Photo Blog: Poultry CAFOs

Latest news Pure Farms Pure Waters Campaign

© Rick Dove 2009

From left to right: Choptank Riverkeeper, Drew Koslow, Assateague Coastkeeper, Kathy Phillips, and Waterkeeper Emeritus, Rick Dove

Dove and Waterkeeper Alliance Staff Attorney, Liane Curtis, flew over the Chesepeak Bay in persuit of chicken manure.

Dove, Curtis, and Lighthawk pilot Tim Drager prepare for the fly over.

© Rick Dove 2009

Aerial shot of chicken manure that measures two stories high. The uncovered stockpiling of chicken manure is a common farming practice on the Eastern Shore. With every rain event, manure run offs into ditches and streams that lead to the Chesapeake Bay causing devastating nutrient pollution, as well as ecoli and fecal coliform contamination.

Photo of a poultry farm in close proximity to the Chesapeake Bay.

Another photo of the dying Chesapeake Bay.

Phillips collects water samples.

© Rick Dove 2009

Read the Wallstreet Journal Article about Dove and Curtis's fly over: Chicken Litter: The Aerial Hunt for Poultry Manure

Find out more at about Chicken and other CAFO's at The Pure Farms, Pure Waters campaign at Waterkeeper.org.

More than a hundred supporters showed up outside JPMorgan Chase to tell the bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon that he is destroying our country and people’s lives by funding mountaintop removal coal mining.

The ringmaster, contortionist, hula hoopers and marching band set the carnival tone,while speakers from Waterkeeper Alliance, Rainforest Action Network, NY Action Network, and Sierra Club highlighted why Chase is the most shocking show on earth.





Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen traveled more than a thousand miles to speak to the crowd about how the coal industry is reeking havoc on his community in Alabama and through out Appalachia.

© Heath Fradkoff 2009
Click to hear an excerpt

The event continues throughout the day. Take action by calling Chase and following the script below: 212-270-6000.

Hi, my name is:

I’m calling to ask JPMorgan Chase to be an environmental leader and invest in the renewable energy infrastructure America needs, not mountaintop removal, the most destructive method of coal mining on Earth.

Massey Energy, funded by JPMorgan Chase, has started mountaintop removal operations on Coal River Mountain, one of the last mountains in southern West Virginia not touched by mountaintop removal.

JPMorgan Chase is now the largest U.S. financier of mountaintop removal – a brutal, toxic, and irreversibly destructive coal mining practice.

Already more than 500 mountains and 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been destroyed by mountaintop removal mining operations. This practice must stop NOW.

Can you use your influence within Chase to work toward a new policy that moves JPMorgan Chase’s portfolio away from coal and toward safe and renewable energy?

Thank you very much and have a nice day!


Join the action on Twitter: RT @Waterkeepers: #JPMorganChase CEO #Jamie Dimon from investing in mountaintop removal. (RT) about 4 hours ago#JPMorganChase CEO #Jamie Dimon from investing in mountaintop removal. (RT)

Find out more about this and coal’s other amazing atrocities at thedirtylie.org and waterkeeper.org.

TOMORROW: Carnival of Destruction

Tell JPMorgan Chase to stop using your deposit dollars to finance ecological and social tragedies like mountaintop removal coal mining.


MEET US AT 8 AM ON PARK AVE BETWEEN 47th AND 48th (270 PARK AVE)

Halloween is coming early to JPMorgan Chase, as scores of costumed demonstrators descend on the investment bank’s offices in midtown Manhattan. The “Carnival of Destruction,” held by Waterkeeper Alliance, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, and Friends of the Earth, was conducted to protest the investment bank’s financing of coal companies whose mining practices are devastating the environment.

“JPMorgan Chase invests hundreds of millions of dollars in the coal industry every year – bankrolling some of the biggest players in mountaintop removal coal mining, including the notorious Massey Energy Company,” states Waterkeeper’s legal director Scott Edwards. “The destruction they finance must be stopped, and people everywhere need to know that clean coal is nothing but a dirty lie.”

Although CEO Jamie Dimon claims his company is dedicated to the promotion of clean energy, JPMorgan Chase ranks today as the largest underwriter of coal companies that engage in mountaintop removal coal mining, financing six of the eight largest firms operating in Appalachia. The leading polluter in the industry, Massey Energy, continues to be a major client of the bank’s, which recently underwrote a $1 billion public offering for the company. Both Wells Fargo and Bank of America have ended their client relationships with the coal company in light of the potential impact of Massey’s destructive business practices on their own bottom lines.

“Coal-burning power plants are the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, while mountaintop removal coal mining destroys mountains and devastates communities throughout Appalachia,” said Annie Sartor of the Rainforest Action Network. “With today’s action, we’re telling Chase that their financing of coal and mountaintop removal is truly the most shocking show on earth!”

