Karan Ireland

Environmental Activist - Charleston, WV - USA
Charleston, WV - USA
Karan Ireland

The truth is: I haven’t been flying much in the past few years, not out of a commitment to the environment, but because I haven’t been traveling much outside of the mid-Atlantic region. Trips back and forth to DC from WV for work, and backroads driving around Appalachia for pleasure have been making up my travel itinerary. However, I am publishing a book through Ohio University Press in 2020 about a water contamination event and my subsequent environmental activism and, should this lead to a book tour, it is my intention to travel by car or rail, if at all possible.

I’ve also moved to a smaller home: an apartment, rather than a house, located in the center of my hometown, so that I can walk more often than drive. And, I have recently become a vegetarian.

As an activist and a renewable energy advocate, I realize that we need big, policy-based change, but know that taking steps in my own life helps me hold onto hope that we will make those big changes and turn things around.

I work as a lobbyist for the WV Environmental Council; I was the Program Director for a non-profit called West Virginia Solar United Neighbors for several years, and I continue to work on issues related to renewables and clean drinking water.