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Obama, Clinton don't dare challenge King Coal's unspeakable environmental violence



  3. JanforGore
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It's the one environmental crime that no US politician will confront – the destruction of Kentucky's mountains. Leonard Doyle visits the Appalachian peaks being blasted by Big Coal.
~~~~

The road slicing through the thickly forested hills of eastern Kentucky used to be called the Daniel Boone Parkway. It was named for the controversial American folk hero who fought his way across Indian country to settle a state where many of his descendants still live.

That was before the coal industry began blowing up the Appalachian Mountains as a cheap way of getting at the black stuff below, behaviour decried by the environmental group Appalachian Voices as "one of the greatest human rights and environmental tragedies in America's recent history".

Daniel Boone's road is now the Hal Rogers Parkway, named after one of the Kentucky coal industry's closest friends in Washington, a Republican Congressman of 34 years. It passes through a mountain range older than the Himalayas and is blanketed in broadleaf forests rivalled only by the Amazon basin in its biodiversity.

But the canopy of trees which lines the parkway as it rises from the bluegrass horse country to the mountains is a trompe l'oeil. The lush forest gives way to scraggly trees along the ridge-line, and behind those trees is evidence of unspeakable ecological violence. In a process known as mountaintop removal an upland moonscape is being created, which is incapable of regenerating trees. As far as the eye can see, the land is grey and pockmarked with huge black lakes, filled with toxic coal slurry.

This has come about because of America's insatiable appetite for cheap coal to generate electricity, a process enthusiastically backed by the Bush administration as it tries to displace the consumption of imported oil. And the Democrats are little better. They control Kentucky and neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton have dared to challenge "King Coal" while campaigning.

The devastation being wrought on Appalachia is best appreciated from the air. An organisation called Southwinds offers people an eagle-eye view of the carnage, not readily appreciated from the road. Another way to see what's going on behind the ridge-line is to take a Google Earth virtual tour of an online memorial to the 470 mountains blown up and levelled in recent years.
JanforGore

47 responses // Obama, Clinton don't dare challenge King Coal's unspeakable environmental violence

  • And they expect me to vote for them? Their (meaning Clinton, Obama, McCain, and politicians in general) silence and acquiescence is KILLING people and this planet. I can't vote for that. And that means they better change their tune real fast if they want my vote come November.
    JanforGore
  • http://current.com/items/88951183_clinton_obama_talk_up...
    They even talk up "clean coal" which is anything but clean. So my question to both of them is : WHY? Why are you supporting an industry that KILLS PEOPLE? That gives people cancer? That pollutes our air and water? That keeps people in poverty? I expect it from Republicans, but not from candidates who claim they are "Democrats."
    JanforGore
  • http://current.com/topics/87166761_coal_kills
    An entire topic of information about 'clean coal', the deceptive ad campaign behind it, and the silence on the part of politicians who claim they want "change."
    JanforGore
  • If I'm not mistaken, there were a lot of the dem debates sponsored by a "clean coal" company or subsidiary. I'm a bit too much in Sunday-mode to research it right now, though.

    We can't be surprised that these interests will try to start manipulating the party in power. Luckily for the planet, the Democratic party tends to be populated at the grassroots level by people who are willing to demand accountability from their leaders a bit more than the Republicans seem to. In any case, calling bullshit on them is the right thing for folks to be doing, regardless of party.
    beedee
  • that coal powers my refrigerator. and I have left over pizza in my refrigerator that I plan on eating today.

    I mean, to make a long story short.
    stephenthomson
  • vote the best candidate in and keep pushing. To not vote in our only option right now has no direction. Makes no point. Changes nothing. This election is only a move to START change. What is happening economically, environmentally, and otherwise is WAY too complicated for any ONE person to give us the answers we ALL want to hear. Choose the best to start and never stop participating and pushing on the issues you value most. we have NO HERO to save the day. Not even Al Gore. Rock on people.
    recommended by  Chique
    twodee
  • Turn off the lights.
    TouchArt
  • A pre-election candidate is often completely different than what we get after he/she is elected. It's sad but given that a large percentage of this country does not actively think about issues and just listens to what the media tells them, politicians have to be extremely cautious, crafty, conniving, etc. before the election. Usually this ensures that anyone who enters the election process with any shred of decency or humanity ascends to the presidency with none of it left.
    shbhanda
  • Agreed handa.

    Especially since the media can bombard a candidate with non-issues and make them appear in any light that they wish.

    At some point, you just have to hold your nose, cross your fingers and drop the ballot in the box. In a Republic, we don't have that much control.
    Saladin
  • Jan, thanks for pointing this out. It's an amazing story. I agree with Twodee. We must work hard to get Obama in office and then move the change along. I appreciate your tenacity Jan, you hold us all to the highest standards. But refusing to support Obama on the issue of coal, as black as it is, can't achieve the change we need. We must work together to get the best candidate in office and keep moving in the right direction. I am confident that someone as smart and direct as Obama will work with both parties to find a solution to the energy crisis, which ultimately means finding a way out of coal.

