Coal Is Not The Answer

The coal industry has spent over $40 million on misleading advertising that touts coal as the next great thing to solve the energy crisis. It’s time for a reality check. We will not stand by idly as they spew their propaganda.

Check out the video and the coal topics to learn more about the deception of the coal industry and how it stands in the way of real solutions such as wind and solar. Better yet, join the conversations in the comment threads and help drop a dose of reality on the coal industry.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"We're not protecting the environment for the sake of the fishes and the birds. We are protecting it for our own sake because we recognize that nature is the infrastructure of our community. And if we want to meet our obligation as a generation, as a nation, as a civilization, which is to create communities for our children that provide them with the same opportunities for dignity and enrichment and prosperity and good health as the communities that our parents gave us.

"We've got to start by protecting our environmental infrastructure - the air we breathe, the water we drink, the wildlife, the fisheries, the public land, the shared resource of our society, the commons, the public trust assets, the landscapes that enrich us, that connect us to our past or history, that provide context to our communities, and that are the source ultimately of our values and our virtues and our character as a people.

"And if you talk to these people on Capitol Hill that are promoting and orchestrating these kind of roll-backs, and I spent a lot of time doing this, what they invariably say in, 'well, the time has come in our nations history where we have to choose now between economic prosperity on the one hands and environmental protection on the other. And That is 'A False Choice'..."

Rainforest Clearing

Greenpeace: "The announcement from soya traders in Brazil provides hope for the Amazon rainforest. We're not out of the woods yet, but this decision and the history of campaigning that got us here should be celebrated and built upon to protect all ancient forests for the future.

The Amazon campaign

Rising international demand for soya had led many farmers to drive deforestation to make way for soya cultivation. Back in 2006, we published ‘Eating up the Amazon’, a report on our investigation into the links between soya in the supply chains of leading international food companies and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

At the same time, we dressed up as chickens and heckled McDonald's, one of the companies using soya from the Amazon for Chicken McNuggets back then. The costumes were sweaty but, luckily for us (and the planet), McDonald's quickly reacted and agreed to join us and lead a call for change.

eWaste in Ghana

Greenpeace: "The ever-growing demand for the latest fashionable mobile phone, flat screen TV or super-fast computer creates ever larger amounts of obsolete electronics that are often laden with toxic chemicals like lead, mercury and brominated flame retardants. Rather than being safely recycled, much of this e-waste gets dumped in developing countries. Previously, we have exposed pollution from e-waste scrap yards in China and India. Nigeria has also been identified as a dumping ground for old electronics.

"During our investigation into the shady e-waste trade, we uncovered evidence that e-waste is being exported, often illegally, to Ghana from Europe and the US. We visited Ghana to investigate workplace contamination from e-waste recycling and disposal in the country.