Standing our ground
Subtitle: women, environmental justice, and the fight to end mountaintop removal
By: Joyce M. Barry
Series: Ohio University Press series in race, ethnicity, and gender in Appalachia
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Athens, Ohio
Language: eng
Number of pages: 190
ISBN-13: 9780821419977; 9780821444108
Subjects: Community activists; Citizen participation; Landscape protection; Environmental justice; Coal mines and mining; Mountaintop removal mining; Political activity; Women
Description: Standing Our Ground: Women, Environmental Justice, and the Fight to End Mountaintop Removal examines women’s efforts to end mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia. Mountaintop removal coal mining, which involves demolishing the tops of hills and mountains to provide access to coal seams, is one of the most significant environmental threats in Appalachia, where it is most commonly practiced.The Appalachian women featured in Barry’s book have firsthand experience with the negative impacts of Big Coal in West Virginia. Through their work in organizations such as the Coal River Mountain Watch and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, they fight to save their mountain communities by promoting the development of alternative energy resources. Barry’s engaging and original work reveals how women’s tireless organizing efforts have made mountaintop removal a global political and environmental issue and laid the groundwork for a robust environmental justice movement in central Appalachia.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Living in a sacrifice zone: gender, the political economy of coal, and anti/mountaintop removal activism; title: Gender and anti/mountaintop removal activism: expanding the environmental justice framework; title: Remembering the past, working for the future: West Virginia women fight for sustainable communities and environmental heritage; title: Saving the endangered hillbilly: Appalachian stereotypes and cultural identity in the anti/mountaintop removal movement; title: Situating the particular and the universal: gender, environmental justice, and mountaintop removal in a global context.