Appalachia, West Virginia
Mountaintop removal mining is one of the world's most environmentally destructive practices, and it is most associated with coal mining in West Virginia's Appalachian Mountains. Whole mountaintops are removed to get to the coal, which increases erosion and runoff thick with pollutants, poisoning streams and rivers throughout the region.
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I guess all the hard work we do restoring the environment goes unnoticed. Its not the same sure. But its not like we ravage the land and just leave. Coal is the cheapest form of electricity, by a lot. And nowadays with all the scrubbers and ecological methods. It doesn't even pollute like people think. So many thousands of Americans jobs you put at risk by hating us. People who just want to go to work, and bring home money for the ones we love, and put in a good days work. What's so wrong with.... More
Adding WV to this list is propaganda, as are most of the pics and details on this list of 15.....most WV companies do all they can to preserve the environment...the only issue is protecting streams that run thru the valleys when they remove mountaintops....al the hype over " mountaintop" removal is BS....do your geology homework...the entire appalachain chain was "FLAT" erosion has created the mountains...removing or flattening the mountaintops is actually returning things to a state of.... More
Mountain top removal is destructive. Trying to argue to such actions are beneficial is like arguing your house being burned down is a good thing because there was no fire there to begin with. There are more issues with mountain top removal than the protection of streams. Mountain top removal results in ecosystem destruction and changes the contour of the land, which results in erosion from run-off, etc.
I know this is terrible to see but there is a silver lining that you're not being shown here. Even though the coal companies are doing a lot of harm there's one thing they love more than anything else and that's money. The US government has in place laws that will give the companies a tax credit if they reclaim the mine sites and replant flowers and trees, and that's also where Coal County Beeworks comes in to play. Since the coal companies weren't going to do the reclaimation themselves CCB.... More
we discoverd silent hill idnt get the movie so all the people in silent hill even religious one were already dead
Obma backs the dirty coal industry over green energy. Natural gas is clean to produce, use, and most abundant source is found here at home in the US. We can replace coal and foreign oil with nat gas right now, nationwide in 5yrs or less. Nat gas is already being used on a small scale but has proved to be the cleanest form of sustainable energy which will cut our dependency of foreign ties/terrorism. China and several middle-eastern countries are buying up our nat gas supply as they know the.... More
Under supervision of V.P. Cheney and with help from Haliburton they successfully reworded the EPA guidelines in 2005 on hydraulic fracking for natural gas. Since 2005 "fracking" is exempt from the effects it has on air quality and water quality. Because of this, the way they can now frac is different and has devastating affects on watersheds, air quality. Towns have been evacuated, watersheds destroyed, and over 8,000 different kinds of chemicals are used with no regard to safety. See the HBO.... More
Where are you getting your info from, what town evacuated, why, watershed destroyed ?? You and hbo are both full of pollution
Those of you that are insist on calling others names like school children and being so crude to people (whether it be for or against this), how do you expect anyone to take your argument seroiusly when you are being so immature? Is it so hard to voice your opinion without insulting people (especially the innocent)?
Look Guys, My grandmother and her family were from Appalachia.I may be a hardcore treehugger, but I admire the people from the mountains and I don't begrudge anyone fighting to keep a roof over their head or food in their mouth. Stop referring to them as "hillbillies" or "Ignorant". You may have a PhD in your field but you couldn't hold a candle to the knowledge of the people of Appalachia. Trust me when I say that if anything like a global disaster ever occurred, it is the Appalachians that.... More
I am a "hillbilly" in Michigan and I can tell you that does not excuse the people of West Virginia from being held accountable for this environmental disaster. Strong or not, they are still ignorant enough to let this happen. Period.
