South East Convergence for Climate Action
By: Kim Jarrell
August 11th 2007 I had the privilege of being part of a panel at the South East Convergence for Climate Action. It was a week long training retreat and a day of action held concurrently with a convergence in the North West and the United Kingdom.Organized by a small group of activists and organizers mainly from North Carolina and Tennessee, convergence attendees came from at least sixteen states and Washington, D.C. and a handful of folks from Europe and Asia. I myself am from West Virginia and a new staff member with Coal River Mountain Watch.
The Climate crisis is a planetary challenge and also a planetary opportunity. Scientists tell us the only way we can avoid climate disaster is to cut global greenhouse emissions by more than 50% by 2050. Planting trees and changing light bulbs is not enough. The SCFCA arises out of an activist community embracing this challenge – taking action collectively to get positive change rolling.
Mountaintop Removal coal mining is a destructive method of extracting coal. What was once one of the most bio-diverse forests on earth is being permanently destroyed. Not only are we destroying one of the earths most valuable carbon sinks by burying, and sometimes burning, the trees of this mixed metaphysic forest we are doing so to gain access to coal that we will then burn creating more carbon emissions continuing a cycle that can only result in furthering our climate crisis.
Instead of remaining stuck in the question “What would we have if we didn’t have coal?” We ask, “What could we have if we didn’t have coal?”
By working together we can find new ways to build Americas’ use of domestic, non-polluting renewable energy: wind and the sun. Resources that create jobs, improve our security, and build the health of our people, our planet and our economy.