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If a person puts a shovel in the ground almost anywhere in the South, like as not, they will bring up red clay soil.  In East Tennessee it is a bright, redish orange and it supports a thriving brick making industry in my hometown.  Show it to a professional grower and you’ll get a strong negative reaction.  Clay is no good, they’ll say.  You’re better off digging it up and buying topsoil, whatever that might cost.  Our soil is dense, easily compacted, often waterlogged and quite acidic.  In the spring, it is cold and boggy.  In the summer, it can bake so hard that roots have no chance to grow through it.

Transforming the native soil into something more friable takes a lot of patience, hard work and respect for natural processes.  It is often worth the effort, as improved clay soil will hold nutrients and moisture far better than its sandy counterpart.  I don’t mean for this blog post to be about the technical aspects of improving soil—I just want you to know more about the ground we are standing on here.

WASHINGTON D.C. — At this morning’s graduation ceremonies for American University’s School of Public Affairs Lisa Jackson, the commencement speaker and former head of the Environmental Protection Agency commended American students for their hard work on their fossil fuel divestment campaign, “I salute this school and it’s students for facing head on the issue of investments in fossil fuels and what that means to your individual futures."

Last Saturday nearly 200 Swarthmore students, alumni, faculty, and staff allies entered the open Board of Managers meeting to deliver a statement: We will no longer tolerate business as usual.

After more than 25 meetings with administrators over the past two years, Swarthmore Mountain Justice and a broad coalition of allies were granted an open meeting with their Board of Managers. As a board member launched into yet another dubiously-researched presentation on the "Financial Risks of Divestment," 200 students arose from their seats and took to the floor to deliver their own message.

What arose was a powerful collection of voices calling for greater administrative accountability, student access to decision-making structures, and transparency within board business. Students shared stories of being intimidated, silenced, and disempowered in spaces across campus. This student-controlled forum challenged the long-standing power differential within these spaces and provided a platform to elevate a chorus of student voices.

Steel is one of the major components needed for hydraulic fracturing (fracking). It is used to create the drill pipe, along with pipeline segments; it is also used inside the well to form the casing. With all of the drilling taking place, there is a growing need for steel manufacture and the industry has recently skyrocketed. Although the need for steel has created jobs and increased employment rates for the time being in areas, it has decreased steel production for alternative energy sources.