Home/Posts Tagged ‘West Virginia’
Posts Tagged ‘West Virginia’
Health, Nature, Weird Stuff, Jun 23rd, 2010,
An earthquake hit eastern Canada today. Yes, Canada. The 5.0 magnitude quake struck along the Ontario-Quebec border region around 1:41 PM EST, at a depth of approximately 12 miles (19.2). Tremors lasted about 30 seconds, shaking homes and businesses, but there are no reports of injuries or damages. A number of businesses in the Ottawa area were also evacuated. Apparently, the tremors could also be felt in several US states, including: Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont and West Virginia. I can’t speak for the other states, but I felt nothing of the sort in Pennsylvania….
Tags: 5.0, breaking news, Canada, earthquake, eastern Canada, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, tremors, US, Vermont, West Virginia
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Apr 10th, 2010,
After a long week of worry, hope, fear, and stressful conditions, the search for the 4 missing miners finally came to an end. None of them survived. Governor Joe Manchin stated: “We did not receive the miracle that we prayed for.” … “The rescue workers told us they’re sure no one suffered.” … “So, this journey has ended and now the healing will start.” All 4 bodies were shattered by an explosion that happened in West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine earlier this week, raising the death toll to 29 and making it the worst US coal mine disaster since…
Tags: blast, bodies found, coal mine, death toll rises, debris, end, explosion, investigation, Massey energy, missing miners, MSHA, poisonous gases, rescue, safety violations, search, Upper Big Branch, West Virginia
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Apr 8th, 2010,
There is finally a glimmer of hope in finding the 4 missing miners. West Virginia Governor, Joe Manchin, announced that rescue crews were finally able to enter the Upper Big Branch mine at 4:55 am this morning. The rescue crew consisted of 4 teams of 8 members each and they made their way into the mine by car, foot, and rail. The search had to be postponed for at least 2 days, so holes could be drilled into the mine to ventilate several poisonous gases, including carbon monoxide, hydrogen and methane. The methane is what most blamed for the explosion,…
Tags: 4 missing miners, blast, coal mine, explosion, Massey Energy Co., methane, poisonous gases, rescue, search, Upper Big Branch, West Virginia
Climate Change, Pollution, Apr 7th, 2010,
It has been 2 days since the explosion occurred at the West Virginian coal mine and there is still no sign of the 4 missing miners. Rescue teams are drilling 3 holes into the mine in an attempt to ventilate the poisonous gas from the mine so they can continue the search. After the first hole was finished, rescue workers banged on a drill pipe for nearly 15 minutes, but there was no response. The miners are trained to bang on the drill’s casing in return, as well as on metal bolts connected to the mine roof, as a response….
Tags: 4 missing people, blast, coal mine, drilling, explosion, Massey energy, methane, MSHA, poisonous gas, rescue work, Upper Big Branch, West Virginia
Climate Change, Pollution, Apr 6th, 2010,
Yesterday, an explosion in a West Virginia coal mine killed 6 miners and 21 were still missing. Today, the death toll has risen to 25 and now 4 miners are missing. The underground blast in the Upper Big Branch mine was blamed on methane gas and according to safety officials, this particular mine has a history of violations for not properly ventilating the methane in the first place. Unfortunately for the other 4 miners, their chances of survival are becoming rather bleak at this point. Rescuers have been held back by poisonous gases that have gathered near the site of…
Tags: coal mine explosion, death toll increase, methane, poison gas, update, Upper Big Branch, West Virginia
Climate Change, Pollution, ,
An explosion at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia killed 6 miners—at least 21 others are still missing. The mine—operated by Massey subsidiary Performance Coal Co.—has extra oxygen caches throughout emergency escape routes plus airtight refuge chambers that can keep miners alive for 4 days. This particular mine produced 1.2 million tons of coal in 2009 and has nearly 200 employees, most of which work underground. You may have heard of Massey Energy in the news before. There has been much dispute and protesting against their mountaintop coal mining procedures and the like for quite…
Tags: casualties, coal mine explosion, global warming, Massey energy, missing people, mountaintop removal, Pollution, West Virginia
Climate Change, Nature, Politics, Jan 9th, 2010,
‘In a paper published today in the journal Science, the researchers say mountaintop removal, widespread in West Virginia, southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky, is destroying extensive tracts of biologically rich forest and degrading hundreds of streams. Fish and drinking-water wells are being contaminated, while the air downwind is fouled with high levels of hazardous dust.’ –The Baltimore Sun Contributing factors such as environmental degradation, human and ecological health, conservation, water quality and deforestation have spurred scientists in the United States to come together and demand a halt to destructive mountaintop removal coal mining. The practice, which is common in the…
Tags: coal, coal mining, environment, Guardian, mining, mountaintop removal, Obama, scientists, Virginia, West Virginia
Climate Change, Politics, Nov 4th, 2009,
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington D.C. as well as its regional offices in other states are being targeted by coalfield activists and clean energy advocates protesting mountaintop removal and coal mining. JP Morgan Chase bank’s New York and Chicago branch were not spared by protesters as well because they helped fund the coal mining project conducted by Massey Energy in West Virginia. Blasting mountaintops to remove coal deposits underneath not only damages the environment, it also poses a grave threat to the safety of thousands of residents nearby. The protesters are calling on the US government to…
Tags: coal mining, Coal Mining protests, EPA, JP Morgan chase, Massey energy, West Virginia
Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Sep 10th, 2009,
When John Denver sang “Almost heaven, West Virginia […] Country roads take me home,” I don’t think he was quite envisioning this: Job loss, water pollution, mountains with their peaks literally blasted off to get to the coal seams that lie underneath. The resulting detritus from this somewhat unusual method of coal mining is then dumped into valleys, burying the streams that naturally occur there. Of course first the land must be deforested. What remains resembles some kind of bleak industrial wasteland rather than the Appalachian mountain range of the eastern United States, home to stunning mountain scenery and the…
Tags: coal, mining, mountaintop removal, West Virginia
