In Memory – Judy Bonds

Posted on August 27, 2011 | By Denny Tyler | No Comments

“Today all across Appalachia people are remembering environmentalist Judy Bonds on her birthday. Judy lost her battle with cancer back in January of 2011, but her memory lives on and continues to inspire those battling Mountaintop Removal to shout louder and fight harder.” – Tammy Marie Rose

Mountaintop Removal Photo Gallery

Posted on August 25, 2011 | By Denny Tyler | 1 Comment

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Anxiety & Passion, Mountaintop Removal Forum 2010

Posted on August 23, 2011 | By Denny Tyler | No Comments

I have stated both at seminars and in general conversation that I am more comfortable in the mountains among the trees and wildlife than I will ever be in social situations. I have social anxiety sometimes to the point where the anxiety paralyzes me. Just the thought of going into a situation where I have to interact with more than just a couple of people causes anxiety and nervousness and in most cases that fear stops me from putting myself in an uncomfortable situation.

Except… when it comes to speaking about a subject where passion overrides the fear and that subject is mountaintop removal. There has always been an issue where people don’t understand the connection between the mountains and the people living among them. Some of us look at the mountains and see life in abundance. We see an ecosystem, many species living as one and dependent on only each other and the bounty Mother Nature provides.

I look out across a mountaintop removal site and see nothing but death and destruction. An entire ecosystem wiped out for no good reason. It took Mother Nature thousands of years to put together what takes man just a few days to destroy. How can we be so bold to say that killing and/or displacing all of the life on any mountain is a good thing in any sense of the word good? We can’t say that with a clear conscience unless we are totally ignorant of our actions.

Coal may be partially to blame for keeping the lights on but it is entirely to blame for putting out the lights, permanently, on any ecosystem targeted for mining. What’s wrong with this picture?

My fight against mountaintop removal is based solely on a connection to the land fostered in me by my forefathers. Folks like us were taught the value of a mountain based not on the coal sequestered in the mountain but on the many species of life which rely on the mountain for survival… including human.

In my minds eye there is absolutely no justification for the death and destruction of the mountains in Appalachia. No job can be justified by killing. Might as well reinstate death penalties to save the executioners jobs.

Early last year myself and a couple other people gave a presentation to the Parkersburg Tea Party in regards to mountaintop removal. For me, it was without doubt one of the most anxiety filled adventures ever. Speaking wasn’t something I had to do, it was something I was/am compelled to do.

Nervousness aside I speak solely for the mountains, imagine the anguish that would be heard in Appalachia if the mountains could cry.

(This video series is from a mountaintop removal forum with the Parkersburg Tea Party. This was one of my first public presentations. My nervousness may be aside but it is also evident.)

The forum was held in Feb. 2010. View the entire series here.

Inbreeding in Appalachia??

Posted on July 15, 2011 | By Denny Tyler | No Comments

Regardless of who you are if you call Appalachia home this story should piss you off.

Law Firm Says Inbreeding Skews Data Linking Mountaintop Removal to Birth Defects

Last month, researchers at Washington State University and West Virginia University released a study that found a correlation between mountaintop removal and mining birth defects. A law firm with ties to the National Mining Association has refuted the study’s findings, but in the process, insulted many Appalachians.

Inbreeding in Appalachia is one of many stereotypes, perpetuated by movies and even Vice President Dick Cheney in 2008 at a National Press Club Event:

“We have Cheneys on both sides of the family, and we don’t even live in West Virginia!” he said.

Now D.C.-based law firm Crowell & Moring is citing Appalachian inbreeding as a way to discredit science linking mining and birth defects.

This is a direct intentional insult to every single person in Appalachia… again.

I was watching an episode of Cops a few nights ago and the announcer proclaimed right before a commercial that the next segment featured cops stopping “hair-brained hillbillies” … that is what the announcer called them. When the segment aired the folks getting stopped were from Ohio and nothing in the segment suggested the folks were from or associated with Appalachia.

I am from Appalachia and I am damn proud of that. I for one am getting extremely tired of it still being politically correct to stereotype folks who choose to live in the mountains. Enough is enough.

If it is still okay to make fun of/humiliate/degrade folks who live in the mountains then why wouldn’t it be okay to destroy those mountains… we are just hair-brained hillbillies after all.

What do I have to say to the law firm Crowell & Moring? – Come to West Virginia and make that ridiculous assertion… please.

The Fires Still Burn

Posted on July 3, 2011 | By Denny Tyler | No Comments

After a recent camping trip and hearing the thunderous explosion from the Edwight  MTR site echo down the hollow the very first day, I am once again compelled to make a plea for the end to this devastation. Following the explosion, literally everything on the mountain went quiet almost as if  the mountain were for the moment in silent mourning.

It is in man’s nature to protect that which cannot protect itself.

The mountains are teeming with life and they are life giving… shouldn’t those be reason enough to stop blowing them up especially for coal, a non-renewable resource? Total devastation for short-term gain. For the life of me I have never been able to understand that mind-set. There is no/never has been/never will be justification for mountaintop removal.

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I saw an advertisement on Facebook for a website that was promoting 60 mpg vehicles by 2025, although this is a somewhat noble endeavor it does nothing but keep us addicted to fossil fuels. “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”

What we need to be looking for is a way to stop using primitive dirty fossil fuels to power/propel our so-called technologically advanced society. Don’t talk to me about a 4G network or a car that can park itself when the power source comes from burning a fossil fuel. I don’t see the advancement at all.

Until we are 110% dedicated to giving all of our nifty gadgets a clean renewable energy source and stop raping the planet for Her non-renewable resources then advanced cannot be in any description of what we are.

We should all get together tell the fossil fuel lobbyists to go to Hell and come up with a cleaner way to power the planet. This I know for certain, there will come a time when we no longer have an option either due to climate change or depleting resources. It would seem to me the general consensus for now is to keep burning fossil fuels and the consequences/inevitabilities be damned.

An idiot, as defined by Wikipedia, is a mentally deficient person, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way.

The fires are definitely still burning and I still have a very low tolerance for idiots.