Alliance for Appalachia/ PowerPastCoal.org

Michaela O’Connor, 2011.5

During this past January, I worked with a group of Middlebury students on campus to launch a nationwide push against the use of coal as an electricity source.  Currently, coal produces about one half of our nation’s electricity.  Coal is dirty and dangerous.  It needs to be removed from our nation’s energy plan.  We launched a project called “Power Past Coal” (visit www.powerpastcoal.org.)  The purpose of this movement was to unite dozens of organizations around the country who have spent years or decades fighting the adverse effects of coal mining, processing, and burning.  This movement is different from most environmental/climate change movements because we really expressed the importance of stories.  The project was a group effort, put forth by Native Americans in the southwest, Ex-miners in Appalachia, and afflicted families all over the country, including in urban communities.  Our role was to work “behind the curtain” to get the ball rolling; we did not want to look like a bunch of Vermont activists.  The problem with coal will gain notice if we can draw attention to its widespread health and cultural detriments.   The website boasts the geographical and social diversity of the project.

My work on the team involved a lot of outreach work, making phone calls, sending informative and enthusiastic e-mails, and doing some blogging on the site.  I also made some short videos that were put on the site, also to inform and get people interested and excited about the project.  It was quite a challenge to create these shorts using only visual material from the internet (we didn’t get the chance to travel and interview people face to face.)  I think I did the best I could with the material we had (some scattered you-tube clips and photographs found on flickr and facebook,) but I look forward to making short videos over which I have more control.  Someday, I hope to make films that spread valuable knowledge in a creative way.  These mini-videos were my first chance to put my developing skills into action.

To show how many people care about this topic, the group’s members chose to have “100 Days of Action.”  For the first 100 days of Obama’s term, anti-coal actions are taking place all around the country.  The goal was to have one event each day.  As time passed, however, we discovered that this would be more difficult than we had anticipated.  The groups that had been excited about 100 Days were less active than expected, and we at Middlebury ended up doing a ton of media and outreach work.  We made phone calls to more than 100 organizations around the country, explaining the project and urging them to register an event on the site.

Our goals heading into the semester were extremely ambitious.  We had plans to research a lot about energy, about coal, and perhaps write a policy statement to send to the White House.  We underestimated the time and energy required to build a movement.  I think it’s really valuable to understand the effort required to spread a message, even in a society that uses the internet so widely.  I can’t imagine building a movement before the rise of the internet!  I am more impressed than ever by the works of revolutionaries like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.  I think that we, as activists, should use this tool to its highest potential to spread our messages.  I was not expecting to spend so much time on the computer in January, but it did teach me a lot.  I learned what a valuable tool it can be.  I also learned that although there is an insane wealth of knowledge in cyberspace, an old-fashioned phone call can still be the most effective way to connect with someone.  I think it is important to keep this in mind.

I have never been particularly interested in the logistical components of movement-building, but I see now that these actions are extremely important to make change.  If there are thousands of people who care about something, but they are scattered and disconnected, change is difficult.  I learned a lot over J-term, but what has stuck with me the most is the importance and value of movement building, of spreading a message and bringing people together.

The following students also participated with Alliance for Appalachia:

Eleanor Horowitz, 2011; Sierra Crane Murdoch, 2009; Lois Parshley, 2011; Peter Spyrou, 2010.5; Mathew Vaughn, 2009; and Ben Wessel, 2011

Please contact the Career Services Office or visit www.powerpastcoal.org for more information.