Our National Treasures are being blown apart so
we can have dirty fuel.
The Blasting of Coal River Mountain, West Virginia has started.
Please take action.
Sharon Abreu of Irthlingz Arts-Based Environmental Education in Washington State sent this important alert and call to action to stop MTR.
What’s happening to the mountains and the people in Appalachia is an ongoing nightmare.
The mountains are being blasted apart for coal that we should no longer be burning. When that happens, those mountains that would be viable for wind energy can no longer support wind turbines.
The water and air have been poisoned. People are dying of cancer. Jobs and hope for the future for the people in Appalachia are being blasted away along with their homes and their water supply.
Please contact President Obama and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson now and urge them to intervene in the horrendous destruction of these two million year old mountains, on behalf of the people in Appalachia, those of us who want a clean energy economy, and the world, which is suffering from the coal we continue to burn.
The Appalachian mountains are a beautiful national treasure for all Americans to enjoy. They have been home to people for many generations and an exceptional amount of wildlife for eons.
Residents of Pettus, West Virginia awoke last week to find that the blasting had started on Coal River Mountain, one of the epicenters of the fight over the hideous practice of mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR) in the Appalachian Mountains.
Coal River Mountain is an iconic symbol of the energy choices our country now faces: We can blast off the mountain’s top to scoop out the dirty coal inside, or we can harness its enormous wind potential and start to build a better world.
Once the mountaintops are blasted away, the mountains are no longer wind viable. So we have to make a choice and make it fast.
Please take a small but significant action to help our friends who are fighting the good fight there in West Virginia and Kentucky.
You can send a message via the 350.org website at:
The Obama administration officials who could stop this need to know that it’s not just people in the hills of Appalachia who can hear the explosions–we all know what’s going on. And we know that every lump of coal that comes out of those hills adds to the carbon burden of the atmosphere we all share.
Jim Hansen, the NASA scientist who first gave us the 350 number, has pointed out that the western world needs to be off coal in little more than a decade if we’re ever going to get back to 350–and this is the obvious place to start.
It would be a small gesture our government could point to when it gets to the UN talks in Copenhagen this coming December–and for the brave folks who have been fighting this fight to save their homes for decades now it would be a very big gesture indeed.
Coal is near the heart of the planet’s climate problem.
So please take a moment to help here, in no small part because it will help in the climate talks ahead.
Bo Webb in West Virginia said today:
“Massey Energy is not using valley fills for this initial assault on Coal River Mountain. Through the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection they have received a surface mine permit to proceed to blast, back stack the debris, and then I suppose spread it back over the surface when they are finished. I fear this is an attempt to get away from valley fill permits. [The federal EPA is currently holding up 79 permits for review concerning water quality.]
The only way to regulate MTR is to ban it.
“I live in the valley directly beneath Coal River Mountain at my front porch and Cherry Pond Mountain at my back porch. Massey Energy is annihilating Cherry Pond Mountain. I’ve had boulders roll down from that MTR site and land within 100 feet of my garden.
“The creek that comes off the mountain is now dead of aquatic life. To allow the destruction of Coal River Mountain is insane. They might as well sign a death warrant for those of us that will be trapped between and beneath this assault.
“I am a Viet Nam Veteran. I’ll never forget the relief and serenity I felt when I first returned from Nam and the security of these big beautiful mountains. I can’t believe that our government is allowing this to happen. The EPA was denied their regulatory authority under Bush. Our only hope is with President Obama.”
Sharon Abreu of Irthlingz Arts-Based Environmental Education in Washington State said:
“The response I received from the federal EPA was totally inadequate, a form letter from September that does not address the particular problem occurring on Coal River Mountain.
The EPA report received contained the sentence:
‘We look forward to working closely with the Army Corps of Engineers, with the involvement of the mining companies, to achieve a resolution of EPA’s concerns that avoids harmful environmental impacts and meets our energy and economic needs.’
If the EPA is truly concerned about our energy and economic needs, it should be pushing for jobs in the field of wind energy in West Virginia and Kentucky, putting more people to work in the field of sustainable, renewable energy. That means solar and wind. Not coal and nuclear. China is way ahead of us on this. Do we want to remain a world leader or not?
People across the U.S. are raising their voices to stop MTR but more are needed. If we as American citizens don’t speak up for each other, who will? Our so-called “representatives” in congress aren’t doing it.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says on her website: ‘Environmental protection is about human protection. It’s about community protection. It’s about family protection.’
Well, is it or isn’t it?
To contact Coal River Mountain Watch or make a donation, go to:
God bless these mountains and all of their people.
Maybe God will have mercy on us the government sure isn’t having any.
PLEASE Everyone recognize what anyone does to these mountains they do to our people!
Mountaintop removal removes People!
Stop the depopulation of the most bio diverse region in the country take action today!
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Bless you Willie for raising awareness about this environmental injustice and human rights injustice–
Now the coal industry has their workers threatening us with violence and making community members afraid to speak out. Where is our first amendment rights. I guess it is true that West Virginia is a third world resource colony – who elected officials are owned by the coal industry.
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