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Margaret Palmer, University of Maryland Professor and Director of the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, takes her study of water flow and stream restoration to Appalachia and shares with us the impact that mountaintop removal coal mining is having on inland streams and rivers. She discusses the scientific evidence she brings to the courtroom to illustrate the reality of what is happening in the environment. Margaret also relates how the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center uses research from multiple disciplines to creatively solve environmental problems.
In this session, you’ll learn about:
- Why the National Science Foundation created the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center.
- Projects the Center is and has undertaken.
- What environmental issues the best scientific minds from all over the world are focused on solving at the Center.
- The creativity and power behind the inter-disciplinary research.
- The impact of mountaintop removal coal mining on water quality in streams and indigenous insects and fish.
- The different approaches to stream restoration
- Restoration projects by mining companies to compensate for impacts to streams.
- How environmental and social groups might view stream restoration differently from scientists.
- How to achieve real stream mitigation after mountaintop removal mining.
- What the EPA is doing to get new mining permit policies in place.
- How science is influencing court decisions.
- The challenges that bio-diversity reserves face.
Resources and links mentioned in or relevant to this session include:
- National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center
- National Science Foundation
- Clean Air Act
- Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
- Appalachian Mountain Advocates
- Army Corps of Engineers
- www.palmerlab.umd.edu (check out the link on this page to Margaret’s appearance on The Colbert Report)
Transcript
Click here to download the Transcript for Session 30 of The Water Values Podcast.
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