Eastern University’s Environmentalism Recognized in Audubon Magazine

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) St. Davids, PA - June 3, 2010 - Eastern University's environmental work was noted in the May-June 2010 issue of Audubon Magazine.  The article, Have Faith by Kiera Butler, states that environmentalism is gaining a foothold in some of the nation's largest evangelical churches, and Christian colleges are going green at breakneck speed. Butler references a 2008 Eastern University trip when sophomore Tyler Sheaffer toured a mountaintop removal mining site in Appalachia and then drafted a petition to erect a wind farm as an alternative to coal mining.

Sheaffer participated in Shoutin' for the Mountain, an event organized by college students across the country to point out the dangers of mountaintop removal in the Appalachian Mountains. Mountaintop removal is done by eliminating layers of mountains to dig deeper into coal regions.  This produces electricity.  However, this process requires entire mountaintops to be dynamited, bulldozed and pushed into the nearby fresh valleys and streams.  This can often lead to poverty for area residents and environmental destruction such as pollution, deadly floods, toxic water, and destroyed ecosystems. The 19-year-old Eastern University student from Richfield, PA, took part in the effort with Restoring Eden, a Christian environmental group.  The students traveled into the hills of Appalachia to look at mountains reduced to coal pit mines, met with communities deeply impacted by the coal mining, and attended a region-wide prayer meeting on a mountain.  The students then spent three days lobbying on Capitol Hill for The Clean Water Protection Act.   "Valleys as wide as a mile long can be brought up resulting in a level, savanna-like field. Trees and vegetation cannot thrive in such a setting," Sheaffer said.  He has committed himself to this project because he believes in the importance of saving God's creation.  "Mountain top removal is truly indescribable, especially when you go to where people live and taste the gritty coal dust that lines your bottom and upper lip."   The Eastern University mission of faith, reason and justice often inspires students to take action on behalf of those suffering from injustice. In this case, it was environmental concerns that motivated them. Other students are active in programs for the poor, the homeless, those in prison and marginalized people throughout the world.   For the full article in the May-June 2010 issue of Audubon Magazine, visit http://www.audubonmagazine.org/currents/currents1005.html To read the 2008 Eastern University news release about Sheaffer's experience, visit    http://www.eastern.edu/news/releases/archive/mountaintop_removal_071508.html   For more information about mountaintop conservation, contact:  Thommy Thompson (Restoring Eden) at thompi2@gmail.com Allen Johnson (Christians For The Mountains) at 304.799.4137 or information@christiansforthemountains.org Appalachian Voices at 828.262.1500 or jw@appvoices.org   About Eastern University: Eastern University is a Christian university of the arts and sciences located at 1300 Eagle Road, St. Davids, PA.  Eastern enrolls approximately 4,000 students and integrates its core values of faith, reason and justice into all of its undergraduate, graduate, professional, urban, Seminary and international programs.  Visit www.eastern.edu   EU7216