For immediate release

Contact:
Beehive Design Collective
1 Elm Street
Machias, ME 04654
phone: 207-255-6737
email: pollinators@beehivecollective.org
web: www.beehivecollective.org

Buffalo Allies of Bozeman
Ellen Figura
phone: 406-209-2811
email: elightstorm@gmail.com

November 5, 2009

The Beehive Collective presents their innovative True Cost of Coal graphic –
a visual exploration of Mountaintop Removal Mining and Resistance

(Bozeman, Mont.) A swarm is coming! The Beehive Design Collective, a non-profit, volunteer driven, political arts organization based in eastern Maine, is headed this way. They are out to “cross-pollinate the grassroots” by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images that deconstruct complex global stories for use as educational and organizing tools.

Buffalo Allies of Bozeman and the Network of Environmentally Conscious Organizations are hosting the Beehive Collective Tuesday, November 10, 7 PM, at Montana State University’s Strand Union Building in Ballroom C. The Beehive will be presenting their interactive “True Cost of Coal” graphic, exploring the true cost of “cheap” mountaintop removal coal mining, starting from its devastating local impacts to the larger context of systems that both demand coal-fired electricity and suffer the results.

The “True Cost of Coal” graphic, about 80% complete, is based on extensive research and ongoing feedback with affected communities in the Appalachian coalfields and environmental justice activists. The bees interweave anecdotes and statistics that expose dubious “clean coal” rhetoric and connect the dots between American Empire, Climate Change and Resource Extraction.

“We are excited to be hosting the Beehive Collective,” said Buffalo Allies member Jim Macdonald. “Where we see bison in Greater Yellowstone abused by the political and economic boundaries imposed on these magnificent wild herds, the evils of mountaintop coal removal in places like West Virginia come from many of the same systemic forces.”

The Beehive Collective is currently touring the United States to gather feedback in the final stages of creating the graphic and raise funds for the printing and distribution of finished posters and educational materials in the spring. For more information, visit www.beehivecollective.org OR beehivecollective.blogspot.com. To learn more about Buffalo Allies of Bozeman, see www.buffaloallies.org; and for more on the Network of Environmentally Conscious Organizations, see www.bozoneco.com.