Larry Gibson, Activist, and his dog, at Kayford Mountain, WV
GAL has made exposing the “dirty truth” about coal as a “clean” energy source one of its top priorities.
As our society’s wants and needs grow, the pressures being put on our natural resources are overwhelming. The environmental diversity of our flora and fauna is collapsing around the world under this strain. Here, in our own country, the seed bed of the North American continent, our mountains and forests are being burned, bulldozed, and exploded daily, all because behind closed doors in Washington, a group of people decided that the Appalachian Mountains and its people could be sacrificed so the rest of our country could have a cheap and readily available fossil energy source —coal. We are talking about ground zero for our nation’s energy.
The burning of coal emits hundreds of toxic chemicals into the air we breathe and is a leading contributor to global warming. For every ton of coal burned, 3.6 tons of CO2 enters our atmosphere. Although coal supplies about 52% of our nation’s energy, it is responsible for 97% of the particulate matter in our atmosphere generated from all of the various power industries combined. All of the mercury raining down on our land, polluting our waters, poisoning our fish and our people, comes from burning coal. Sulfur Dioxide, a contributor to acid rain, comes from burning coal. Ground-level Ozone air pollution is caused by burning coal.
Mountain top removal coal mining (MTR) is how most of our coal is obtained. MTR is a fast and relatively inexpensive operation for the mining companies. MTR sites can be manned by fifteen or twenty men, using giant equipment, and working round the clock —twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Mining companies are blowing the tops off mountains, often 1,000 feet down, to extract the thin seams of coal. For every ton of coal extracted, approximately 100 tons of rock and earth called “over burden” is bulldozed into the valleys below. Two thousand miles of rivers, streams, and headwaters have been buried in Appalachia by coal company operations. On our planet where water seems so abundant, only 1% is actually drinkable. Water is our lifeblood, and is too precious to squander.
After the coal is mined it must be washed before it can be transported. For every ton of coal washed, 95 gallons of water is poisoned forever, turning it into a toxic sludge that weighs four times what it did to start. The sludge is stored in man-made impoundments, held back by earthen dams, many of which are leaking. These ponds often store billions of gallons of sludge.
The time has come to end the tyranny of mountain top removal coal mining. Three thousand five hundred people (3,500) die prematurely every year in West Virginia from the effects of coal mining and its resulting pollution. We must all spread the word about how damaging coal is, and how coal companies are laying waste to our beautiful Appalachian Mountains and their people.
This new age of awareness means we can no longer hide from our energy problems. We have an ear in Washington now. We must inform our legislators on the issues, and get them to act. Let’s make clean renewable energy happen. We have the technology. All we need is the will.
We are all culpable in this destruction of Mother Earth. In Massachusetts 50% of all electricity comes from coal extracted from mountain top removal mining.
What can you do?
Reduce and use clean energy:
National Grid now offers 50% and 100% green energy options through their “GreenUp” renewable energy program in Massachusetts. Click on the following link to find out about this program: http://tinyurl.com/greenup.
To see if there are any similar programs in your state, look here: http://tinyurl.com/greenelectricity.
National Grid also offers a free energy audit. This is a great way to save money and save the planet at the same time. (http://tinyurl.com/energyaudit)
Go to the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (www.ohvec.org) and www.stopmountaintopremoval.org to find out how you can use the democratic process to stop the destruction.
(All photos in this post courtesy of Mark Schmerling. Click on each photo below for more information about it.)
