The Coolest Use of GoogleEarth EVER, MTR Sucks, and I Interview Ashley Judd!

So I just have to share one of the coolest applications of GoogleEarth ever. Assembled by a team at Purdue University, it paints a vivid visual picture of where and how CO2 is being generated around the country on a county by county basis. Pretty detailed stuff. It's called, appropriately enough, "Vulcan" after the Roman god of fire and smelting and all that. I suppose it's just a matter of time before someone puts together the GoogleEarth application "Venus" that graphically (and graphically) illustrates how many people are either making, falling in, or falling out of love in different parts of the country. Maybe then we can accurately determine whether or not "Virginia Is For Lovers."


I was sad to see that in absolute terms, Jefferson County, KY, where I'm currently living, is a major producer of CO2 emissions - mostly from power plants, but also significantly from onroad activity. Of course that's to be expected as Louisville is a major population center, but even on a per capita basis it's still just middle of the road at about 28 metric tons per person per year. That's a lot of CO2 (and this is based on 2002 data, so I imagine the picture is even more bleak six years later) - and we REALLY can't afford a lot of CO2. The reason for the poor showing is that KY gets well over 90% of its power from burning coal, making it one of the most coal-dependent states. And coal is, from beginning to end, one of the dirtiest and most destructive sources of energy there is. Luckily, KY is not taking this lying down.

Last Wednesday the 17th, I was lucky enough to attend a march and rally by more than 700 people against Mountain Top Removal (MTR) coal mining at the capitol in Frankfort, KY. While we hear a lot these days about "clean" coal and carbon sequestration, I Love Mountains Day, as the rally is known, shines a light on the devastating effects of the front end of the coal power generation process - this year the focus was on the 1400 miles of rivers and streams that have been destroyed by MTR and the dumping of mining waste into watersheds - and that process is anything but clean. MTR coal mining is absolutely ruining entire communities, watersheds, and ecosystems in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern KY and much of WV - one of the most biodiverse regions on the continent. And it's just gotten worse in the last 8 years.

In addition to prominent speakers like Congressman John Yarmuth, one of the keynote speakers at the rally was none other than Ashley Judd, who grew up in the area of KY that is now under seige and has become an outspoken critic of MTR and coal power. She spoke very knowledgeably and passionately about the need to end our dependence on coal power once and for all and to use this opportunity to build a sustainably-powered economy. She was very gracious to grant me a brief private interview after the event (particularly given that I was functioning on an hour of sleep having just pulled an editing all-nighter and was operating a camera I'd never used before and was, therefore, a bit of a bumbling zombie). She highlighted once again that the choice between a clean environment and a thriving economy is a false choice that we need to not buy into. Too true. Who knows, maybe I'll send Ms. Judd a link to GoogleEarth "Vulcan." I'm sure she'll find it interesting.

Finally, check out coal's unflattering stats in this early YERT video about coal in PA. As the bumper stickers in KY say - 'Clean Coal' Is Like 'Dry Water.'