There has to be some other way to create jobs without turning the Earth into some kind of hellish moonscape. I am from the coal mining parts of Pennsylvania and I won't move back. I hated that there are three large coal powerplants in my home county. So many of my family members who lived near these coal mining towns have died of cancer in the past decade, I can't help but wonder if it had to do with living right next to waste piles of coal. Defending this way of life is like defending a nightmare. .... More
After reading the insane amount of comments on this post from Pro-Coal, I must ask, how much is Massey and the gang paying you to post these things? In fact, I guarantee that the majority of these pro-coal posts are people who are actually paid directly to do this...as part of their job description. I can't imagine people who are fighting to live just above poverty or often times far below it would have the time or energy to scour the internet for blogs that are against coal. In fact, they.... More
It seems most of the posts on here are bashing one side or the other, argueing, etc... We all need to put all this energy into finding solutions to these problems instead. Most have fair arguements to a degree, but there are viable solutions out there. Many scientists, and others have come up with much cleaner ways to dispose of waste. More of these sorts of things need to be developed and implemented, Perhaps creating new jobs for those who lose jobs in other fields. Some of those wasted tax.... More
haha all you people are quite amusing
You obviously have your fact misconstrued. The major pollution from coal comes from the coal-fired power plants. And the paper mills that shut of the air-scrubber units at night to release hazardous air pollution to save money on replacing the scrubbers. Yes, it is done. The airborne pollution from burning the coal is the cause of acid rain, not the coal mining itself. And you never even mentioned the plastics industry. All plastics and many chemicals are produced from oil products which are.... More
I have posted various websites in proof that you, and the New York Times is wrong. I am curious though, since you are trying to put hard working men and woman out of work, that are tied directly and indirectly to surface coal mining, what is your occupation, if any, that my fellow co-workers, might protest what you do for a living, like i said though, if you do anything. I personally think walking to the mail box, at the first of the month, aint really much of a job.
it is true lots of hardworking men and women are getting put out of work in this country. The reason is Capital gets sent abroad to build factories in China and West Virginians never got the educations for skills, or many other public sector investments that other states did get. We don't need surface coal mines to get people to work. We need education, and investment capital back in this country to invest in new alternative energies, alternative food system, and many other 21st Century.... More
youre an idiot
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13water.html
Someone needs to put an end to this - and if its not the state itself, then the federal government should step in. Some of these people are too ignorant to realize the devastation this is causing to their environment and their families.
You people need to stay out of our business. I have raised 2 children here and they are perfect, not at all ignorant. Im proud to say one is a coal miner and the other is in college. I would not have raised my children in any place that was toxic, like some of the big cities. We dont have smog, acid rain, etc. just beautiful mountains and clean fresh air. We're not the ignorant ones, you people living in those big cities sucking in all that smog are the ignorants ones, and you know it. So you.... More
I have witnessed first hand the sulfur contamination of streams on my family's land in WV due to poor strip mining practices.
The average miner / mine worker is not to blame for this.. the higher ups in the coal industry definitely ARE.
C- Can
O- Obama's
A- America
L- Last
Without it?
NO!!!
How hard it is to understand that our heritage and NATURAL CAPITAL is air, water and land? It is a matter of minimum common sense, we need them clean and regenerate our environment. Since when polluting is a good "American" practice? Shame on the imbecils!!
yes actually using csp solar power and 8% of the land mass in the nevada desert can america be powered for.... wait for it... FOREVER!
The sooner the coal mines are shut the sooner we can fix things
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visit this link, read the law remember dead line is the 26th to post your comment to the acoe.
http://www.wetlands.com/pro/fr21jul99ptc.htm
I have come to a conclusion from the comments by the anti-coal people on this site. Once you get past their song and dance about Mountain top development you see in their words that they are COMMIES!
In my understanding they are against anyone who works and makes more money than it takes to live at the poverty line! They feel that anyone who works hard to earn good pay from a company that is making a profit is wrong!
The think that if you make a good living, provide for your.... More
Enter your comments here
I am 8th generation form the hollers of WV - my father and grand father underground coal miners-- Strip mining should be abolished now. It is destroying our streams, blasting our homes, poisoning our air - it is a wasteland. Mountains don't grow back. These jobs are short term - destructive jobs that blast and poison the workers neighbors and own children. Stop poisoning and blasting me- move or get another job you greedy thugs. These jobs are not acceptable. The.... More
You just don't get it do you? These people are against coal......period. If they had gotten their way long ago your daddy and grand daddy would have been in the unemployment line! Wake up!
Your right, they would have!
And then they would have found other jobs, enriched the communities with work that didn't tear up the land...jobs that would sure as heck been healthier for them and that might have even extended their life spans! What a horrible fate....better life quality!
Your trying to stop surface mining. But if you do are you tree hugers gonna provived for my kids when daddy dont have a job? Your so worried about mother nature what about the people here in america that dont have jobs and are starving. I say lets lets mind out own damn buisness if you dont live here in the mountains, you dont know how much we really depend on coal. Mind you own damn buisness. Aint gonna hurt nothing to blow up a few mountains. Plus look at all the level ground it provides. So.... More
you think because you have a job today and for the next few months that this is a good thing.