    Rock on!
    recommended by  stephenthomson
    Julie_Soller
  • I'm not looking for a hero (geez. I sound like Tina Turner). I'm looking for someone who can balance common sense with compassion and intellect. A president, the world can respect.
    Strip/blast mining must stop. Just look at that image and try to imagine what that range used to look like. Are you imagining it? Good. Because, that's all you can do.
    huntre
  • FINGER POINTING !

    In recent travels by plane over much american territory I have observed similar situations, like that in Montana - Big Sky area... not for coal but for golf courses! It is such a great thing to play golf and watch tournaments, it is also so important to have electrical energy? Isn't it?

    I do find it fantastic having access to those amenities. …

    However, what are those businesses who provide those facilities doing in order to compensate for the bio-diversity damage they cause?

    Can they do it and even profit from the attitude?

    Are you short of ideas?

    Come and visit us at: www.therightchoice.tv

    We will share a great project with you upon request.
    wgdecampos
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here, here, here, and here
    The Coal Industry is so destructive to the environment. I almost laugh when think its 2008 and we are still burning coal for energy.
    LukesAlive
  • I screened the film "Kilowatt Ours" earlier this year, and really enjoyed it. The filmmaker includes footage of the above mountain range, but offers simple ideas to reduce coal useage. $600 a year? Hmmm.

    http://www.kilowattours.org/
    bikefilms
  • May be a hot topic to avoid before the election, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be addressed after. Lets hope so.
    sueathome
  • beedee: Right you are. Calling them all on their pandering BS regardless of party is the only way "change" comes. It comes from US. It isn't going to come from Obama alone or any of them. And I will badger the hell out of them until they do the right thing. My child isn't going to grow up in a world like this. A world of grey stinking pools of water with blown off mountains and nuclear waste flowing around him. No way. And I will protest it to any elected official regardless of party. But notice most only will say " just vote in the best one (even though there isn't a best one) and hope it works itself out." Not: let's join together to protest this and make that change happen by telling them they need to change. And that is why the status quo remains.
    JanforGore
  • A hot topic to avoid before the election? Why? And how do we know it will change afterward? What environmental record of Obama's do I have to go on? Does he even have one to speak of? Voting for the Bush/Cheney energy bill giving subsidies to coal and nuclear? Did he have to do that too for "politics?" Again, this is serious to me and I put this planet before the candidate. I am tired of them treating me as if I don't need to know what they are going to do NOW and not making those promises BEFORE the election. If they can't do that what does that say about this bs political system, and why should I support that?
    JanforGore
  • LukesAlive: I agree. How many times have the words solar energy passed any of their lips this past week?
    JanforGore
  • It's like, just stop!
    iknew
  • bikefilms: Great link. Thank you. This is why we need an Electranet. It will spur the economy and save energy.
    JanforGore
  • twodee: I don't have any heroes and would tell Mr. Gore the same thing if he were running and doing the same thing these candidates are doing. And I think he would respect me for doing it because I care.
    JanforGore
  • Jan, thanks for bringing this up, but it was brought about by the Busheney gang allowing it to happen. Busheney doesn't care about anything but more greed and plundering of America and the world.

    Prosecute them all for treason!

    Busheney gang could have spent a trillion dollars on renewable energy sources, instead the peanut brain went with war and destruction to get at oil and attempt to monopolize the growing middle east economies for the next 100 years.

    Fools they are.
    VoyagerFilms
  • Yeah Jan, thanks for posting this. I learned something today! And yeah, it's terrible what they're allowed to get away with. I fear that by the time everyone realizes we need to seek alternative energy sources, it'll be too late.
    bryneyancey
  • We also have to take responsibility for our own use of coal-produced electricity and stop blaming.
    Americans can reduce the amount of electricity produced by coal-powered electric plants by conserving electricity. They produce electricity to meet the needs of consumers. That's us. We can reduce their market by conserving, using less electricity and beginning to convert to local, renewable, sustainable green energy production like solar, wind and geo-thermal.
    We can also write, call and lobby our congress people to act to fund and subsidize sustainable energy research, production and implementation and stop subsidizing, the oil, coal and nuclear energy industries.
    TouchArt
  • Yes we can and I do all I can to reduce my footprint upon this planet. But we must also change the laws and make coal companies accountable for their environmental destruction. Therefore, I do blame the politicians who have the power to make that happen and refuse to use it.
    JanforGore
  • Not only in the United States........ NRDC petition.
    Two proposed mining schemes could despoil the Canadian
    headwaters of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park -- one
    of the wildest places in North America and part of our Greater
    Rockies BioGem.

