The Canary Coalition is opening its first office next week. The regional clean air advocacy movement will be headquartered at 73 Brendle Street in Sylva.

“The canary movement is growing rapidly,” said Avram Friedman, coordinator of the Canary Coalition. “I’ve been involved in many social, environmental and political causes in my life, but I’ve never seen people react as quickly and as positively as this. It’s obvious that almost everyone is becoming aware of the fact that we have a serious air quality problem in the Smoky Mountains region, and they want to do something about it.”

On Feb. 5th, the Canary Coalition received a written endorsement from the Jackson County Travel & Tourism Authority (TTA) to add to a list that includes the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, Sylva Partners in Renewal, members of the medical community, clergy, members of the legal community and the many individuals and businesses who have joined as members to help sponsor the group’s activities.

“The Jackson County Travel & Tourism Authority supports the Canary Coalition’s efforts to coordinate public events that will focus national attention on the air quality problems that are currently being experienced in the Smoky Mountain region,” reads the statement from TTA.

“The TTA is right on the mark in its endorsement,” says Friedman. “Focusing national attention on the danger to health and the environment due to our poor air quality in the Smoky Mountains is important as a first step in solving the problem. That’s what the Canary Coalition is all about, and it’s going to take as many people as possible to help get the message out. The more people, organizations, businesses and churches that join the Canary Coalition, the stronger the message will be.”

Friedman said the goal is to have 5,000 members or more by the end of this year.

“People in other regions of the country don’t realize the nature of the problems we’re having here,” said Friedman, including soaring incidences of child asthma attacks and other pulmonary diseases which have been linked directly to ground-level ozone and particulate matter inhalation; trees dying by the thousands in the Smokies and on the Blue Ridge Parkway due to weakness brought on by sulfur dioxide emissions and the acid rain that results; the endangerment of hundreds of rare plant species that exist only in this region and no where else on earth.

Most of the pollution in the Smokies originates from coal-fired power plants outside and inside the state of North Carolina. This makes it a problem that has to be solved on a national basis, as well as on the state level, he said.

“If we don’t boom this message out to the rest of the country and the world, no one else will, and nothing will be done to stop it,” Friedman said. “Our representatives in Washington and in Raleigh have to know - in no uncertain terms - that this is an immediate and important problem and an issue that cannot be ignored.”

The Canary Coalition is named for the canaries that were used in coal mines to determine when the air became too toxic for men to work.

Friedman said “when the canary stopped singing they worried. When the canary died they evacuated the mine. In the Smoky Mountain region, those of us who live here are sort of like the canaries, but unlike canaries, we’re not locked in a cage and we can do something to help ourselves.”

More information can be obtained about the Canary Coalition on the web at www.canarycoalition.org.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News