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21 Mar 11 - 06:47 AM (#3118109) Subject: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: ChrisJBrady 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. |
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21 Mar 11 - 06:56 AM (#3118112) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: ChrisJBrady Also see: http://earthjustice.org/our_work/campaigns/stop-mountaintop-removal-mining |
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21 Mar 11 - 07:03 AM (#3118119) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: ChrisJBrady Other links http://www.democracynow.org/tags/mountaintop_removal http://appvoices.org/end-mountaintop-removal/mtr101/ |
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21 Mar 11 - 10:29 AM (#3118255) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: catspaw49 Or you could also read the various Mudcat threads on coal mining and how much we love "Clean Coal"......................... Spaw |
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21 Mar 11 - 10:40 AM (#3118260) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: katlaughing 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. |
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21 Mar 11 - 11:29 AM (#3118290) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: Ebbie Among them, read - and hear - Ritchie's 'Black Water'. |
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21 Mar 11 - 11:35 AM (#3118297) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: ChrisJBrady 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). |
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21 Mar 11 - 12:38 PM (#3118342) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: Fred McCormick "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? |
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21 Mar 11 - 12:40 PM (#3118344) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: GUEST,999 "Will the bastards ever leave us anything?" The bastards will leave you the mess. |
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21 Mar 11 - 12:55 PM (#3118363) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: Ebbie 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. |
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21 Mar 11 - 01:41 PM (#3118404) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: Fred McCormick 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. |
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22 Mar 11 - 12:43 PM (#3119095) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: GUEST,Russ 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) |
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22 Mar 11 - 12:50 PM (#3119103) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: Bill D 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.) |
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22 Mar 11 - 08:51 PM (#3119433) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: GUEST,Russ Bill D., Enjoy. I'm familiar with Mingo, the town. Russ (Permenent GUEST) |
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24 Mar 11 - 07:37 AM (#3120293) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: ChrisJBrady Part two of the film is at http://rt.com/programs/documentary/environment-catastrophe-flooding-mountain-2/ |
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24 Mar 11 - 07:42 AM (#3120297) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: ChrisJBrady 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 |
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24 Mar 11 - 11:58 AM (#3120468) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: ChrisJBrady 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 |
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24 Mar 11 - 12:14 PM (#3120484) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: Bobert 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~ |
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24 Mar 11 - 01:48 PM (#3120549) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: gnu 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? |
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24 Mar 11 - 02:06 PM (#3120559) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Dan's (old dude, CJB) moving song about this... Appalachia - Dan O'Connell - Youtube |
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24 Mar 11 - 02:13 PM (#3120561) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Sorry, the link above doesn't work... This should do the trick though.. Dan - Owens Appalachia |
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25 Mar 11 - 12:45 AM (#3120920) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: GUEST,Russ State of the art mountain top removal. Home sweet home. Mingo County WV Russ (Permanent GUEST and expat WV) |
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25 Mar 11 - 06:31 AM (#3121082) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: banjoman 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 |
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04 Apr 11 - 12:28 AM (#3128015) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: J-boy 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. |
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04 Apr 11 - 01:20 AM (#3128029) Subject: RE: BS: Appalachian Destruction From: Janie Well said, J-boy. |