But somehow you are incapable of thinking about long range consequences of your actions.
after the last mountain is gone what then?
after you die of black lung who takes care of your family?
after your wife dies of cancer who takes care of your kids?
after your job has been replaced by a machine what do you do then.
even if none of the above happens to you --.... More
I am surprised that someone as illiterate as you is reading Mother Nature Network. Are you for real?
Theres's this thing called transferable skills. Take your knowledge in coal industry into a more sustainable, clean energy one. Loss of jobs, loss of money is not a good excuse to keep the coal factories alive. People need to stay alive foremost. Environmental hazards such as those caused by coal effect children 5x as much as an adult, as their system is still developing. The burning of coal causes cancer (leukemia highest coal burning associated disease in children), chronic lung disease.... More
I mean, these people act like mining coal is the ONLY thing that they could possibly do. Without it, they would never be able to work again.
I understand the need for jobs, but there are other industries that can provide better jobs than Big Coal. Coal is certainly going down - just a matter of time. So, yes, fellas, update those resumes and start thinking about cleaner, healthy and better paying (?) jobs!
Do you really believe what comes out of your head or are you just a parrot? Transferable skills.....tell me czar of the economy, if we shut the mines down like you want how many jobs do you think will be left out there for all the equipment/machinery operators???
Resumes you want...what you want is for us to write our own obituaries if we loose our regions main source of jobs!
Yea, this might be harder than we thought!
What i would like to know is how they plan on replacing the jobs! Mining in eastern kentucky alone provides more than 15,000 jobs more than 5,000 of the 15,000 alone in easter kentucky is tied directly to surface coal mining. want proof? visit this link!
.... More
if you dont have adobe
I bet Mr.Bob here thinks this is homemade propoganda from the coal industry also!!
Please visit these links the first one be sure to read the captions below the pictures on the side of the page!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5300507
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/21/AR200910...
Hope This has helped some ppl
How far does the sound travel when the dynamite is blasting off chunks of the mountains? How loud are the giant diesel-guzzling trucks and cranes? Anybody out there have soundbytes to share of those activities? Folks, there is no perfect solution. But we have to move past our fears of the immediate consequence to even consider the lasting ones. I live in southern Ohio and work in West Virginia. I see and hear the fear in the voices of those who support coal. These people aren't stupid or ignorant.... More
I would like to point out something, in the second link. Not only does these massive wind mills, kill animals, it also contributes to water pollution. The very thing you guys are bashing coal mining about. Read the reports please. I have heard arguments that coal mining, destroys animal life, the fact of the matter is, it does not! down hill from the mining site is a intact forrest, therefor a home for the animals! After reclamation, it provides a home, for various speicies of animals. Coal.... More
You can also visit it at www.epw.senate.gov/inhofe
Hope, this provided some information to the mis guided that thinks if we stop surface coal mining it would create more jobs! ha ha
Although, this picture was meant to put coal mining down. It points out the facts that people have stated on here! If you take the time to really look at the picture, notice the pit? notices the black/grey colored material in the bottom of it? Now look at the fresh brown dirt they have started filling the pit in with. This picture supports the fact that none of the black trash goes into a hollow fill. It plainly shows that it is burried and reclaimed over, having nothing what so ever to do with.... More
So There is some of us that support the Epa who like to be way out of line and rude to Everyone Else. I can see why the Coal Miner's and Supports comment back so outragously agianst these's overspoken Others. There are some of us within the Epa, who doesnt want mining to End, but just to be regulated better, and safer for everyone. Miner's should be able to work and do what they do best, and i support them for a Job well Done. This is already way out of hand and its time someone, like.... More
I too agree with this! most of us do not want surface coal mining to end! I support each and every one of the hard working men that goes out on these mtns every day and night and do what they do best, and do it with perfection i must say. What most of these people that say they are on our side do, is read bull crap papers made up by ppl against this form of mining, and coal mining in general! Coal Mining is becoming a safer and cleaner source each and every day! KEEP THE MINERS.... More
I too agree with this! most of us do not want surface coal mining to end! I support each and every one of the hard working men that goes out on these mtns every day and night and do what they do best, and do it with perfection i must say. What most of these people that say they are on our side do, is read bull crap papers made up by ppl against this form of mining, and coal mining in general! Coal Mining is becoming a safer and cleaner source each and every day! KEEP THE MINERS.... More
This is the first time i have ever saw anyone on the other side of the fence take up for our jobs!!!!
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