Quick hits: white nose still decimating bats; the language people use to talk about rural Americans; how the end of coal will hurt the Navajo; how Puerto Rico and Appalachia are alike - Entrepreneur Generations

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

White-nose fungus is still decimating bat populations, Dave Levitan reports for Earther. The population decline in Pennyslvania's bat population is over 99 percent. Experts say some bat species may go extinct because of it, and other species will be scarce for a long time to come.

The rural-urban divide is more pronounced now than it has been in generations, and the slang people use to talk about rural Americans is a symbol of that, Nora Mabie reports for In These Times. But what's behind that slang? Mabie digs into the history of derogatory terms such as "hillbilly" and "redneck" and discusses also the more positive idealized images of rural America--and how marketers have exploited them.

Much has been made of the impact of coal's decline on Appalachia, but the Navajo in Arizona are in the same boat, Ian Frisch reports for Climate Changed. The story explores coal's complicated stature in a rural reservation where people revere living in harmony with the earth, but coal is the biggest employer.

An editorial from The Roanoke Times talks about how Puerto Rico and Appalachia can help each other. Both regions are rural, and both need a "Marshall Plan" level of intervention. Proposed federal budget cuts would hurt both areas, so perhaps they should join forces in Washington D.C. to lobby for help.





from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2ywT7PJ Quick hits: white nose still decimating bats; the language people use to talk about rural Americans; how the end of coal will hurt the Navajo; how Puerto Rico and Appalachia are alike - Entrepreneur Generations

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