UPDATED: Daryl Hannah, Climatologist James Hansen and 94-Year-Old Former Congressman Arrested at Coal River Protest

By Jeff Biggers and Stephanie Pistello, AlterNet. Posted June 23, 2009.

Actress and environmental activist Daryl Hannah will speak at the Educational Rally on Sustainable Solutions for West Virginia at the Marsh Fork Elementary School today.

Hannah lives on a solar-powered ranch in the Rocky Mountains in the West. In an interview with the Central Florida Green Guide, Hannah said: "It's a small but beautiful house made with salvaged materials. It's both passive and active solar, meaning it faces southwest. It is bermed into the landscape and uses the natural movement of the sun and the insulation of the earth to heat/cool the structure."

Hannah is a long-time activist with various environmental groups and Greenpeace, and host of her own environmental blog.

Dr. James Hansen, the nation's foremost expert on climate change, will not only risk arrest today, but has agreed to debate Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship on the reality of climate change.

"Stopping coal emissions is 80 percent of the solution to climate change, and halting mountaintop removal is the essential, rational first step," Hansen wrote. "Any politician who claims to support our children and the environment, but also supports mountaintop removal, is either a fool, a liar, or both."

Hansen recently published a piece on Huffington Post on mountaintop removal and his decision to come to Coal River Valley

While the rally at Marsh Fork Elementary School and the nonviolent march continues today, it is important to recall a similar moment in West Virginia in 1923, when coal miners went out on strike. Chicago-native Mary "Mother" Jones arrived to support the miners. Her appeal to the West Virginia governor to support striking coal miner is a haunting parallel to today's West Virginia governor Joe Manchin, who has refused to deal with the Marsh Fork Elementary School, despite the health care studies and parent complaints and campaigns.

"Governor," I said, Mother Jones wrote in her autobiography,"listen-do you hear anything?"

He listened a moment.

"No, Mother Jones, I do not."

"I do," said I. "I hear women and little boys and girls..."

The boys and girls of Marsh Fork Elementary School, and the coalfield communities, along with Americans across the country, are calling on the West Virginia governor, the EPA, the Council for Environmental Quality, and President Barack Obama to listen.

More updates to come.

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