Christian is a Geospatial Engineer at SkyTruth.
From Homer’s “wine-dark sea” to Carson’s “hidden mysteries far greater than any we have solved,” the world’s oceans have served as a source of wonder, inspiration, and sustenance for humanity for millennia.
We have continued to expand our mining program area to better understand the complex legacy coal plays in Appalachia, and are setting up for a year of even more robust analysis to come. As long as mining mars the rivers and forests of Appalachia, we will continue to monitor it and work to create data that allows communities, regulators, and researchers to hold mine operators accountable for their recovery obligations.
Over the last 19 months, SkyTruth has been working with investigative reporters from the Associated Press on a story that highlights the risks posed by aging vessels which are linked to offshore oil production.
Explosives and heavy equipment: the perfect combination for mine owners to extract coal from a pristine Appalachian landscape. Too bad this process, known as mountaintop removal mining (MTM), is terrible if you live near the mined mountain, or in a watershed downstream, or on a planet faced with the imminent threat of ever-increasing temperatures brought about by greenhouse-gas emissions.
Today, with our partners at Appalachian Voices, Downstream Strategies, 4E Analytics, and Green Forest Works, we are publishing the results of our Central Appalachian Mine Reforestation Assessment. Together we have developed an approach and dataset that assesses reforestation progress on formerly mined lands in the region.