The coal ash spill in Harriman, TN is way worse than previously reported. It now appears that some 5.4 million cubic yards – over one billion gallons – of the toxic sludge was spilled, more than twice the amount quoted in initial reports.

MSNBC has a fantastic piece up about how the clean coal campaign has been given a “black eye” by the spill, and how many people are now questioning “coal’s supposed green credentials” as a result. It features our very own Rick Hind, toxics campaign director. Check it out:

Here’s hoping that this “black eye” is more of a body blow to the disingenuous “Clean Coal” marketing campaign. It will be if we keep the pressure on and continue to raise awareness about the benefits of renewables and the dangers of coal. Want to help? Post the above pic anywhere you can -- on your website, your blog, your Myspace or Facebook profile. Click the image for a larger version. Or you can grab the embed code to this video and put that on your site/profile. Let's make sure everyone knows just how dirty coal is.

There are lots more images of the coal ash spill, taken by a photographer we sent out to TN, on this slideshow.

The New York Times recently published an editorial, entitled "A New Respect for Science," lauding Pres-elect Obama’s choice of Jane Lubchenco and John Holdren for two sub-cabinet positions:

Like Mr. Obama’s earlier appointments — in particular Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, to run the Department of Energy — these choices [of Jane Lubchenco to run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and John Holdren as his science advisor] affirm Mr. Obama’s commitment to aggressively address the challenges of energy independence and global warming.

I asked a couple of my colleagues if they agreed with the NYT’s assessment. Here’s what Kate Smolski, our legislative analyst on the global warming campaign team, had to say:

As the last line of the editorial says, knowing about the problem and solving it are two different things. I think these appointments show Obama's continued commitment to dealing with global warming, which is great. But we have to keep encouraging him to move forward with policies based on the latest climate science: emissions must be cut to at least 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020 (for developed nations) and at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

And here’s John Hocevar, our Oceans Campaign Director, on the appointment of Lubchenco in particular:

It's a fantastic adviser appointment and cause for celebration among oceans lovers.

This is a strong signal that Obama plans to stick to his commitment to ensuring that policy is guided by science, not politics or short-term commercial interests. Dr. Lubchenko is an exemplary scientist with strong conservation credentials and an ecosystem perspective.

She was one of the lead scientists on a climate initiative organized by [outgoing Greenpeace USA executive director] John Passacantando back when he was with Ozone Action, and she has continued to be a strong voice on climate issues ever since.

But NOAA's primary role is to provide the science – it will be up to Obama and Congress to act accordingly.

Like Kate said, it will be up to us to keep encouraging Obama and the new Congress to establish effective, science-based measures for dealing with the environmental problems the Bush Administration has been ignoring or even denying for eight years now. Electing Obama was only half the battle. We’ve definitely got a lot of work to do in 2009 – but thankfully we now have concerned, compassionate allies at the federal level!

This is just heartbreaking, outrageous, and downright scary: Early in the morning of Dec. 22nd, there was a massive spill of coal ash in Harriman, TN at the Kingston steam plant. Reportedly, as much as 2.6 million cubic yards, or nearly 500 million gallons, of ash and slurry spilled into a tributary of the Tennessee River when an earthen retaining wall was breached at the Tennesee Valley Authority’s coal-fired plant.

According to one local news account: “Officials say up to 400 acres of land adjacent to the plant are under 4 to 6 feet of material.” A local resident says of the land: "It's changed forever, I don't see how this can be brought back." Here's aerial footage of the affected areas:

 
Coal ash is highly toxic, containing mercury and other heavy metals like lead and arsenic. Needless to say, the ecosystem of the Tennessee River is in peril, and perhaps will never be the same again. And who knows what this will mean for the people who rely on the Tennessee River – the water supply for Chattanooga, TN and millions of people living downstream in Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky – in the long term. In the short term, this spill has caused 15 homes to be evacuated and another home to be pushed as much as 30 feet onto a roadway, wrecked a train, and sent at least one person to the hospital.

Yet this spill is only a tiny taste of the damage coal causes. Coal burning power plants are the number one emitters of global warming pollution in the country. Global warming threatens America and the world with more frequent and more severe storms, new outbreaks of diseases and crop pests, and massive coastal flooding. The good news is that these disasters are preventable, but only if we complete the switch to truly clean energy like wind and solar power as rapidly as possible. We can’t afford to wait.

Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this tragic – and avoidable – spill. Hopefully this shows that coal can never be clean, and exposes "Clean Coal" as the sham marketing ploy that it is.

Greenpeace is one of the organizations planning a massive act of civil disobedience at the Capitol Power Plant – a coal-fired power plant close to Capitol Hill – on March 2, 2009. The time has come for us to either put up or shut up. We don’t have a lot of time left if we are going to address the causes of global warming and avert its worst effects. We have to start taking action.

If you want to get involved, click that handy button to the right.

Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben sent the following letter out last week. It is an eloquent and impassioned appeal for civil disobedience in these crucial times we’re living in:

Dear Friends,

There are moments in a nation's—and a planet's—history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, and push for its correction. We think such a time has arrived, and we are writing to say that we hope some of you will join us in Washington D.C. on Monday March 2 in order to take part in a civil act of civil disobedience outside a coal-fired power plant near Capitol Hill.

