Causecast

Kingston Coal-Ash Spill, Tennessee

Last December 22, over one billion gallons of toxic slurry burst through a faulty retention wall of the Kingston Fossil Plant and sludged its way over 300 acres of rural land and into nearby tributaries of the Tennessee River.

As the largest fly ash spill in the history of the US, it might take months, or even years, to clean up the 6 feet deep gray goop. And while officials say that the elevated poisonous metal levels in the water and soil isn’t too dangerous, this does throw a bit of a wrench in the political support on clean coal.

Chevron-Texaco’s Pollution of the Amazon

Destroying the rain forests is a lot like jaywalking. Just because a lot of people do it, doesn’t make it right.

Well, actually it’s a lot worse than that. But that still didn’t stop Texaco from allegedly devastating 1,700 square miles of the Ecuadorian Amazon through deforestation and dumping carcinogenic waste products into the surrounding waters of their drilling fields for 20 years.

In the face of increased cancer and birth defect cases in the local population, Chevron, which took over Texaco in 2001, cites previous agreements with Ecuador’s federal government that absolved the company of any responsibility after a $40 million buy-off.

As of now, the epic 15-year court case filed against the corporation by the sick residents is finally awaiting a verdict.

Gorilla Massacres in the DR Congo

With poaching, the violence of the civil war, and the deforestation of their habitat for illicit coal production, the critically-endangered mountain gorillas of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park have been having a hard time of it lately (as well as the rangers—120 have been killed in the line of duty since 1994).

With only 700 mountain gorillas left in the world and 81 of which inhabit the reserve, even the loss of one individual is an immeasurable tragedy.

So when, in July of 2007, suspected charcoal traffickers sneaked into Virunga, shot four gorillas execution style, and left their bodies as a message about park officials’ new campaign against coal production, it was not without much hyperbole that some equated it to the obliteration of the entire population of England. When the rebels took control of the park later in the year, the gorillas’ fate became even more uncertain.

The good news? With international attention turned towards the perilous situation, the rebels and government have made a tentative truce over gorilla conservation and a recent population census claims 10 new additions have been born to the families.

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Photo: tiswango/Flickr