the tiny microorganisms that inhabit healthy streams and zooms out the global threat of climate change.

On the heels of our Campaign Coordinator's visit to Appalachian organizers, our whole group met for a weekend retreat July 12-14 to resolve some of the thorniest thematic questions and brainstorm simple visuals to represent complex issues -- among others: Native folks' continued resistance and survival; a viable future urban/rural relationship; the tricky dynamics between local organizers and the mobile young activists that "parachute in" for short-term actions.

Now the illustrators are bent back over the table trying to bring it all to life. We have been eagerly searching for the means to share the developing graphic with you all as illustration in the studio continues, and now pieces of evolving sketches and final ink work will be available for your viewing in our new Beehive Gallery.

Check out the on-going work for both the Coal Campaign and the long-awaited Mesoamerica Resiste Campaign.

Feedback from Appalachia

2008-07-22T11:21:00.000-04:00

With our studio complete and the preliminary layout down on paper, this past month we bees started putting pen to paper. Once lines were flowing and scenes started to develop, many of the difficult questions about representation and appropriation of Appalachian culture that have been brewing in the back of our head came front and center. How do you respectfully represent other people's stories and history?

In an attempt to gain more perspectives on this question, our Campaign Coordinator Bee made a mad dash from Maine back to Appalachia for a series of jam packed feedback sessions on the storyboard we've developed and our preliminary sketches. In a whirlwind five days, our 'lil bee met with some amazing First Nation organizations in Tennessee (the Wisdom Keepers and the Traditional Native Survival and Cultural Center), interns at the Appalachian Media Institute and Appalshop, and elders from the Clearfork Community Institute. She even had a chance to stop in at the Mountain Keepers Festival on top of Kayford Mountain.

Although short, these sessions were an informative part on our process, as it was the first step in returning the graphics back to the communities who helped form them. In general, the feedback was simultaneously encouraging and daunting. Although we answered some of our more obvious questions and folks were excited to see the first images, we were again reminded of what a complicated story we are trying to tell and how many different voices there are in the picture.

And so, with more information and more questions we return to the studio...

NY LOVES MOUNTAINS

2008-06-30T17:13:00.000-04:00

FIRST ANNUAL NY LOVES MOUNTAINS FESTIVAL July 11-13th in NYC!

The weekend will include a Music for the Mountains benefit concert, a public gathering in Battery Park, and a reading of our new play Current Changes in Empire by Sarah Moon. Co-sponsored by the NYC Chapter of the Sierra Club, Rice Restaurants, The Neighborhood Energy Network, and The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, it is an event you won't want to miss!

You can visit http://www.nylovesmountains.com for location and ticket information.
Publicity and press release are attached.

If you would like to volunteer for the event please email Stephanie at nylovesmountains@mac.com.

Carpenter Ants

2008-06-11T18:46:00.000-04:00

the Beehive studio space for the coal graphic is just about complete with our newly constructed 8x4ft drawing board! and we're piling up all of our books, notes, sketches and smokey the bear posters to build some character.

Be on the look out as we start sharing developing sketches and storyboard ideas with you in the near future. But in the meantime, be sure to take a look at the Bees newest poster release for the g8 convergence in Japan, here on our website.

On the Starting Line

2008-06-11T00:27:00.000-04:00

With most of us back in Maine, the Beehive gears are in motion. It's a bit chaotic as we try to mesh our ideas and working styles into an image that will make sense, not only to us, but (hopefully) to all the people we've worked with on our research trip and to the public at large. We just got our studio set up and are trying to reach some sort of agreement about how to organize all the concepts onto a single page. The whole thing's a bit overwhelming and even with our deadline extended a bit into September we're going to be hard-pressed to do justice to the subject matter.

We’ve been asked what we are trying to do with this poster: shut down the coal industry? If so, won't all the people with coal jobs be angry at us? It’s a big question we’ve posed to coalfield residents and ourselves. Coal IS the main economy in that region, even though jobs have dropped drastically with increased mechanization in the last fifteen years. That means anyone who speaks up against the environmental impacts of coal mining and burning risks ostracization at the very least and physical violence at the worst. Family members also risk retaliation.

