The art of awareness.

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In a few short weeks Denmark will be the center of global attention. December 7th through the 18th the United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in the Bella Center, in Copenhagen. This will mark the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 5th Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP 5) to the Kyoto Protocol. In accordance with the Bali Road Map, this conference shall lay out a definite and unanimous structure for climate change mitigation beyond 2012. This summit shall not only affect the global community, but have a direct effect upon Kentucky, and thence Lexington.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a framework set by the Convention on Climate Change for intergovernmental action taken in response to the challenges of climate change. It does classify the climate as a shared resource whose stability can be shaped by industrial, as well as non-industrial, emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. The Convention is credited with almost universal association, with 192 countries having ratified it. Within this Convention governments agreed to gather and share information on emissions and policies, launch national strategies for addressing emissions and adapting to expected impacts (including support to developing countries), and to cooperate in preparation for adaptations to the impact of climate change. Similarly, the Kyoto Protocol is an international accord, related directly to the UNFCCC, which sets binding aims on 37 industrialized countries and the European community for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Whereas the Convention “encourages” industrialized countries to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions, the Kyoto Protocol obliges them to do so. Because developing countries as primarily responsible for the existing high levels of GHG, due to over 150 years of industrial activity, the Kyoto Protocol sets heavier burdens on these  nations under the rule of “common but differentiated responsibilities.” The Protocol was implemented in Kyoto, Japan, on December 11th of 1997, and accepted in force on February 16th of 2005. It has been ratified by 184 parties to date, and the detailed regulations concerning its practice were realized in 2001 at COP7 in Marrakesh. 
 

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To attend such a gathering would indeed be the chance of a lifetime, and one Lexington student is being afforded this opportunity through the Sierra Student Coalition. Lauralee Crain has been working to affect change in Kentucky and Lexington through, among many associations, the TERRA (Transylvania Environmental Rights & Responsibilities Alliance) organization at Transylvania University, which she coordinates. The time she spends before COP15, she assures, is just as important as the role she’ll play in Denmark. This last month has been dedicated to Appalachian Awareness, and in particular dealing with the issue of Mountain Top Removal. On the 30th of October, as part of a national day of action, TERRA led a protest on the steps of Chase Bank in downtown Lexington. Chase is the largest proponent of Mountain Top Removal coal mining, which involves literally blowing the top of mountains in order to gain access to coal. RNA reports over three million pounds of ammonium nitrate explosives are detonated daily at MTR sites across Appalachia. It relies heavily on heavy machines and explosives, and strip regions by rule of efficiency. 

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Chase Bank fund 6 out of 8 corporate producers of mountain top removal coal in Appalachia (Massey, International Coal Group, Arch Coal, Consul Energy, TECO and Foundation Coal.) Incredibly, Chase was a co-lead an arrangement and underwrote a tender for more than $1 Billion in new financing less than a year ago to Massey Energy, the biggest and most contentious mountain top removal mining company in Appalachia, responsible for every bit of 20% of MTR coal mined. Businesses such as Massey which have profited from modern Chase funding held accountability for a solid third of total mountain top removal coal in 2008. Due to the growing negative public attention other banks such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America dropped Massey Energy as a client, as well as the company’s notoriously controversial practices. The harmful association with this company seems not to have deterred Chase.

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Though it provides only 7% of coal used in the United States, according to RAN (Rainforest Action Network), Mountain Top Removal Mining is unbelievably destructive and could easily be replaced with renewable energy. Even in its popularity, the job market provided by MTR has become smaller and smaller as underground mining still holds sway as the largest employer in the coal market. EPA estimations conclude a million acres of hardwood forests and 470 summits have already been destroyed as this particular mining process spreads, and by 2012 800,000 acres of forested mountains will be devastated and over 2,000 miles of streams and rivers corrupted (RAN). This results not only in the eradication of historic communities, obliterating mountains, poisoning water supplies, and ruining diverse ecosystems ushering in erosion and floods of cataclysmic proportion. This practice also leaves rural communities in perpetually deteriorating circumstances, driving families from homes. Those residing adjacent to MTR sites are plagued with airborne dust and contamination of water, and are forced to turn outside for safe and wholesome jobs and lives.  

As part of the Awareness Month, TERRA will show a number of films. Tonight at Transylvania University the organization will air Coal Country in Cowgill 102 at 7:00 p.m. The screening is open to the public. In addition a panel is going to be held on the 19th of this month.