    We need your urgent action to block these disastrous proposals,
    which would pollute the pristine Flathead River with
    contaminated waste and threaten the outstanding fish and
    wildlife of Montana's Glacier National Park.

    Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
    and urge the Canadian government to prohibit industrial mining
    activities and coalfield developments in the headwaters of
    Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

    Cline Mining Corporation is proposing to put an open-pit
    coalmine just 25 miles upstream of Glacier National Park. The
    mine would remove a mountaintop to create an open pit mine,
    settling ponds and waste dumps in a pristine valley.

    Meanwhile, BP Energy Corporation has proposed a massive coalbed
    methane project (over 125,000 acres) that would require miles of
    pipelines and wells producing hundreds of millions of gallons of
    toxic wastewater. A dense network of roads would destroy prime
    habitat for grizzly bears and other wildlife.

    The Flathead River, which originates in British Columbia and
    flows south into Montana where it forms the western boundary of
    Glacier National Park, is one of the most wild, biologically
    rich places in the world.

    The Flathead valley and river form the heart of the Crown of the
    Continent ecosystem, which is home to wolves, grizzly bears,
    wolverines and lynx.

    Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
    and tell the Canadian government to protect Waterton-Glacier
    International Peace Park from damaging industrialization.

    Thank you for helping to save one of North America's most
    valuable wildlife habitats.

    Sincerely,

    Frances Beinecke
    President
    Natural Resources Defense Council
    recommended by  JanforGore
    SeaJade
  • Voyager films: They wouldn't get away with it if we didn't let them and Obama, Clinton and McCain (though I know he definitely won't speak against it) are just continuing it by not speaking out against it now. This isn't about partisanship to me, and Democrats have been in Congress long enough to have worked to stop this too. Blasting mountaintops off didn't just start eight years ago. This has been going on for a while now.
    JanforGore
  • Do you really expect any substantial positions from our candidates?
    Not likely.
    AlxanderRaven
  • Strip mining is ugly any way you look at it. But it's not like the old days any more. Now a company has to post a bond for restoration and they can't let their earthwork ruin nearby streams with sediment and they also have to capture and treat acid mine drainage.

    The strip mining process does alter the landscape that's for sure, and, while they are mining, it does look like a moonscape. But they can't just walk away from that like they used to. They have to put the land back in some living form. There will of course still be major changes for the worse, especially to the surface and groundwater hydrology, but the land will be regraded and reforested. It will become habitat again.

    And let's face it, if you are against oil, and who isn't right now, then you have to accept coal on some set of terms that actually lets it be mined. At least until you have figured out how to reduce your consumption by a lot. And I doubt anyone who is posting here has done that in any significant fashion. I know I try hard to use less energy but I've only gotten my use down 10 to 20%.

    And don't forget coal goes into steel. We still want America to make steel, right? Remember this when we rail against companies moving production to other countries.

    I'm not saying the coal companies don't have something to answer for. But it's just really a lot more complicated than most of the people posting here give credit for. So, expecting a presidential candidate to "take on coal" in this election is really a stretch.
    BentFranklin
  • I hope our latest trip to Mars pans out! We are gonna need some new resources soon!
    Jtonio4823
  • Thanks Jan... there are alot of good posts here and Bent is right for the most part, but those restrictions on the mining of coal still have to be enforced...Not done very well in this administration. The guy who heads up our EPA (I forget his name) is a former lobbyist for one of those same huge corporations that need to be controlled. Also, you have to consider that the amount of taxes paid by the industry, to a large degree, validate its continuance...as far as this gov is concerned, but that is not the way it should be...

    Big Coal, in KY, is on the same level as tobacco, one of the major money crops for the state...that is a big part of the problem...

    The plight of those poor mountain people began a long time ago, when the Pinkertons, acting for the big corporations, intimidated and actually killed some miners to keep them from organizing...a lot of those people whose families had owned the land for many generations, lost everything they had...sad but true...The Big Coal Industry still weilds mega power...

    I agree with twodee, lets get someone good in there and hold their feet to the fire...
    PlatoTacius
  • My aunt used to work for the state of kentucky. all of my family is from eastern ky. her job was to make sure after all the blasting and strip mining was finished the coal companies had to reclaim the land by cleaing up whatever was left behind, making a water collection area for runoff, planting grass and trees. not alot can be done but this is better than nothing. support programs like this and state jobs such as this.
    7c0m9
  • What can I say, in this current generation it just seems people want to live in a world that doesn't extend past their walls and roofs.
    Greg_Bunker
  • Fuck profiteering! We should stop using oil and coal to power our lives. There are plenty of natural energy sources that can be implemented to create power as well as fuel vehicles. Combustion energy is outdated, we need to get with the wave of the future.
    lifestudentno83
  • We must explore the Coriolis Force...change the exterior force of the motion...look it up...you'll be surprised...