PDA

View Full Version : ilovemountains.org video about Mountaintop Removal



MOWGLI
11-20-2006, 10:06
Please take 10 minutes and look at this video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=RPixjCneseE). This practice called Mountaintop Removal is taking place just west of the AT.

If you like to drink water while hiking through the mountains, you need to be concerned about this issue.

For more info - please visit http://www.ilovemountains.org/.

sourwood
11-20-2006, 12:28
Last spring I rode my bike from here in NC to Louisville, KY. I traveled through SW Virginia and SE Kentucky. I passed by several sites where this was taking place (including a sleepless night in a KY state park which was on the other side of a ridge which was being removed 24/7). Water quality is a BIG problem. I was reading the book "Lost Mountain" during the trip which is about mountaintop removal. I'm not sure that was such a good idea. It just made me madder and sadder. It is a bad bad thing.

Julie

LostInSpace
11-20-2006, 13:20
Reminds me of Paradise, KY (http://www.jpshrine.org/picshow/paradise/paradise.html) (remember the John Prine song), but that happened at the western part of the state.

LostInSpace
11-20-2006, 13:48
Coal and Kentucky's Economy



· Over the past 100 years, more than 7 billion tons of coal have been mined and sold from Kentucky. If the coal industry created growth in Kentucky’s economy, then the state and the mining communities of Eastern Kentucky should already be enormously wealthy. [1]

· Just in the last 10 years, coal mining jobs have decreased across Kentucky by 41%, while coal production in Kentucky only decreased by a modest 17.8%. [2] And over the past 20 years coal jobs in Kentucky have dropped by almost 67% while coal production has only shown a 12% decline. Even when coal production increased by about 30,000 tons during the 1990s, jobs still decreased by 15,000 people. Right now in Kentucky there are less than 13,000 people employed as miners. [3]

· Not only are coal jobs decreasing in Kentucky, but the majority of the coal being mined is coming from non-Union mines. In 2000, 91% of Kentucky’s coal production was mined by non-Union labor. 86% of the coal mined underground came from non-Union labor and 99% of the coal mined on surface mines came from non-Union labor. [4]

· More jobs were lost over the last 10 years in Kentucky on surface mines than on underground mines. [5] Surface miners use enormous machines to scrape off the tops of mountains to get to the coal; these machines replace a lot of human labor. Even if coal production increased in the future, employment will only be offered to highly-skilled individuals who already know how to use the computer programs and equipment.

· The biggest coal producing counties of Kentucky have the highest poverty rates, highest child poverty rates, lowest median income, and lowest high school graduation rate than any of the other counties in Kentucky. Even neighboring counties that don’t have significant mining or access to an interstate road rank better on census data. [6]

The flat land that is left behind by surface mining is supposed to be a source of economic development for Kentucky. However, the land is usually too isolated and too unstable to build anything on it. Many of the buildings that have been constructed on these sites have already starting sinking and subsiding. There are already thousands of acres of flat reclaimed strip mine land in Eastern Kentucky, but there is still no economic development.

It seems pretty clear that the coal industry is NOT good for Kentucky’s economy. It has not brought economic development or wealth to the people of Eastern Kentucky. At the same time, a more grassroots, local economy has been unable to develop in coal counties because the coal industry has had so much control over the use of land, money, and politics in that area.





[1] “The Canary Project: Organizing for a Better Future Beyond Coal.” Kentuckians For the Commonwealth, 4/2004

[2] US Department of Energy. EIA website, Table 1 & 40. 1991-2000. (www.eia.doe.gov (http://www.eia.doe.gov/))

[3] Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals and the US Department of Energy, 1980-2000.

[4] US Department of Energy. EIA website, Table 11. 2000. (www.eia.doe.gov (http://www.eia.doe.gov/))

[5] US Department of Energy. EIA website, Table 41 & 42. 1991-2000. (www.eia.doe.gov (http://www.eia.doe.gov/))

[6] Census data, cited in “The Canary Project.” Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, 4/2003.

