100 Coal Plants Retired...Wait, Make That 106
The Sierra Club and all Americans who want clean air took a giant leap on Leap Day when Midwest Generation announced that the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plants in Chicago have been scheduled for retirement.
Crawford officially became the
hundredth coal plant to set plans for retirement since the Sierra Club launched its
Beyond Coal campaign in January 2010. And on the same day, February 29, GenOn Energy announced plans to retire several of its oldest, dirtiest coal plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio, bringing the total to 106.
Best Internship on Earth
Are you ready for an internship that will get you out of the office? This summer, spend June, July, and August hiking, biking, rafting, climbing, exploring -- and chilling!
The Best Internship on Earth unites young environmentalists with community outreach programs that focus on outdoor experiences. The 2012 Outdoor Youth Ambassador (aka "intern") will travel around the country with the Club' s
Mission Outdoors programs and document these experiences for the Sierra Club. He or she will receive a generous stipend plus $2,000 of products and apparel from The North Face.
Apply now!
Move Not Those Bones
Coal mining in Appalachia destroys more than mountains.
Hundreds of historic family cemeteries are threatened by mountaintop-removal operations.
It's no accident that many Appalachian family cemeteries are on the tops of mountains. People wanted to be buried out of the reach of floodwaters. In the past, mountaintops represented safety. Today they represent easy access to coal.
Larry Gibson of West Virginia watched a bulldozer plow through a 300-year-old family cemetery containing hundreds of graves. "Who does that?" he asks. "Who destroys a cemetery?
Now my people are part of the topsoil."
Photo by Shawn Poynter
Will Your University Make the Grade in Sierra's Cool Schools Issue?
Sierra magazine editors are hitting the books again: They're in search of
America's greenest colleges and universities.
Think your school or alma mater's got the eco-cred to make our 'Top 10' list? Make sure it's included in
Sierra's annual Cool Schools issue by encouraging administrators to
submit their materials before the April 30 deadline.
Warm Up Your Home with a Frozen Planet House Party
The earth's polar regions are vast, wild, and virtually untouched -- and now they're in danger from oil drilling and climate change. This spring, the Discovery Channel will air
Frozen Planet, a miniseries in the tradition of
Planet Earth and
Life that will take us to both poles and bring us face-to-face with the wild beauty of these pristine places.
Sign up now to host a
Frozen Planet house party. Invite your friends, watch a DVD of the show, and take action to protect America's Arctic this year. We'll give you everything you need: a DVD of the episode, a how-to guide, fact sheets, and ways to take action.
TransCanada Says It Will Build Rejected Tar Sands Pipeline
TransCanada, the company behind the
rejected Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, sent a letter to the U.S. State Department on February 27 announcing its intention to
circumvent U.S. environmental review and build the southern portion of the proposed crude oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma, to Port Arthur, Texas.
"With this announcement
TransCanada is telling Americans that it is above the law," Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune says.
Write your senators today and tell them to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline and to put clean water and clean air ahead of Big Oil's profits.
Mississippi Sierra Club Leader Rose Johnson Featured in Ms. Magazine
Longtime environmental justice activist
Rose Johnson has played a key role in the success of the Sierra Club's work on the Gulf Coast, from leading post-Katrina community recovery efforts to supporting the fight against Mississippi Power's proposed Kemper County coal-fired power plant.
Born and raised in the historic African-American community of North Gulfport, Johnson is the founder of the North Gulfport Land Trust.
Ms. Magazine recently recognized Johnson's commitment to her community with
this profile.
Read more about Johnson's work with the Sierra Club in
Scrapbook.
