BS: Appalachian Destruction

Subject: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 06:47 AM

Mountain Top Removal - coal exploitation in West Virginia has caused the greatest environmental disaster in the USA.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mountaintop_removal

The award winning film can be seen here ...

http://rt.com/programs/documentary/environment-catastrophe-flooding-mountain/

A multi-award winning film, Mountain Top Removal documents one of the greatest environmental and human rights catastrophes in American history. In the coalfields of Appalachia, West Virginia, individuals, families and entire communities are being driven off their land by flooding, landslides and blasting resulting from mountaintop removal coal mining. Mountaintop removal is a form of strip mining in which coal companies use explosives to blast as much as 800 to 1000 feet off the tops of mountains to reach the coal seams that lie underneath. The resulting millions of tons of waste rock, dirt, and vegetation are then dumped into surrounding valleys, burying miles and miles of streams under piles of rubble hundreds of feet deep.

A film by Michael Cusack O'Connell, a two-time EMMY winner.

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 06:56 AM

Also see:

http://earthjustice.org/our_work/campaigns/stop-mountaintop-removal-mining

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 07:03 AM

Other links

http://www.democracynow.org/tags/mountaintop_removal

http://appvoices.org/end-mountaintop-removal/mtr101/

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 10:29 AM

Or you could also read the various Mudcat threads on coal mining and how much we love "Clean Coal".........................

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 10:40 AM

And, the thoughts, experiences, and songs of Jean Ritchie which she has posted here. Still, it doesn't hurt to know of more attention on the subject. I hope the film wakes up a lot of people.

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 11:29 AM

Among them, read - and hear - Ritchie's 'Black Water'.

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 11:35 AM

Whilst being aware for a long time that the Appalachian Mountains and communities have been raped by the coal companies, I was alerted to this specific issue by Russia Today (a Freeview digital .v. channel in the UK) which has just shown this film. I thought the film and issues portrayed - including the strength of the protests - needed further publicity amongst a community that subscribed to Pete Seeger's film the 'Power of Song' (another defining film).

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 12:38 PM

"Daddy won't you take me back to Mulenberg County,
Down by the green river where paradise lay
I'm Sorry my son, but you're too late in asking.
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."

Will the bastards ever leave us anything?

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 12:40 PM

"Will the bastards ever leave us anything?"

The bastards will leave you the mess.

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 12:55 PM

There are many gripping lines in Ritchie's Black Water, but the one that comes to my mind first is where she says her son's grave is now a mile farther down.

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 01:41 PM

Black Water is a wonderful song. It gets me angry every time I hear it. As important as song is, I just wish we had more than words and anger to fight the fat cat ravagers, who are hell bent on destroying our planet, at the devil only knows what cost to the people in it.

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 12:43 PM

Just checked up on my home County (Mingo, WV) using Google's satelite maps.
Looks like the rate at which it is disappearing has increased.

Too late, too late.

Bummer

Russ (Permanent GUEST as WV expat)

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 12:50 PM

I've been singing "Black Waters" for 20 years or so.... will probably do it next month when we have a musical weekend in West Virginia.

(Russ... this near the town of Mingo... not the county.)

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 08:51 PM

Bill D.,
Enjoy. I'm familiar with Mingo, the town.

Russ (Permenent GUEST)

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 07:37 AM

Part two of the film is at

http://rt.com/programs/documentary/environment-catastrophe-flooding-mountain-2/

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 07:42 AM

Mountain top removal. Part 2

A multi-award winning film, Mountain Top Removal documents one of the greatest environmental and human rights catastrophes in American history. In the coalfields of Appalachia, West Virginia, individuals, families and entire communities are being driven off their land by flooding, landslides and blasting resulting from mountaintop removal coal mining. Mountaintop removal is a form of strip mining in which coal companies use explosives to blast as much as 800 to 1000 feet off the tops of mountains to reach the coal seams that lie underneath. The resulting millions of tons of waste rock, dirt, and vegetation are then dumped into surrounding valleys, burying miles and miles of streams under piles of rubble hundreds of feet deep.

A film by Michael Cusack O'Connell, a two-time EMMY winner.

Awards won by Mountain Top Removal; Charlotte FF, Mion Solutions Environmental Film Award, Wild & Scenic FF Award, Reel Current Award, Woods Hole Film Festival Award, Appalachian FF Award and Indie Grits FF Award

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 11:58 AM

Now available on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAD4-BpUPoE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKYFOYdc-w0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1u37pC3oC4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoM7Ym9cC2I

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 12:14 PM

Daddy, won't ya' take me back to Mulenburg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: gnu
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 01:48 PM

The only thing I liked about the film was the music. Other than that, it was disgusting... heartwrenching at times to see the destruction and the misery.

As an engineering student in the 70s, I was impressed by the magnitude of the machinery (dragline) I viewed and walked through here in New Brunswick, Canada. But, a fellow engineering student buddy had just got his pilot's license shortly after our field trip and we went for a cruise... what I saw from the air sickened me. 80' deep a 16" seam of coal was strip mined... for coal with the highest sulpher content in the world at that time. No amount of air bombing our lakes with lime could stop the acid rain (which had been the cured to some extent previously to abate the acid rain from the Eastern USA).

Previously crystal clear lakes were choked of life from the acid rain from the US and from our own mine. If I was to say "acid rain" to anyone under 30 years old today they would look at me curiously and ask, "What's acid rain?"

Sickening... innit?

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 02:06 PM

Dan's (old dude, CJB) moving song about this...

Appalachia - Dan O'Connell - Youtube

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 02:13 PM

Sorry, the link above doesn't work...

This should do the trick though..
Dan - Owens Appalachia

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 12:45 AM

State of the art mountain top removal.

Home sweet home.

Mingo County WV

Russ (Permanent GUEST and expat WV)

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: banjoman
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 06:31 AM

I came across a song called Hills of Kentucky sung by Debbie McClatchey some years ago which , to me, really brought home the indiscriminate waste of land and resources. Itseems that this thread is mainly to do with what is happening in the USA but here in the UK we are losing lots of prime countryside(Vale of Belvoir is just one example) as well as allowing the building of houses on flood plains with all that that entails.
When is someone going to say that enough is enough and do something about it or will greed continue to be the prime motivator

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: J-boy
Date: 04 Apr 11 - 12:28 AM

We are all culpable in this crime. It is not only some evil, invisible corporation. The ugly truth is all of us benefit from the suffering of others to some degree. Such is the very essence of Capitalism. I can only hope there is a saner way, but I sincerely doubt it.

Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction
From: Janie
Date: 04 Apr 11 - 01:20 AM

Well said, J-boy.