15 replies to this topic

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"Mountaintop removal and its various other nicknames must be abolished."

http://www.huffingto....html?ref=green
http://www.huffingto...o_b_804001.html
http://earthjustice....-removal-mining

[mariaandrea]

There's just no other way around it. It must go. I can think of no other more destructive mining method, and even the people who live in those areas, who historically tend to support companies that provide jobs, are against it. But, they have little political power. It's up to everyone to stand against it. It helps them and helps us all.

[joeldgreat]

Yeah, its only logical that if one will modify the structure of a mountain, sooner or later it will cause devastating effects particularly landslid and flooding. The problem is that many government officials and other government agencies are collaborating with these companies to create havoc in the environment for the sake of development and money.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

joeldgreat, on 05 January 2012 - 03:46 PM, said:

Yeah, its only logical that if one will modify the structure of a mountain, sooner or later it will cause devastating effects particularly landslid and flooding. The problem is that many government officials and other government agencies are collaborating with these companies to create havoc in the environment for the sake of development and money.

"Purple mountains majesty"-not so much.

[zararina]

There was a commercial here promoting mining and of course what they had been showing is all "good" just like it provide jobs and create roads. But those just benefits the company more than the people and the community.
They create jobs since they need workers, how can they operate and amass wealth if they do not have workers that salaries are not even one percent of their income and life was at risk. They create fixed roads because their tractors and their other vehicles needs that road to make their operation easy and again amass wealth.
If there would be landslides and floods who are the most affected? The owners? The corporate members? I don't think so!

[Shortpoet-GTD]

http://beyondcoal.org/dirtytruth/MTR

"If you’re not familiar with mountaintop removal coal mining, you need to be.
In Appalachia, mining companies blow the tops off mountains to reach a thin seam of coal.
They then dump millions of tons of rubble and toxic waste into the streams and valleys below the mining sites.
This destructive practice has damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 miles of streams and threatens to destroy 1.4 million acres
of mountaintops and forests by 2020.
The mining poisons drinking water, destroys beautiful forests and wildlife habitat, increases the risk of flooding
and wipes out entire communities.

Selenium is a mineral that, while in small amounts is necessary to support life (it is present in many vitamin pills),
in larger amounts can be extremely toxic to people and to wildlife.
Mountaintop removal pollutes waterways and allows toxic heavy metals such as selenium and arsenic to
leach into local water supplies - the same water that Appalachia's people rely on.

Since selenium builds up in living organisms over time (bioaccumulation), even a small amount in water
can increase exponentially in fish and wildlife.
Fish and birds are poisoned by eating selenium-laden food, including contaminated insects, fish or vegetation.
In addition, selenium can cause reproductive problems as it’s passed from parents to offspring in eggs.
In fish, ingestion of toxic amounts of selenium can cause total reproductive failure, birth defects and damage to
gills and internal organs."

http://www.treehugge...oal-mining.html

http://www.google.co...iw=1024&bih=479

[Hydrotopia]

It fuels freedom and prosperity! ;-)

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Hydrotopia, on 07 January 2012 - 11:14 AM, said:

It fuels freedom and prosperity! ;-)

I know you mean that sarcastically, even if others don't.

[MakingCents]

"Mountaintop removal'  one of the worlds worst/best euphemisms?   I know what it is and don't support it, but I can tell if the words when first heard trigger a pleasant feeling or an unpleasant one.  SOrta of mixed I feel.

[Green Thumb]

I guess this is how they beautify the environment. In salon you trim the hair, in business and government sectors, you trim the forest. Then in derma clinic you have the pimple/dark spots/wrinkle removal. With business and government sectors you now have the mountain removal. The only difference would be with the salon and derma clinic, the customers are happy. With the business and government agencies, they are the ones who are happy but the environment is in distress. However they put it, unless they would produce two mountains before the one that they would remove, they can’t have the people’s support except those who follow the lead of money and who are being threatened by the grandeur and absurdity of their power.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

MakingCents, on 12 January 2012 - 08:32 PM, said:

when first heard trigger a pleasant feeling or an unpleasant one.  

Nothing pleasant about the blight in these pictures.
It's a horrible scar on the land.
http://www.ohvec.org...op_removal/007/

[MakingCents]

Shortpoet-GTD, on 13 January 2012 - 04:21 AM, said:

Nothing pleasant about the blight in these pictures.
It's a horrible scar on the land.
http://www.ohvec.org...op_removal/007/

Oh I absolutely agree, I just think it's an odd way of putting it. I just mean that people who don't know what it is and hear the words 'mountaintop removal' and it really doesn't sound all that bad...

[jasserEnv]

My father worked setting up rock crushing plants and traveled the world to do so. One time, he came back from Chili in the 1980s and was completely appalled at the destruction being done there by North American mining companies who were leveling mountain tops to get at thin seams of precious metals. It was completely ridiculous. He had pictures of whole valleys just filled in. It completely turned him off the country, but I had to remind him that it was the North American companies who were complicit.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

The coal industries latest bait and switch scheme is to try and take
$2 billion dollars of federal funds (our tax money) to build the "Coalfield's Expressway"
through Virginia.

They will flatten the area using mountaintop removal methods, extract the coal and keep the profits all based
on the lie of building a "road."
Locals call it for what it is- a taxpayer financed strip mine.

Article.


Also, this article about the powers that be in Kentucky selling out to buyers in India, further
damaging eco-systems there, and flattening mountains. All for the almighty buck.

Article.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Mountaintop removal continues, even though media types may be saying-coal is dead.


"With little recourse available, they are still being asked to accept the systematic destruction of their homeland
and heritage as the cost of doing business.
Despite recent victories over the coal industry’s use of mountaintop removal, coal is not dead and neither
is the most destructive method used to mine it."

Residents of Naoma, WV, received this letter from Alex Energy,
(it reads in part)

"Blasting is scheduled to begin June 13, 2013 and to continue to July 12, 2013."

Courts are not on the side of the environment either, and streams will be contaminated; along with unfair
rulings on health care for the workers.
Source

[Shortpoet-GTD]

So many of the mountain's in West Virginia have been destroyed but the people living there are fighting to
stop the mountaintop removal from coal mining.

They want wind power instead but fighting massey is an uphill battle.

Video and text from National Geographic.

http://video.nationa...ce=relatedvideo