Event: Renowned environmental justice and mountaintop removal activist Judy Bonds to speak
Oct 6th, 2009 | By Environmental Headlines -- CT environmental news | Category: Environmental Justice, Land, RiverRenowned environmental justice and mountaintop removal activist Judy Bonds will speak at Loomis Chaffee on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7:15 p.m.
The event, which will take place in Gilchrist Auditorium, is sponsored by Project Green, the school’s student environmental organization. Ms. Bonds is the director of the Whitesville, West Virginia Coal River Mountain Watch, a community action group working to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.
In recognition of her campaign to protect Appalachia and the citizens of West Virginia from mountaintop removal, Ms. Bonds won the 2003 Goldman Environmental Prize. The prestigious Goldman Prize is annually presented to just one environmental activist from each continent.
Bonds is an outstanding, knowledgeable speaker and has been featured in many magazines, including GEO magazine, National Geographic, Vanity Fair, and O: The Oprah Magazine. She has also been recognized in several documentaries.
Loomis Chaffee senior and Project Green president Olivia French met Bonds last year while visiting West Virginia. Olivia traveled there to photograph mountaintop removal and interview local residents affected by it. “The experience was chilling,” Olivia says. According to Olivia, approximately 500 mountains have been destroyed due to mountaintop removal mining and more than 1,200 streams have been ruined with mining waste. Olivia has coordinated a Northeast speaking tour with Ms. Bonds, who will also speak at Brown University and Colby College.
“I’m excited for Ms. Bonds to share her grassroots perspective of this topical environmental issue with Loomis Chaffee and the greater community,” Olivia reports.
An exhibition of Olivia’s photographs from her trip to West Virginia will be on display in the lobby before and after the talk.
For directions to the school, visit www.loomischaffee.org/visitors For more information about the event and to RSVP, please contact Mary Forrester at 860-687-6160; maryforrester@loomis.org.
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