In Appalachia, most of the people who are able to publicly question the coal industry are somehow independent of that economy, either because they are retired miners on pensions or are lucky enough to have other work. Even those who told us how unsustainable coal is as a fuel source would often temper their criticism by saying things like, "well, I wouldn't have been able to have the opportunities I do [going to college, having a job I love] if it wasn't for somebody in my family working a coal job."

Most of the ex-miner activists we talked to aren't interested in shutting down coal completely; they just want to shut down strip mining, which has stepped up in the last twenty years, employs less people than deep mining and is vastly more destructive. Only a few people are imagining alternative economic options for the region -- for instance, Coal River Mountain Watch is lobbying for a wind power farm on a ridge threatened by strip mining.

It's tricky to balance that reality with the bigger picture of how the coal industry affects the rest of the world. The US produces 50% of its electricity by burning coal, which is by far the dirtiest option even when it's so-called "clean" coal. We're all paying the price in the form of greenhouse gases, heavy pollution, the poisoning of the watersheds and the clearcutting of forests that produce the oxygen we breathe. Rural folks whose groundwater has been poisoned by coal slurry are getting sick, but so are city dwellers who get asthma from breathing particulates spewed by energy plants.

It's easy to describe the problem, but we are also challenging ourselves to depict alternative futures that people are working towards -- wind power, local economies based on the richness of the bioregion, etc. -- that suggest other ways for Appalachia and a fossil-fuel-addicted nation to survive without trashing the delicate webs that sustain us. We have to do it without being preachy or putting our agendas in other people's mouths. It's a lot to figure out in three months, and the poster won't be complete or perfect, but we hope it will get a lot of noggins thinking and more hands on task.

KFTC Members Return from Colombian Coalfields

2008-06-07T22:38:00.000-04:00

"KFTC members Rully Urias of Island Creek in Pike County and Sara Pennington of Knott County have just returned from a powerful trip to the Colombian coalfields. The two were a part of a delegation of some 20 U.S. residents who visited Colombia with the non-profit Witness for Peace. The group was in Colombia to learn about the challenges faced by communities being sacrificed to the coal industry. Rully and Sara's presence on the tour helped to connect the destruction happening in Colombia with stories from Appalachian communities being devastated by mountaintop removal mining."

Visit the entire KFTC Blog Entry, here.

"It's made me 100% more committed to my work here. I'm not only fighting for my home, I'm fighting for Colombia, too."

-Rully Urias

Back to Kentucky

2008-05-23T14:13:00.000-04:00

Bees have spent the last week with folks at Mountain Justice Summer Camp in Blanton, Kentucky where we participated in workshops, discussions and film premiers about strategies for education and resistance to Mountaintop Removal coal mining. Also at the camp were powerful speaking presentations from Appalachian activists Larry Gibson, Ed Wiley, Maria Gunnoe and best selling author, Silas House.

We held two workshops of our own to solicit feedback of the developing Coal poster storyboard and were fortunate to have collaborated with historian and author, Chad Montrie, to discuss the past, present and future of resistance in the coalfields. His book, To Save the Land and the People, is an excellent historical account of opposition to surface mining and can be found at, or purchased by, your local library.

Several Bees were also able to reconnect with folks from KFTC and Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky this past week to share our evolving storyboard and discuss with them potential holes in our research and strategies for further development and long-term communication.

Thanks to ALL who have helped us throughout our travels in Appalachia. And while we must go home to Maine for the summer, we are already strategizing for our return in the fall and will be tireless with the poster in the meantime - going to print in Early August!

Here's to the Long Haul!

in solidarity

- The Bees

Appalshop Projects

2008-05-23T09:38:00.000-04:00

Up the Ridge, released by Appalshop and produced by Nick Szuberla and Amelia Kirby, is an excellent documentary and an "in-depth look at the United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-city minority offenders to distant rural outposts." The film also features the Appalshop radio project, Holler to the Hood, connecting prisoners to their families every Monday @ 8PM. Catch the live webcast of Appalshop radio, WMMT 88.7 FM, on their website.

