TV Schedule

Coal Mining Ravages Appalachia Mountains


  3. JanforGore
  4. related topics
The extremes we are going to in order to satisfy our insatiable desire for energy are truly tragic.///////excerpt//////////And then there are the slurry impoundments glistening in the sun – giant black lakes, built to contain the toxic dishwater left from cleaning coal. The biggest – just over a ridge from Gibson's lookout – holds enough sludge to fill 8,000 Olympic-sized pools.

"You could fly until you were out of gas and you'd never run out of mines," says pilot Susan Lapis, who even after 10 years of flying famous activists like Robert Kennedy Jr. and Woody Harrelson over the mines is still surprised by new sites she spots.

"If we come back in six weeks, that ridge will not be there," she says pointing down.

From this vantage point, you'd think this would be the biggest story in America. Or at least West Virginia. But even in the capital, 50 kilometres away, few people speak out about it.

Raney says that's because the mines provide employment and are environmentally sound. Activists say it's because the industry has its hands deep in the pockets and around the throats of state politicians.

"Our government is a banana republic," says Nelson.

But even he didn't know about it until nine years ago, when the company he worked for blew off the top of a mountain above his home.

With all that coal, West Virginians should be richer than Tar Sands engineers. Instead, after Mississippians, they are the poorest in the U.S.

Poverty is everywhere. The bungalows crowding valley towns are dilapidated, roofs sagging and rotting, metal fences rusted. Most of the stores on the main streets of towns like Whitesville are boarded up. The churches look haunted.

West Virginians are also among the least educated. According to New York Times Magazine journalist Jeff Goodell, the literacy rate in West Virginia is "about the same as Kabul's."

"This is an area where people can easily be manipulated," Reece says. "They're poor and not well-educated."/////////end of excerpt
JanforGore

4 responses // Coal Mining Ravages Appalachia Mountains

  • Those people have no money or political clout. Why should anyone care what happens to them? Human decency is why. That this devastation could happen in America says much about how corrupted we have become. Shut those SOBs down build some solar panel factories there and give those people back their lives. We are destroying a whole way of life and a beautiful part of this country that is going to be a waste land that can never be recovered. A nuclear bomb couldn't be anymore devastating.
    Marilynn_Murray
  • I totally agree with Jan. I am shocked and horrified by what I saw in the video. George and I were just talking about the change in the winds in our area - the Blue Ridge Mountains in VA. I just know this atrocity is a contributing factor.
    sunshine11653
  • I think it is crazy what we will do for "cheap" energy. Destroying mountains is still a lot more expensive than the sun's free energy!!
    googolplexer
  • Appalachian coal production in 2007 was estimated at 377.1 million tons.
    Frier_peppino

Add your response

Login/Registration is required to add a response.