Mountain Range Removal:Mountain Justice Summer

imported
#1

Hello all concerned hikers, tree huggers, earth dwellers, and the like. Today, is one year since I started the AT from Springer! But, the real reason I am posting this message is to inform ya’ll of a serious threat to one of the most biodiverse regions on the continent: the southern appalachians. Coal companies, using mountain top removal the cheapest form of coal extraction, are destroying precious mountains, a vast array of flora and fauna, and the livlihoods of those that live there in Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee, SW Virginia, and West Virginia. This summer, will be a summer of non violent direct actions against the major coal companies and those who support this devastating practice. Check out: www.mountainjusticesummer.org , or contact me to get involved!

The southern appalachians need you!

peace
hawkeye

Hawkeye 2004

#2

I bet you like complaining about stuff alot. My father sits on the board of ANR Coal. You like getting on the internet you like turning on lights and cooking on an electric stove. All this power comes from coal power plants. Over 60% of power on the east coast comes from coal burning plants. The livleyhood of millions of people and thier families depend on coal from miners, to railroaders who haul the coal. So until you are ready to give up your dependance on electricity, go complain somewhere else. You probably voted in Florida in 2000

Appalachian Power

#3

Appalachian Power:
There are many ways to extract coal…and coal by its very nature, is a hard, non-renewable energy. The coal burning power plants release mercury and other toxic chemicals into the air and surrounding rivers…(Why else is are shenandoah national park and GSNP the two most polluted in the country? Do some research).Yes, it is true that most of the electricity is fueled by coal, but coal is finite, and is running out. Mountain top removal practices do not provide employment for those in the local towns b/c the coal companies hire outsiders, and also utilize heavy machinery that doesn’t necessitate a large number of workers. We need to look to other sources b/c coal and oil are destroying the Earth.

Living in the southern appalachians, i can appreciate their full beauty. The removal of the mountains in my homeland will not stand. The people will rise up. No man can own a mountain…not even you appalachian power!

peace

Hawkeye

#4

I do not agree that coal or oil are non renewable resources. Both come from once living things, and they are renewable. Give the earth a few billon years, a lot of warm spells with massive swamps and fern growth and ice ages, etc and there will be new coal and oil fields.

Now, we might not be around to see it. In fact, we may all have long since disappeared.

Funny how we use words like non-renewable in our finite little span of time on a vast and wonderful planet.

Yes, I do feel the love.

See you out there.:cheers :cheers :cheers :cheers

Maintain

#5

“Give the Earth a few billion years.” What a fool. Yeah, we all use power, but with logical conservation practices, it wouldn’t result in a quarter of the problem. I’m so tired of the power industry giving itself a pat on the back because I like a cup of coffee in morning. I hate to say it, but anybody that willy nilly about the destruction of mountains (Maintain) doesn’t deserve to enjoy them. Wake up!

Josh

josh

#6

I really feel the love. And I love to rattle chains and discourse with those with no brains.

Humans use electricity. Humans hence are the problems. And every little bit counts and every little bit helps. So a decrease in the population would certainly help out.

Therefore if you are really concerned and really want to help out, then I suggest you take yourself off of the planet in a really permanent fashion. That is the logical thing to do.

And if you don’t do it, then you are just all talk and all complaining. Show us that you really are serious about the problem and do what you know must be done.

Otherwise shut up.

See you out there.:cheers :cheers :cheers :cheers

Maintain

#7

Well - short of a massive die off in the ranks of us humans, I agree that it will be difficult to reduce the sheer volume of energy that we are consuming (and thus the sheer volume of the mountains which house that energy) - if we want to use less volume to generate this power, we can utilize nuclear power - large amounts of energy with minimal volumetric reduction in the earth - I operated a nuclear power plant for four years, generating approximately 525,600,000 kw worth of energy, and the plant has the capability to do this for oh, maybe 20 some odd years without refueling, durig which approximately 50,000 cubic centimeters of material will be needed to replace that which was expended. That energy would be sufficient to power about 1200 households for that twenty year period - I don’t know the conversion of coal to kilowatts, but I am sure you would need more than 50,000 cc’s of it.

scuba

#8

Here in Massachusetts we dont use coal, we have nuclear and LNG, Liguid Natural Gas,a big ship comes into the harbor everymonth or so and fills up the huge Power Plant in Everett. We still have the Plymouth Nuke plant and the famous Seabrook in NH. I remeber back in the 70s when they were building it everyone said we be dead by now because of the nukes. Didnt happen.

Chef

#9

A post above has a good point. 60% of our power, according to this person in a family coal business, comes from the most environmentally destructive and non-renewable form of energy extraction.