Coal Graphic Halfsheet

2008-05-15T17:01:00.000-04:00

(Click to enlarge)

Please feel free to Save, Print and Distribute this half-sheet

Mind Mapping!

2008-05-15T11:50:00.000-04:00

Mind Mapping is a tool we frequently use in meetings to create a clear visual deconstruction of content and to better understand the interdependent systems supporting coal extraction.

Leaving the Farm

2008-05-14T17:50:00.000-04:00

Our intensive stay at Hickory Hill Farm is coming to a close. The grazing sheep during meetings, the screams of red-tail hawks at dusk and those honking, slightly obnoxious geese at dawn will all be missed.

What to say of our time here? The poster is slowly piecing together, and surely, when working collaboratively in a group of 9, it mustn't move any faster. We have been regular with our metaphor push-ups and been consistently stretching our mindfulness muscles while we live, work and recreate with each other every moment of every day.

We Bees also watched the new coal documentary, Burning The Future, just last night on it's, Citibank sponsored, "green" premier for the Sundance Channel. While there are many documentaries which we feel may provide a larger perspective, you oughta catch this one if you can and share your thoughts with friends and neighbors. Watch the trailer here.

Update from Hickory Hill Farm

2008-05-10T11:12:00.000-04:00

Our research of energy flows, ecosystems and peoples history is beginning to come together into some solid storyboard systems and preliminary sketches for structure and composition. Next week we will be returning to Kentucky to present our models and get feedback from groups like KFTC, Appalshop and the folks at MJS camp. So there's a lot to do, and never enough time to do it in.

* * * * * * * * * *

Throughout the research trip our documentary team has been working to film, photograph and record our travels, challenges, methods and surrounding flora. For a visual tour, a number of select photographs can be viewed on our public web album, here.

A word from coal lobbyists

2008-05-07T16:27:00.000-04:00

We share with you this inspiring photo taken from the website of the Kentucky Coal Association, demonstrating how strip mines are turned into valuable community assets once the coal has been removed.

Blacksburg, VA

2008-05-04T15:54:00.000-04:00

For the next two weeks the Bees will be basing post-field research out of an 800-acre family farm where sheep and donkey graze the rolling hillside along side many a barn swallow and opossum. With this resting point in travel we are able to begin process of reflection and further the breakdown of all that's been absorbed thus far. With pencil and paper in the tool box, construction of some preliminary sketches and mock-ups for the poster project should begin to take shape.

A nearby shed, complete with two-makeshift drawing boards and plenty of sunlight, has been cleared to serve as temporary studio space while on the farm. Walks across fields (to collect pollen, of course) and dodging cow patties should keep us focused and provide some creative rest before we're off again to Kentucky for Mountain Justice Summer Camp in the Blanton Forest.

Ed Wiley Talks with Amy Goodman

2008-04-29T20:23:00.000-04:00

The popular independent media program, Democracy Now!, featured an interview with West Virginian and long time activist, Ed Wiley today. Good news for the movement and lets hope some more hands are moved to support.

You can watch, listen or download the program here.

Rethinking Mapmaking in Rock Creek, WV

2008-04-29T15:19:00.000-04:00

One collective member has added a post about our research trip to her personal blog.

We're starting to switch gears: after several weeks of accumulating details and images and impressions into our notebooks and heads, we are feeling the urgency of putting pen to paper. How can we magically rearrange all this information into a poster that will convey both the enormous complexity of coal mining as experienced on the ground in Appalachia, and its place in larger systems of capital, industry and the global ecosystem? Among other sources, we are looking to the work of alternative cartographers and will soon be meeting with the Counter Cartographies Collective at University of North Carolina. They are contributors to an inspiring book: An Atlas of Radical Cartography.

So what have we been up to?

2008-04-28T20:36:00.000-04:00

From our Hive in Downeast Maine we first travelled to the Appalachian Studies Association (ASA) Conference in Huntington, WV. A powerful starting point and an influential pool of research and dialogue about Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining and the organizations and groups already engaged with the issues. We will surely be returning to the conference next year to share our gathered experiences from cross-pollination in the region.

From Huntington we have since travelled to:

• Appalachia, VA where we stayed and worked with folks from Mountain Justice Summer and the Office of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards.