Join the event online by re-tweeting @waterkeepers with this text:
RT@waterkeepers:#CarnivalofDestruction to stop #JPMorganChase CEO #Jamie Dimon from investing in mountaintop removal.

Call Chase to voice your opinion: 212-270-6000

Gloria Reuben Urges Jamie Dimon to Stop Finding the Coal Industry

Waterkeeper Alliance Board of Trustees Vice Chair Gloria Reuben sent a letter to JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon urging him to stop bankrolling the coal industry, especially mountaintop-removal mining. Check out the letter below and blogs heartfelt blogs on her website and in The Huffington Post.

Join the actress, singer and social activist in telling JP Mrgan Chase to stop finding the coal industry. Come to the Carnival of Destruction on October 29, at 8 am. Click here all the details,
and head to thedirtylie.com to see all the coal industies amazing atrocities.





Dear Mr. Dimon:

I am writing to you about an urgent issue – to respectfully request you end JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s support of the coal industry. This industry is destroying our nation’s oldest and most diverse mountains, causing catastrophic erosion and flooding, devastating ecosystems, poisoning drinking water, and obliterating historic communities. By investing in the coal industry, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is complicit in this wholesale destruction.

Mr. Dimon, you fund six of the top eight coal mining companies responsible for mountaintop-removal coal mining in the U.S., a practice that has been described as “raping Appalachia.” Your company has underwritten more than $1 billion in new financing to Massey Energy, the largest mountaintop-removal coal mining company. Massey Energy has a deplorable record, including breaches of employee safety standards, recent violent acts at peaceful gatherings, and violating the federal Clean Water Act at least 4,500 times – resulting in a $30 million fine. Massey Energy’s CEO, Don Blankenship, has been implicated in buying the influence of Supreme Court justices in West Virginia.

As an actress and performer, I’ve been privileged to see firsthand America’s unparalleled beauty and I can state unequivocally that no place has moved me as aesthetically and spiritually as the Appalachian Mountains. I am honored to speak for this region in my capacity as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for Waterkeeper Alliance.

There is no redeeming chapter in the story of coal. From mining it to the disposal of ash after it’s burned, the coal industry is bad for the environment, bad for our health, bad for our communities, and bad for your bank. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has emerged financially strong from the economic crisis, but it has also emerged as a top financier of coal. Investing in the coal industry, especially mountaintop-removal coal mining, is a bad corporate decision. Investing in renewable energy like wind and solar power creates at least 2.8 times the number of jobs as coal for the same investment. Investing in conservation creates 3.8 as many jobs as coal, and mass transit investments create more than six times as many jobs. Investing in a clean energy economy provides jobs that mountaintop-removal coal mining simply cannot.

You have spoken often about your commitment to holding JPMorgan Chase & Co. to the highest standards of corporate social responsibility, yet your actions contradict that. Mr. Dimon, please demonstrate your leadership by announcing that JPMorgan Chase & Co. will no longer be associated with mountaintop-removal coal mining, the largest ecological and social disaster being perpetrated in America today. Stop bankrolling mountaintop-removal coal mining and the coal industry.

Respectfully,


Gloria Reuben
Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
Waterkeeper Alliance

www.thedirtylie.com

Climate Change and Coal

Coal mining is notorious for trapping miners and causing black lung, but that isn’t why Jim Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, calls coal-fired power plants “death factories” and urges world leaders to close them.

Climate change threatens the world’s water resources, coastal communities, and our continued existence on planet earth. And coal is fueling climate change: 40 percent of America’s greenhouse gas emissions come from coal-fired power plants, which pump out billions of tons of carbon pollution annually.

The coal industry and their lobbyists want you to believe coal is clean, but it’s a dirty lie. From mining it to burning it, coal is a filthy source of energy and will never be “clean.” The truth is that coal pollutes our water, devastates forests and mountains, kills wildlife and causes climate change. Coal has poisoned our drinking water and our fish, contaminating out bodies and babies with mercury and other toxins.

Clean coal is a dirty lie, and our campaign against it hits its one-year anniversary in February. Our efforts to raise awareness on thedirtylie.com, support member organizations with local advocacy, and create e-activism are ramping up to take on the investment bankers who are bankrolling the coal industry and its destructive practices.

In an upcoming event (kept on the down low for now), we’re partnering with other environmental organizations to protest JPMorgan Chase’s use of your money to fund clean coal’s dirtiest little secret—mountaintop removal coal mining—despite portraying themselves as a squeaky clean financial institution.

We’ll announce the details of that event soon, but anyone can sign up for alerts about the soon-to-be-announced event, take action and get information about the amazing atrocities the coal industry and its backers are committing, at thedirtylie.com.

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