Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity.
- John Muir

Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water. Don't sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet.
--Carl Sagan

Paddlers all know that WV has great rivers. The Cheat River has seven free flowing tributaries and many whitewater sections, including the famous Cheat River Canyon where the downriver Nationals were just held. Once a year, in May, boaters and environmentalists from all over the region converge at the Cheat Fest to celebrate the progress we've made in restoring the Cheat and her tributaries to their former wild glory. There are bands and activities and educational booths and a general feeling of joy in the air, each year, when the festival happens beside the Cheat River.

What happened to the Cheat? Coal mining happened. The coal of the region is embedded in sulfur rich rock that causes Acid Mine Drainage to spill into streams and kill all the fish. It takes very careful management to prevent spills and remediate acid leaks where they do occur. Thanks to Friends of the Cheat, this has happened. Friends of the Cheat has taken a gentle but active approach to building consensus among all those who hold a stake in having clean water and healthy fish in the Cheat. They deserve many congratulations for work well done.

If you know wilderness
in the way that you know love,
you would be unwilling to let it go...
This is the story of our past
and it will be the story of our future.
--Terry Tempest Williams

1) Avoid TRICLOSAN. It's toxic to nearly everything in our waterways. It must be listed among the active ingredients if it is present in a soap or cleanser. Often it is found in antibacterial soaps.
2) Only buy green cleaning products. Here's a resource.
3) Make your own cleaning products out of vinegar, lemon, etc. Here's their recipe. Ingredients: ¼ cup white vinegar, 2 tsp. baking soda, 3 ½ cups hot water, 20 drops of essential oil (eucalyptus, lemon, or peppermint work great), ¼ cup liquid castile soap.
Mix ingredients in a 32 oz. spray bottle, add castile soap last. More recipes here.

SOURCE
http://www.oeconline.org/our-work/rivers/love-your-river/love-your-river-challenge-green-cleaning

ENERGY LITERACY
CONSERVATION
RESILIENCE
RELOCALIZATION
FAMILY PLANNING
BEAUTY
BIODIVERSITY
( the Post Carbon Institute, that isCollapse )

Not a new article:
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/170/
Many thanks to leaves1 where I first read this.
( text: Beyond Hope by Derek JensenCollapse )

The EPA has told BP that they must use a less toxic form of dispersant for the remainder of the oil bleed in the gulf. If this mess had happened under Shrub, do you think the EPA would have done that? I think that Obama's intelligent, rational influence is pervasive in our government, and that each and every agency is gradually stepping up to the plate to serve the people of this nation better. Those who blame him for the fact that BP (and other oil companies) have done little/nothing to insure the safety of their extraction procedures neglect to notice that the wholesale extraction without regard for consequences has been going on for fifty years.