Thank you for running the excellent article on climate change. As Rebecca Bowe illustrates, global warming is the greatest threat we as humans have ever faced. In the face of massive species extinction, droughts and floods, it is easy to feel like we cannot do anything to stop it. Well, that’s what companies like Duke Energy would like you to think. They are in the initial construction stage of building the dirty 800 MW Cliffside coal plant in Rutherford County. This plant will pump 6 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, poison our air and water with toxic heavy metals such as mercury, and further degrade our already miserable air quality.
If we are going to stop climate change, than we must stop this plant. Fortunately there is an amazing coalition of groups fighting the plant from all angles. They have written letters, held press conferences, filed lawsuits, protested and used civil disobedience. On Oct. 15 at 11 a.m., citizens from through Western North Carolina will hold a rally at the regional headquarters of the Division of Air Quality to demand that Cliffside be canceled. We can stop this plant, but not without an outpouring of public opposition. Please join us in telling the DAQ: “Stop Cliffside.” For more information, contact ashevillerisingtide@gmail.com.
— Matt Wallace
Hot Springs
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