• Knoxville, TN where we worked with United Mountain Defense and spoke with staff at the Knoxville Environmental Field Office, the Office of Surface Mining and the National Parks Conservation Association.

• In Jellico, TN we spent time with the Clearfork Community Institute and local community members to listen and learn about their stories, struggles and inspiring methods of resistance

• In Harlan County, KY we stayed at the Pine Mountain Settlement School and spent time in Whitesburg with Appalshop and members from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. We also spent a few days at the local Community College speaking with Professors and students.

• We are now in Rock Creek, WV working with members of Coal River Mountain Watch and learning a whole ton more than we could ever have anticipated.

The evening has come upon us, and we Bees slow down in the cooler temperatures of Night.

More to come in the weeks ahead.

In solidarity - the bees.

2008-04-28T20:02:00.000-04:00

Hello to all and Greetings from Rock Creek, West Virginia!

We Bees have been up to our wings in research and cross-pollination efforts this spring as we prepare for our upcoming campaign about Coal in Appalachia . We have neglected to sustain any sort of greater correspondence with the larger interweb community, but there is no time for apologies, as there is much to discuss and so little time to do it in!

The True Cost of Coal

Bees in Action

Bees Swarming this Spring!

Help KICKSTART the Beehive Collective's 10th Anniversary Print Run!

SWARMING South, West, North and beyond after Appalachia Rising!

Join the Bees at Appalachia Rising! A Mass Moblization to end Mountaintop Removal mining!

Beehive in Seattle

West Coast Tour Underway!

JOYOUS NEWS! The BEEHIVE'S COAL POSTER has HATCHED!

The Coal Graphic Blows Up for Detroit

It's DONE!!!

15 Days....

Countdown to the Finish

PPP poster, meet Coal poster. Coal, meet PPP.

Ink Spreads....

INK!!

Coal Graphic hits the Toronto Stock Exchange

Getting Ready to Ink

BREAKING NEWS: Blasting Started on Coal River Mtn.

In the Final Stages of the "True Cost of Coal"!

Vote for the Beehive Online

Collaborate with the Bees on the Coal Poster Print Run

Coal Graphic on Tour: a Video

BREAKING NEWS: Activists Risk Arrest to Stop Mountaintop Removal

BREAKING NEWS: Activists Risk Arrest to Stop Mountaintop Removal

Settled Into Our Asheville Studio

Southeast Tour Yields Valuable Feedback

EPA Freezes Hundreds of MTR Permits!!!

Cliffside Climate Action

Rising Tide releases guide to bogus climate change solutions

United Mountain Defense Member Arrested by TVA

True Cost of Coal Tour

Capitol Climate Action - March 2nd, 2009

Beehive Collective Spring Tour 2009

Another Coal Spill in Tennessee.

Reality Check.

Toxic Ash Pond Collapses in Tennesse

Statement from Climate Justice Now! on the UN climate talks in Poznan

EPA repeals rule that restricts mountaintop-removal mining

SOA and the end of Fall Tour

Protest Drummond Coal!

TIME Magazine: Taking on King Coal

Taking OnKing Coal

November 14-15 Day of Action Against Coal Finance

OVEC Action Alert

Northwest Caravan To Support The Struggle For Survival On The Front Lines Of Resistance at Big Mountain, Black Mesa, AZ. 2008

Pieces of the Path.

NY Times - "More Sadness for Appalachia"

Coal Graphic on TOUR through the Southeast!

Coal poster in process hits the streets and galleries

Support the Coal Valley Wind Project!

Coal Networking at the Northeast Climate Confluence

Poster in Progress!

Feedback from Appalachia

NY LOVES MOUNTAINS

Carpenter Ants

On the Starting Line

KFTC Members Return from Colombian Coalfields

Back to Kentucky

Appalshop Projects

Coal Graphic Halfsheet

Mind Mapping!

Leaving the Farm

Update from Hickory Hill Farm

A word from coal lobbyists

Blacksburg, VA

Ed Wiley Talks with Amy Goodman

Rethinking Mapmaking in Rock Creek, WV

So what have we been up to?

Taking On
King Coal