We will be there to make several points:

• Coal-fired power is driving climate change. Our foremost climatologist, NASA's James Hansen, has demonstrated that our only hope of getting our atmosphere back to a safe level—below 350 parts per million co2—lies in stopping the use of coal to generate electricity.
• Even if climate change were not the urgent crisis that it is, we would still be burning our fossil fuels too fast, wasting too much energy and releasing too much poison into the air and water. We would still need to slow down, and to restore thrift to its old place as an economic virtue.
• Coal is filthy at its source. Much of the coal used in this country comes from West Virginia and Kentucky, where companies engage in "mountaintop removal" to get at the stuff; they leave behind a leveled wasteland, and impoverished human communities. No technology better exemplifies the out-of-control relationship between humans and the rest of creation.
• Coal smoke makes children sick. Asthma rates in urban areas near coal-fired power plants are high. Air pollution from burning coal is harmful to the health of grown-ups too, and to the health of everything that breathes, including forests.

The industry claim that there is something called "clean coal" is, put simply, a lie. But it's a lie told with tens of millions of dollars, which we do not have. We have our bodies, and we are willing to use them to make our point. We don't come to such a step lightly. We have written and testified and organized politically to make this point for many years, and while in recent months there has been real progress against new coal-fired power plants, the daily business of providing half our electricity from coal continues unabated. It's time to make clear that we can't safely run this planet on coal at all. So we feel the time has come to do more--we hear President Barack Obama's call for a movement for change that continues past election day, and we hear Nobel Laureate Al Gore's call for creative non-violence outside coal plants. As part of the international negotiations now underway on global warming, our nation will be asking China, India, and others to limit their use of coal in the future to help save the planet's atmosphere. This is a hard thing to ask, because it's their cheapest fuel. Part of our witness in March will be to say that we're willing to make some sacrifices ourselves, even if it's only a trip to the jail.

With any luck, this will be the largest such protest yet, large enough that it may provide a real spark. If you want to participate with us, you need to go through a short course of non-violence training. This will be, to the extent it depends on us, an entirely peaceful demonstration, carried out in a spirit of hope and not rancor. We will be there in our dress clothes, and ask the same of you. There will be young people, people from faith communities, people from the coal fields of Appalachia, and from the neighborhoods in Washington that get to breathe the smoke from the plant.

We will cross the legal boundary of the power plant, and we expect to be arrested. After that we have no certainty what will happen, but lawyers and such will be on hand. Our goal is not to shut the plant down for the day—it is but  one of many, and anyway its operation for a day is not the point. The worldwide daily reliance on coal is the danger; this is one small step to raise awareness of that ruinous habit and hence help to break it.

Needless to say, we're not handling the logistics of this day. All the credit goes to a variety of groups, especially the Energy Action Coalition (which is bringing thousands of young people to Washington that weekend), Greenpeace, the Ruckus Society, and the Rainforest Action Network.


Thank you,


Wendell Berry, Bill McKibben

P.S.—This is important: Please forward this letter to anyone and everyone you think might be interested.

You can read more about the action on March 2nd here, and RSVP for the action here.

Last week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appointed eight new members to the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce and five new members to the Committee on Ways and Means. The new appointees have records that clearly demonstrate their understanding of the severity of global warming and the need for real solutions – and we’ve compiled some research to prove it.

Below you will find the LCV scores of the new members of the two committees, as well as whether or not they have signed on to the Waxman-Markey-Inslee Statement of Principles letter, which lays out the critical pieces of any effective plan to stop global warming. Of the 13 new appointments, 11 are on the Principles. The average LCV score is 89%. This shows that the House is serious about passing legislation in 2009 that will deal with the global warming crisis.

Lifetime LCV scores and Statement of Principles notation for new members of the Ways and Means Committee:

• Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL): 93%, On Principles
• Congressman Bob Etheridge (D-NC): 77%, Not on Principles
• Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ): 95%, On Principles
• Congressman Brian Higgins (D-NY): 92%, On Principles
• Congressman John Yarmuth (D-KY): 100%, On Principles

Lifetime LCV scores Statement of Principles notation for new members of the Energy and Commerce Committee:

• Congressman Bruce Braley (D-IA): 88%, On Principles
• Congresswoman Donna Christensen (D-Virgin Islands): N/A, On Principles
• Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-FL): 91%, On Principles
• Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD): 91%, On Principles
• Congressman Chris Murphy (D-CT): 100%, On Principles
• Congressman Zack Space (D-OH): 70%, Not on Principles
• Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-CA): 85%, On Principles
• Congresswoman Betty Sutton (D-OH): 88%, On Principles

Greenpeace is looking forward to working with the new and old members of these committees, as well as new Energy and Commerce chairman Henry Waxman, to stop global warming in 2009.

While we were holding our Day of Action events here in America to tell the world leaders in Poland that we support global warming solutions, our campaigners on the ground at the UN Climate Conference were holding an event of their own. You can read about it in Eva's post below, and you can check out the video right here:


>
In other news, another homeless polar bear has been sighted on the streets of Poznan:



This polar bear had a sign that reads "Carbon addiction ruined my life.

Stay tuned right here for more updates, and check out the Greenpeace International Climate Rescue Blog for even more updates.

Word is, the homeless polar bear epidemic has hit Poland -- just in time for the climate talks in Poznan! How fortuitous...