A coal breaker in Shamokin, PA"On Monday, June 23rd, John Todd, a renowned biologist and pioneer in the field of sustainable design, was awarded the first annual $100,000 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Prize for a bold proposal to transform strip-mined lands in Appalachia into a self-sustaining community. The decision to award Todd, who is currently a research professor at the University of Vermont in Burlington, was unanimous by the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s jury. His proposal outlines a way to restore the one million plus acres of lands in Appalachia that have been devastated by surface coal mining through a process that remediates the soil, reclaims the forests, and develops a new economy based in renewable energies. The plan advances an innovative environmental theory of design that Todd developed, one that is completely in sync with Fuller’s ideology."
So basically, the idea is that they will begin to pump wastewater underground to reinvigorate the dead soil that is really is really nothing but a bunch of hills made of coal waste. They are everywhere there, I've seen them. Then, the soil will start to produce new energy-conscious products such as biodegradable plastics or wood products. They will train the local workers in all the skills so that they can earn a living again. It's absolutely brilliant and so needed in the coal regions of America, which have been pretty much left destitute since the the coal boom ended.
Read the full article and interview:
http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=3452
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