Do you love the mountains? If so, then look what GREED is doing to them.

[Blue_Roses]

http://www.ilovemountains.org/multimedia#photo_gallery

Mountain top removal :wtf:

The mountains have always been a place that I love to go and feel nature at it's best. I have lived in the south all my life--where mountains don't exist-- so any chance to see the mountains, we jumped on it. As a child, every summer vacation was to the mountains.

To see what they are doing to these mountains makes me sick, especially knowing now that they are only able to use small amounts of coal for fuel and also, to know that we have other forms of energy without blasting the hell out of these beautiful mountains.

Sickening. I didn't know this was going on--until now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmemorialforthemountains/255174892/in/set-72157594311438996/

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Here's something you can do preemptively

Check out this website thoroughly and then get involved....

http://www.renewableresourcescoalition.org/pebble_mine.htm

This mine would be a far worse disaster for Alaska than drilling in ANWR ever thought of being.

[Blue_Roses]

2. I didn't realize this was going on...

another, ANOTHER deception...

[kenny blankenship]

3. They led people to believe this kind of eco-holocaust stopped in the 1970s

in fact, mountaintop removal only got rolling about that time.
We thought that coal mining had been forced to become green--but that was the power of PR.

[MadAnne]

22. What is green coal mining? n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

5. This is a very serious and hotly contested issue up here

The economy is depressed in the villages, and Northern Dynasty has been pushing the idea that the company will provide jobs and security for the Native people now and in the future. It sickens me when I see the pro-Pebble ads on TV that use Native people as the spokespersons...it's manipulative in the extreme. The anti-Pebble ads bring home graphically the fact that this mine would threaten the entire region's subsistence way of life, as well as some of Alaska's richest commercial fisheries, which have sustained us for generations. Like one ad says, "They get the gold; Alaskans get the toxic waste." It's not a gamble most of us want to take.

They are talking about building earthen dams to hold back the toxic waste as high as some of the biggest concrete dams down south -- right in EARTHQUAKE COUNTRY. If they ever failed, it would be a disaster of monumental proportions, not only to the habitat but to the villages in the path of the flood.

More people need to be aware of this. It has to be stopped.

[Blue_Roses]

8. I agree

:thumbsup:

[southerncrone]

4. You should see this movie

It is an example of a progressive activist DOING something constructive to eliminate this problem.

I purchased the DVD & show it to my high school students & they are amazed. It is a well done documentary. You can sometimes catch it on the Documentary channel, Free Speech TV, or Link TV.

http://www.kilowattours.org/

[melody]

6. The siege on Appalachia

Not only are we destroying mountains, we're poisoning our people:
http://www.clipfile.org/antrim/

[ironflange]

7. It can be stopped

As it was here:

http://www.wildernesscommittee.org/campaigns/historic/tatshenshini

I remember this event very clearly, because I love the mountains!

[piesRsquare]

9. I learned about this in high school...

This method of coal mining is also horribly, horribly polluting. It's the most environmentally UN-friendly means of coal mining; it causes the most pollution.

One must have serious psychopathology to even come up with such an atrocious method of extracting resources...

[Blue_Roses]

10. It's sickening

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Reminds me of "Paradise" by John Prine

When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

Chorus:
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

Repeat Chorus:

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

Repeat Chorus:

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am.

Repeat Chorus:

[Blue_Roses]

12. Why is it that we didn't know this was going on?

Sure, if you lived there, but for those of us who don't :wtf:

[MadAnne]

21. Beats me. Vanity Fair had a big article in their

green issue last year. Even Oprah magazine had an article. National Geographic March 2006. If you want to take a tour check out Larry Gibson. It's devastating.

http://www.crmw.net/

[Chulanowa]

13. It looked like a huge open sore

I looked at those pictures and almost lost my dinner. It was like a physical blow. How the hell can people do this?

[many a good man]

14. Flying from Baltimore to Nashville ...

over the Appalachians and Smokies, out the plane window I could see thousands of white spots. I paid closer attention until the plane flew directly over one. I gasped. It was mountaintop removal.

The immense scale is mind boggling.

[leftchick]

15. The WV Democrats are sell outs to coal mining companies

there are big bucks to be had....

http://uspolitics.einnews.com/news/nick-rahall

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/3/132844/7576

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/detail.asp?CID=N00002198&cycle=2000

[elehhhhna]

16. Look at W Va on Google Earth and weep.

[Hubert Flottz]

17. I have posted about this ever since I came to DU...

It really makes me sad...Look what they've done to my hills...

http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/mountaintop_removal/007/index.html

West Virginia Hills
Words by Mrs. Ellen King,
Music by H. E. Engle

1. Oh, the West Virginia hills! How majestic and how grand,
With their summits bathed in glory, Like our Prince Immanuel's Land!
Is it any wonder then, That my heart with rapture thrills,
As I stand once more with loved ones On those West Virginia hills?

CHORUS:

Oh, the hills, beautiful hills, How I love those West Virginia hills!
If o'er sea o'er land I roam, Still I'll think of happy home,
And my friends among the West Virginia hills.

2. Oh, the West Virginia hills! Where my childhood hours were passed,
Where I often wandered lonely, And the future tried to cast;
Many are our visions bright, Which the future ne'er fulfills;
But how sunny were my daydreams On those West Virginia hills!

CHORUS

3. Oh, the West Virginia hills! How unchang'd they seem to stand,
With their summits pointed skyward To the Great Almighty's Land!
Many changes I can see, Which my heart with sadness fills;
But no changes can be noticed In those West Virginia hills.

CHORUS

4. Oh, the West Virginia hills! I must bid you now adieu.
In my home beyond the mountains I shall ever dream of you;
In the evening time of life, If my Father only wills,
I shall still behold the vision Of those West Virginia hills.

CHORUS

Soon we in West Virginia will be forced to change our state tune.

[otohara]

18. As A Colorado Native

it's a terrible thought, but when I go to the mountains, which is rare. I look at all the multi-million dollar homes (especially in Vail/Beaver Creek) high up on the Mt. tops, and I think, it would serve them right if a huge avalanche made them all come tumbling down. Problem with that is, they would take the money and no doubt rebuild.

[Cleita]

19. Bobby Kennedy, Jr. has made this one of his environmental causes.

You might want to hook up with him as I think he as an organization that is trying to fight this legally. You can probably find out more about it on his "Ring Of Fire" website.

[Wilms]

20. Thanks for posting this. n/t

[slipslidingaway]

23. Thank you K&R n/t

[ileus]

24. WV democrats are mostly old tyme democrats, you won't find

a greenie amonst the whole damn bunch....AT Massy blows.

[MadAnne]

25. Jon Blair Hunter n/t