TJ aka Teej
11-20-2006, 14:36
I watched a recent PBS doc on this topic, Mowgli. I think this is an important topic, and not just for us ATers. Thanks very much for posting about this here.

Tha Wookie
11-20-2006, 15:21
Wow-

That guy looked JUST like woody!

It's kind of numbing to think with all the environmental protection efforts out there, that so little is publicized about the greedful practice of blowing up complete mountains.

Truly a modern distaster. I thnk we'll need more than google earth to stop it.

LostInSpace
11-23-2006, 09:47
If you want to get a good idea of the extent of mountaintop removal, use Google Earth. Go to a place like Pikeville, KY, and zoom out until you can see the KY, WV, and VA borders. All of the grey areas that you see on either side of the KY-VA and KY-WV borders are mountaintops that have been stripped. You can't miss them. Zoom in on some of them to see how big they are.

MOWGLI
11-23-2006, 09:51
If you want to get a good idea of the extent of mountaintop removal, use Google Earth. Go to a place like Pikeville, KY, and zoom out until you can see the KY, WV, and VA borders. All of the grey areas that you see on either side of the KY-VA and KY-WV borders are mountaintops that have been stripped. You can't miss them. Zoom in on some of them to see how big they are.

Actually, if you go to the National Memorial for the Mountains (http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/), it's all set up for you to do exactly that.

LostInSpace
11-23-2006, 10:20
Actually, if you go to the National Memorial for the Mountains (http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/), it's all set up for you to do exactly that.

I finally figured out how to download the .KMZ file (http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/national_memorial_latest.kmz) for Google Earth from site. I have some distant relatives in eastern KY that are partially responsible for some of that mess. :(

MOWGLI
11-23-2006, 11:14
An article in the current edition of AT Journeys talks about one of the issues with Moutaintop Removal. The destruction of 10-20% of the remaining Cerulean Warbler habitat. The article originally appeared in the NPCA magazine, and can be viewed here (http://www.npca.org/magazine/2006/fall/slip.html).

halftime
11-23-2006, 11:15
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Can't see any benifit worth the devastation. Hope it can be stopped.

aspen
11-23-2006, 12:29
One was to stop this is to donate to a watershed. WATR (Watershed Association of the Tuckaseegee River) is a non-profit organization just outside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It covers Swain and Jackson counties.

WATR works hard to promote clean water in streams and rivers. Clear cutting, lack of erosion control and dumping into water systems affect all of us. Watershed depend on financial donations to continue their good work. Check out this link for more information on how you can protect your environment. www.watrnc.org (http://www.watrnc.org)

Susan

Jim Adams
11-23-2006, 12:44
this is happening all over the east. Jim Mountain is currently having its top removed here in Pennsylvania. it is / was one of the taller mountains in the area that has the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail running along its flank and also it contributes to major drainage into the Youghiogheny River (scenic river designation) three miles away. this removal was opposed by the citizens, park officials, hikers and paddlers in the local area but was still given a permit. the local community was told that this was because the mountain top was not viewable from the trail or river and would not affect either.

Sly
11-23-2006, 12:45
Wow-

That guy looked JUST like woody!


Yeah, and Mary Anne looked like my future wife! What a gal, great bio, good looking! OK, enough of my shallowness. ;)

Mountaintop mining sucks! :mad:

Also, the regular miners are being screwed. Even with the recent deaths, there's been little or no new legislation has been passed making the mines safer. :(

It's all about profits boys and girls, screw the worker, screw the environment.

aspen
11-23-2006, 12:53
Btw, WATR (Watershed Assocation of the Tuckaseegee River is located in western NC.

Unfortunately, complaining doesn't help. You have to get out there and do something! Write your elected officials, call the newspapers and tell them why they need to cover this story.

Aspen

"Be the change you wish to see in others." Gandhi

aspen
11-23-2006, 12:54
Btw, WATR (Watershed Assocation of the Tuckaseegee River) is located in western NC.

Unfortunately, complaining doesn't help. You have to get out there and do something! Write your elected officials, call the newspapers and tell them why they need to cover this story.

Aspen

"Be the change you wish to see in others." Gandhi