Maintain also has a good point, in that it takes millions of years for coal to form, and when it or if it ever does naturally form in the future, it will probably be of fossilized humans. Who knows, maybe it is already. That’s exactly why it’s called NON-renewable, because there IS a finite supply that we can harness. After, that, we cannot harness any more. That does not mean that more will not every be made, but for us, its NON-renewable.

However, there ARE many other ways to limit our energy dependence, and equally many alternative ways to power ouw computers or coffee makers. I know for a fact that the energy I use to type this right now is NOT coal-powered. Do you know where YOUR energy comes from?

The fact is that coal plants, for over a hundred years, have put us in an environmental crisis and the industry pigs need to be faced. Birth defects have recently been scientifically linked to murcury runoff in water sources, and coal factories were the quoted source. It doesn’t take a study to see how mountaintop removal destroys the environment, contributes heavily to run-off and erosion, and plainy murders the environment outright.

Black and white views like Maintain, like “Humans use electricity. Humans hence are the problems” are dangerous in this dynamic world where many factors and positive solutions must be considered. The way he paints it seems to suggest that, “as long as we have humans, it’s ok to destroy mountains and contaminate the water supply. Otherwise, the other option is to reduce the number of humans.”

Boulderdash!!!

Protests and activism, along with personal lifestlye choices, are needed to face this environmental war that has been waged on this continent in the past 500 years. We are smart enough to change things for the better, non-violently. We ARE evolving. But we must maintain a violent passion and ignore the bipolar pundits.

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” -Dylan Thomas

How long are you going to sit while the moutains are removed?

Tha Wookie

#10

Go save a baby seal or a whale or something.

Leave West Virginia and the coal in the West Virginia mountains to the people in West Virginia to do with as they justly decide. If they want to mine it and sell it, so be it. If people want to buy it and burn it, so be it.

Many of you above are so two faced that it is sickening. You sip your hot coffee, take you warm showers, sit beneath artifical light and complain about where it all comes from.

“I know where my electricity comes from.” That is total bull****. All or most of the electric systems in this country are tied together, it’s called a grid. So it flows here and there and it creates a huge source, which can pull and push electricity from one to the other. So don’t get on here and spout your false bull**** to people who know better.

Have the guts to do what you need to do to help out the situation. Either take yourself off the planet, go to college and learn something and maybe save the world by creating an alternate source, and don’t reproduce in body or pass your stupid thoughts on to others.

But you have no guts. All you want to do is complain and protest.

Get a life. Go save a baby seal or something.

And for gosh sakes, shut up.

See you out there.:cheers :cheers :cheers :cheers

Maintain

#11

Hawkeye, you show your young age:

“Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conversative, has no brains.”

  • Winston Churchill

Canaima

#12

Can’t wait to hear what folks have to say …it is a sad day when NOTHING is sacred anymore…everywhere and anywhere we have or will leave our mark. Just mention Anwar up here and things move quickly towards a fist fight. I feel as if I don’t have a say… really… let the Alaskans that live up there…2 Indian tribes … make the decision…it is their lifestyle that is in jeapardy…or not… depending how you look at it. I do know one thing they won’t see any of the freaking money though…you go Bush…

yappy

#13

Alaska is part of the U.S., as such, it’s public lands belongs to all the people in the U.S. not just the Alaskans.
To permit drilling in ANWAR should be a crime.There is not a lot of oil there and it would be many years before a drop of oil were realized if drilling were to started tommarow.

OLD & IN THE WAY

#14

I should have added:To drill in ANWAR should be a crime and George W.Bush and his lackeyes should be branded as criminals

OLD & IN THE WAY

#15

man you really crack me up sometimes.

So how does your knowledge explain how I get energy to run my computer? You say we’re all part of a national grid or something like that. And what else would you know about, since you are the grid?

Because we are all limited by Maintain’s knowledge, we apparently are “two-faced” if we seek to gather and peacably assemble to voice our disgust with the environmental assault of mountaintop removal.

Didn’t you ever muse to think that the tops of mountains are spiritual places, are places created by natural systems, or are places that shouldn’t be dumped into neighboring valleys and water sources?

I mean really, could you better explain a defense for mountain top removal. Or do you just get on the internet to tell people to “shut up”, insult the integrity of others, and call them names? You contribute to many threads with thoughful answers, so I know this is not the case, so I have to wonder: what is your motivation?

By the way, to expand your knowledge, I want to tell you something. I’m not connected to your grid.

So I guess we see who’s the BSer and who really knows better.

