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