Cross posted from CCAN’s blog.
Thanks to the constant updates that is my Twitter feed, this week I discovered NASA’s Earth Observatory website. This website shows satellite images of the Earth- many tragic (arctic sea ice), some providing glimpse of hope (burn recovery in Yellowstone) and some simply bizarre (the growth of Dubai.) Perusing the images and attempting to interpret the changes from image to image was intriguing until the timelapse of mountaintop removal stopped me completely. I no longer marveled at the ability to capture such images, I was sickened at what we are doing to our mountains in Appalachia. I’ve seen mountaintop removal sites in person, but these images clearly show the scale and the permanence of the destruction.
According to the website:
“Below the densely forested slopes of southern West Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains is a layer cake of thin coal seams. To uncover this coal profitably, mining companies engineer large—sometimes very large—surface mines. This time-series of images of a surface mine in Boone County, West Virginia, illustrates why this controversial mining method is also called “mountaintop removal.”
I wanted to share some of the images, though watching the timelapse video on the website is even more compelling.
1984
1988
1995
1998
2004
2009
As you can see, despite claims that the mountains are reclaimed, the scars that mountain top removal leaves on landscape is visible decades later. The first of those mines are older than I am. My whole life the mountains have tried to recover. We cannot let this practice continue. This year, the Virginia General Assembly took the first important step to ending this destructive practice with Senator Ticer’s introduction of the Stream Saver Bill. Congress is considering similar legislation, as is the General Assembly in Kentucky.
Next week I’ll be at Week in Washington, an annual lobby week calling for the end of mountaintop removal. The following week I’ll join hundreds of youth from across Virginia and the nation in Wise County, Virginia for Mountain Justice Spring Break. These mountains have been trying to recover my whole life. It’s time I spend some of my time to help them.
“The following week I’ll join hundreds of youth from across Virginia and the nation in Wise County, Virginia for Mountain Justice Spring Break”, Why are you not staying in Wise County? Natural tunnel is in Scott County.
I guess it is time that I take a Spring Break trip as well and go somewhere people actually need help.
These images are handwriting on the wall for what there rest of our beautiful state is going to look like. People of West Virginia, something has to be done about the vermin (Rockefeller and Rahall) that we’ve sent to represent us in Washington and Charleston. They and the lowlife like them are responsible for this disaster. They need to be thrown out. Position on MTR should be the first qualifier on whether they get our vote. In the mean time write millions of letters.