Tha Wookie

#16

Ak is IT as far as what we truely have left in America . There aren’t any boundaries up here yet… The land just goes on and on …and that gives the illusion that we have PLENTY to spare… but the truth… every time I fly over the Nw and see the scars… It can happen up here too… already is really. We just got a Walmart and the biggest Fred Meyers “in the world”…and when I am in town I could be anywhere USA…and yes, before you guys start in on it… yes, I need food etc too…but we had enough and that used to BE enough. Everyone made do… now folks want more… Yeah, this state is changing too. I am for keeping the mountain tops where the freaking belong… on top of the mountains…and I am for leaving Anwar in peace .

yappy

#17

Just to clear things up a bit:

Environmentalists do not seek to take humanity back to the stone age and certainly are not as illogical to say that humans must have zero impact on the earth.

Environmentalism pushes the mantra SUSTAINABLE impact. And yes, Maintain, it is possible. Educate yourself a little about the subject before attacking others on it.

Hawkeye, I’d love to volunteer this summer. I’ll check out your link.

Cap’n

#18

Like Josh said “anybody willy nilly about the destruction of mountains doesn’t deserve to enjoy them”…

Take a look at these photos:
http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/mountaintop_removal/003/index.html

Mountains, once destroyed, are gone forever. Sadly it is nearly impossible to completely give up ones dependence on electricity, so we are asking for sustainable alternatives…responsible sources of energy so that when I turn on my bedroom light I dont have to know that I am contributing to the coal processing that gave the children, secretary, and principles (both the retired and current) cancer in MArsh Fork Elementary, a school 100 feet away from a coal processing plant. I do not want to be forced to support a mining process that, when performed illegally on a rerouted dirt road in the middle of the night sent a huge bolder over the side of the hill and crushed three year old Jeremy Davidson in his sleep this past August(in Appalachia, West Virginia).

Most people of West Virginia and other areas being directly affected do not want their mountaintops removed…because it is the toxic slurry dam breaks, valley fills, and flying boulders that come crashing into their back yards and communities. Can you imagine what it is like for some families who have their kids sleep clothed at night ready to run out of their home when the valley fill floods during a heavy rain?

We are merely creatures of the planet…every part of what we see is connected, and we must move past the idea of owning mountains, buying mountains…etc. because it is a shortsighted, impossible task. This is not a matter of being conservative or liberal, old or young…its common sense, once the mountains are gone they are gone, we cannot remain addiced to coal forever. The price of coal extraction-to the environment and to ourselves- is exponentially becomming more costly as time goes on. We cannot afford to ignore the warning signs and postpone the switch to sustainable alternatives. we must abandon MTR(coal mining at its fastest and cheapest), use more responsible methods of coal extraction and put a lot more effort into the design and support put into alternatives…

humans are the problems, but we are also the only solution.

with love

Bluejay

#19

It is common to see people lash out at environmentalists with the argument that they are hypocrites. They still use electricity so how can they have the nerve to bitch about where it comes from? They talk the talk but they’re not saints when it comes to walking the walk, and besides, they don’t understand how things really work, how many people are dependant upon whatever industry is in question. (coal, in this case)

Let me offer this to put things into perspective.

Some (maybe most) of us are in denial that the world is falling apart around us. The rest of us see that it’s happening but feel powerless to do anything about it. Activists see that it’s happening and make an effort to stop the worst things from happening.

They’re neither saints nor super-heroes. They can’t fight against every environmental crime that’s taking place, and they may not even have the option to live outside of “the system”. After all, how many people actually have the financial freedom to get a piece of property, build a cob-house with recycled plumbing and a composting toilet, farm their own food and live with zero impact? It’s hard enough just trying to afford to buy recycled toilet paper, environmentally safe soap and organic vegetables!

Environmentalists are doing SOMETHING to try to make a difference, and whether they could be doing more in their own lives or not, whether they are hypocrites or not, that’s still a good thing.

None of us wants to see our world die, but that’s exactly what’s happening. Every living system of the Earth is in decline. It’s fact now, not theory. The only people who would deny this are individuals who are in denial themselves. Frequently it’s people who have a personal investment in the forward progress or maintenance of a resource industry. People like Appalachian Power’s father. These are the people that, should our species survive long enough to look back, will be regarded as the worst criminals of our time. Not because they did the wrong thing, but because they KNEW it was the wrong thing and they did it anyway.

To have a difficult time facing the hard truth that our lifestyles are not sustainable? To have difficulty making change and sacrificing comfort in exchange for sustainability? That’s human nature.

To continue to seek profit when you’ve been faced with irrefutable scientific evidence that your industry is the very root cause of the death of birth? To cut down the mountains when you KNOW it will kill the rivers? That’s evil.

toes

#20

I actually meant for that post to be more constructive, focused on the point of how difficult it is for all of us, environmentalists and ceo’s alike to feel like we can make a difference, but alas … I guess I am not so impartial when it comes to brutal environmental practices.

Best of luck to those of you who will be endeavoring to prevent this catastrophe.

toes