Don't Destroy People To Power Homes
If you've never seen what mountaintop-removal coal mining looks like, watch this short video. Coal companies clearcut forests on ancient Appalachian mountains, blow apart the mountain itself to get to pockets of coal, then shove the dirt and debris over the side where it fills in valleys cut by creeks.
I maintain that if this practice was going on within view of Manhattan, or Hollywood, or the nation's capitol, well, it would not be going on at all. Yet it has buried and contaminated close to 2,000 miles of streams. If it continues, past and future mining could destroy 1.4 million acres, or about 2,200 square miles of some of the most biologically diverse forest in the world.
As Kathy Selvage, Teri Blanton, Maria Gunnoe - and actress Ashley Judd - will tell you, mountaintop-removal mining also destroys lives and communities. In a minute I want you to meet them and hear why they say things like, "You can't destroy people to power homes," and "There's no price being paid for coal that's higher than the price paid by those who live near these operations."
Maria Gunnoe lives on property her grandfather bought in 1951 while making $18 a week as a coal miner. He tended it throughout his life, as did his son after that, anticipating that it would sustain future generations of their family. They planted raspberries and blackberries, and orchards of apple, peach, hazelnut, walnut, and pecan trees.
Now Maria can sit on her front porch and watch three mountaintop-removal operations going on. She shot the video on this page from her apple orchard in Bob White, W.V. The mining has caused severe flooding in the area (her kids sleep in street clothes in case they have to run outside in the night to avoid rising waters), and has contaminated streams and the family's well to the point that they must now purchase drinking water. Mining has destroyed the good work of two generations on her property. See Maria's video here.
She filed a lawsuit six years ago, which is just about to be heard, but her expectations are low. "I have heard coal barons and lawyers discuss the fact that lawsuits often outlive the people who filed them. In my opinion there is no price that's being paid for coal any higher than the people that live there are paying - with water, air, land itself, and their lives."
What gives her hope? The state-level bills banning this form of mining - and the fact that there were only a handful of people at the first lobby day four years ago, and this year there are 150.
