Anti-Coal? Opinion
Posted on October 6, 2011 | By Denny Tyler | No Comments
I’ll be the first to admit that some posts to this blog are simply my opinion. What is not true is that my opinion is anti-coal. I am anti-mountaintop removal and anti-idiots who support the practice. Why mountaintop removal is utilized is not as important to me. It is the act itself I have a problem with.
Seriously, look at the header. Can anyone say they want that monstrosity with all of its impacts in their backyard? You would probably rather keep your green grass and swimming pools, we would rather keep our mountains and streams.
In my opinion… mountaintop removal is exactly the same as cancer, it destroys everything it comes into contact with. Even if we were able to stop the spread of mountaintop removal right this very minute, the scars already on the people and the landscape would endure for generations, the mountains already mined gone forever.
Am I anti-coal? No. I am anti-blowing up the mountains for coal.
This is the point in this post where I drop one label, anti-coal, and pick up another, environmental extremist.
I grew up in the mountains of West Virginia, literally. The mountains always have been and always will be my home. If the coal industry thinks they can come into my mountains, completely destroy them and then try to scare me into keeping quiet about it… well, all I can say is good luck with that.
But… it’s jobs, we need flat land, tell us your fear and we will justify mountaintop removal with it. Be the goat, leave managing the herd to us.
Sometimes folks keep quiet because of fear and/or ridicule even when their own health and welfare are at risk. Personally, I don’t understand it but I do know it by name, oppression.
I have witnessed cracked foundations on a home with mountaintop removal for a neighbor. I have a problem with that. The same family had a son, my friend, die in 2004 from cancer, he is buried on the mountain. I see the destroyed foundation on their home because of blasting on the mine site and think about how the same concussions ripple through the graveyard where my friend, their son is buried. I have a big problem with that.
I have visited a ghost town where the residents found it easier to leave than to deal with the impacts of mountaintop removal. I have a problem with that. I have seen both native plant and wildlife habitat wiped out, live trees cut down and set on fire, creeks running black or red with mine pollution… I have a problem with all of that.
Yes I do have an opinion and come hell or high water I am going to exercise my right to voice that opinion.
——
Afterthought – the more I hear from the coal lobby the more anti-coal I become so… don’t blame me if at some point I end up that way.
Our remnants of wilderness will yield bigger values to the nation’s character and health than they will to its pocketbook, and to destroy them will be to admit that the latter are the only values that interest us. – Aldo Leopold
Comments
Leave a Reply
Search This Site
Archives
You Can Help…
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Featured Posts
Popular Posts
Endmtr.com Forum
- Mountaintop removal in Tennessee December 18, 2011
- Michigan coal-fired plants to close; wind and air to step up December 17, 2011
- Energy Company Abandons Plan For Georgia Coal Plant December 17, 2011
- GOP’s Coal Poison Pill Risks White House Veto Of Payroll Tax Cut Bill December 17, 2011
- New study documents cumulative impact of mountaintop mining December 12, 2011
The Latest Google News – MTR & Climate Change
- Environmental group wants to duke it out with energy company - Waynesville Smoky Mountain News - 22 Feb 12
- Interactive map reveals the human cost of mountaintop mining - Mongabay.com - 21 Feb 12
- Obama, Fracking and 2012 - Free Speech TV (blog) - 20 Feb 12
- Fossil fuel industry, look out: Campus Sustainability + Occupy = Divestment - It's Getting Hot In Here - 20 Feb 12
- Beyond Hope: Groundbreaking Environmental Road Trip Film Takes Climate Change ... - Huffington Post (blog) - 16 Feb 12
Information / Hotline
Contributing Authors – Past & Present
Gallery
EPA
Admin
Visitors Online
- 03 visitor(s) online
- powered by WassUp
