Greenpeace

It's the second day in the trenches, facing off with the idea of the enemy as they file through the foyer on their way to hear and talk about "Supplying coking coal to the world: East Coast," and "Central Appalachia: Land of Opportunity and Challenges."

I wish that I were allowed in the conference room with the rest of the conference to try and attain a better understanding of what these people are thinking when they call one of the countries regions that is most raped and pillaged by coal a land of "opportunity and challenges," but alas, I have been relegated to the the foyer by the security guard with the bald head and the menacing looking tatoo that peaks up behind his white collar.  Is he really on their side?  Does he even begin to think about it in terms of us and them?

Those of us that are not allowed in the conference itself sit behind our well laid booth.  We busy ourselves by taking pictures, trying to engage passersby as their eyes flitter over the schwag on our booth, and putting the last of the stickers that say "The Institute for Energy Solutions is a joke.  So is clean coal," on the back of the last of our business cards.  

 

 

Speaking of business cards, someone from "Catapillar Global Mining" just gave us his and asked with a face that, to me, spoke of a newly birthed concern, for Bill Muffett (our companies Director) to send him an email.  Perhaps the enemy is beginning to see the light?  He tells us that he whitenessed "Bill's" speech yesterday where our beloved Deputy Campaigns Director called them all out, and asked them to look twice at their misdirected concept that the mining of coal may somehow lie outside of concerns for the environment.

I call them "the idea" of the enemy, because in talking with these industry-minded, market-obsessed people I do not really see an enemy.  What I see is a group of people who have not yet come to realize that they are part of something much larger than the company they work for, or the industry they somehow feel compelled to defend, as if it were a friend or a family member that they, for some reason, seem to want to stand in solidarity with as if they owed them something.  Why do people in America speak of industry as if it were anything more than a raft that took us from point A to point B?  Why are people so reluctant to admit that now their raft has a hole in it, and it's time to go about the business of building another . . .

What these people don't yet realize is that they are a part of something that is far greater, stronger, more compelling and enduring than the industry they currently dedicate themselves to.  They are part of humanity, they are part of the our world, this earth, this planet, this present and future and past.  They are beings that feed into and take from the circle of the eco-system, and what I fear is that they will hold out on understanding these things until one day, even if they do not understand completely, they will be forced to see by something wholly unpleasant that everything they do affects not just their pockets or the economy, but people.  And not just the lower classes or the uneducated or coal miners or those whose houses happen to lie just a little bit too close to a coal field, but their own land, air, and water.  And from that their own families, as well as themselves.

I tried to tell a few of the people yesterday, as we argued about the direction of the market and the history of industry, and what that meant for a different kind of tomorrow, that Greenpeace is not just asking for an alternative to coal, but a safer and cleaner planet for us all.  That we are asking for these things because we care about them and their families and all of our future's.  

In pondering how long it will take the people in these rooms and hallways that promote and run one of the dirtiest and most destructive industries in America as well as on earth, I take some comfort in reminding myself that this idea of being a part of something larger than what man has made is actually, as far as I can see, inherent in being human, and that even if they do not recognize it now, something in them knows this despite themselves. Somewhere down the line, we will be forced to find our equilibrium.  And Greenpeace will try everything it can to make sure it is not found too late.

-- Amanda 

We are down to our last few booklets on the False Hope of Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technology, as well as our last few booklets entitled "energy revolution: A Blueprint for Solving Global Warming."

It's amanzing that these materials are going so quickly to this kind of audience.  The conversations that I have been able to engage in are also amazing.  I can tell by speaking with these people that while they are open and rational we have a VERY long way to go. 

People here think about the market first, and everyone and everything else is secondary.  It is hard to talk with people who do not see humans and our future here on this planet as a worthwhile investment, yet that is where we are.  Andthis is the reality.

Then again, one of the salespeople from the McCloskey Group who organized this conference just came by and asked, in a quiet voice, for a way to get more information from us, because she wanted to know more about the acceptance of an industry like coal.  I gladly gave her some of our materials and she eagerly gave me her card.

 

Today we morphed into an organization no one had ever heard of -- The Institute for Energy Solutions -- and gained entrance to Coal USA 2008, an industry conference that we would never have been welcomed to otherwise. We managed to place ourselves directly in the center of the discussions and activities of over 300 executives and investors in the coal industry. We gained this access covertly, by becoming an official "sponsor" of their conference, and taking on the airs of an industry player they could relate to. 

To enforce our legitimacy we created all the things that a real company would need: a logo, a website, information sheets, business cards, email addresses, and more. Then, once we had all the appropriate materials, we plugged them into our offer of sponsorship and moved to create the platform we needed.

I am sitting here now behind our booth, in the foyer to the conference room where all the heavy hitters are talking about the future of coal. Behind me is a large color banner printed with our company name and logo. In front of me is our table, which is covered in Greenpeace campaign materials that talk about the false hope of carbon capture, the possibilities of wind power, the problem of the polar bear, and on and on. 

To my right is a flower vase filled with coal from which orange gerber flowers are peeking out from the top. In front of them is a container filled with black pencils that have our website URL printed on them in white lettering. This website once led to information about our "company," but now leads to a site talking all about the dirt and lies of coal.

Next to them are our keychains, which bear the slogan: "Global Warming? Coal is the key." People pick them up as they go by, read the slogan, and drop them back down into the bowl, often with a look of disdain. Of course, every once in a while someone will keep the keychain, hide it in the fold of their hand, and happily walk away.

Next to the keychains are the asthma inhalers we collected from people with asthma; some of which were donated by an orgnization on the West Coast that collects different types of "trash." On the inhalers are the labels made especially by us that say: Coal takes our breath away. 

Earlier today, we had three young children standing outside the conference as it let out for lunch, handing out these inhalers to the mix of suprised, outraged, excited, desparate, and appreciative faces. Some took them and walked away looking at them, or discussing them with the person at their side, while others cursed our names or threw them back into the bowl.

Perhaps the booth decoration that I am the most proud of, however, is the water samples to my left. They were taken from a stream made of runnoff from the abandoned Gallentine Mine in Fayette Pennsylvania that empties into Indian Creek, which then flows into the Mill River Reservoir, which is used for emergency public drinking water. We have affixed the bottles with our own labels that describe where the water is from, punctuating it with a green puking face. Of course the bottles have black tops and have been glued shut, just in case someone might be stupid enough to try to drink out of one of them.

The business cards that we created, each of which proudly declares our company's name on the front -- The Institute for Energy Solutions -- also have stickers on the back that say: "The Institute for energy Solutions is a joke. So is clean coal."

People are both intrigued and repelled by our booth, and I'm loving every second of it. We can only hope that they will carry home some of what we talked about and some of the materials we gave them, and mull it all over in their minds. And from there we can only hope upon hope that they will come to some different conclusions than what they walked in here with today. Regardless, we will not stop trying.