Kilowatt Ours Interviews
Harvard Ayres - Executive Director, Appalachian Voices
A leader in the Southern Appalachian Mountain Initiative, an eight state public-private effort to solve the region’s air pollution problems. He directs the Northern Hardwood Damage Survey and founded Appalachian Voices, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the preservation of the native forest ecosystems. He is co-editor of An Appalachian Tragedy: Air Pollution and Tree Death, a Sierra Club Book. Dr. Ayers is Professor of Anthropology and Sustainable Development at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
Harvard Ayres - Part One
- Local power plants burn up to 180 coal car loads of coal are burned per day of West Virginia Coal.
- People turn on the switch and have no concept of what is being done to create the power.
- Every kilowatt hour requires one pound of coal.
- You don't think about all the peoples lives that are negatively impacted, plus the pollution and forest devastation. We just don't realize all the impacts.
Harvard Ayres - Part Two
- As for Mountain Top Removal it is extremely hard to describe. You really have to see it. It is like a moonscape that was once a beautiful valley and mountain range.
- When they burn the coal you have acid rain, acidfied streams, mercury injestion and on and on.
