HUNTINGTON -- Since 1990, the best-seller "50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth" has been giving folks around the globe green tips for daily life.
Today, Earth Day, the book launches its latest edition that gets by with a little help from their friends, including the Huntington-based grassroots group, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
The 127-page paperback called on 50 American environmental groups to arm people with information about critical issues, and to give readers steps they can take to save the Earth.
OVEC is featured on page 96 in a two-page spread titled, "Over The Top," which gives information about mountaintop removal mining.
Vivian Stockman of OVEC said it's invaluable to let people around the world know about mountaintop removal mining, which is projected to affect more than 1.4 million acres of mountains and forests by 2012.
"We feel like this issue is getting good national attention," Stockman said Monday morning. "We were just in the Washington Post yesterday, front page and above the fold. This book, too, will certainly raise awareness of the issue and cement its stature as a national issue, and reach folks who are willing to take action to make a difference."
Stockman said that as a smaller, regional group, it is wonderful to be put into a book with such large global groups as Earthjustice, Greenpeace, the League of Conservation Voters, the National Wildlife Federation and the Rainforest Action Network.
"We were referred to them by Earthjustice because they know we are the lead agency in fighting against mountaintop removal," Stockman said.
The spread ties in how people everywhere, through their use of electricity, could be tied to what's going on in Appalachia.
The book by John, Sophie and Jesse Javna also suggests things people can do, from supporting the Clean Water Act and joining forces with OVEC, to renting documentaries such as "Burning the Future: Coal in America," which has its West Virginia premiere at 6:30 p.m. today at the West Virginia State University Capitol Center Theatre, 123 Summers St., Charleston. It's the opening film for the 23rd Annual West Virginia International Film Festival's Spring Festival.
There's also an documentary film showing today across the country, as "Mountain Mourning" is showing in Pennsylvania and Virginia. The Haw River Films documentary "Mountain Top Removal," which just won a second place award in Huntington last weekend as part of the Appalachian Film Festival, is showing as part of an Earth Day celebration at the Lincoln Center in New York City.
"That is the thing with the book and the films and with all of these years of work coming to fruition," Stockman said. "We feel like there is this burgeoning amount of information that will hopefully lead to a similar burgeoning movement of resistance."
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