Removing Mountains (and digging in them)
Earlier this week, I tried to give you a sense of just how destructive strip mining can be to habitats and biodiversity. I found a great slideshow by a photographer named Daniel Shea on NPR. There are only 15 slides, and it is worth the 30 seconds of your time to take a look at the impact of mountaintop removal on rural Appalachia. This has really become an environmental justice issue in West Virginia and Kentucky. If you want to read great (but depressing) book on the issue sometime, try Lost Mountain, by Erik Reese.
For folks who live near these mining sites, it is very hard to believe in such as thing as “clean coal.”
Mountaintop removal/valley fill coal mining in southern West Virginia in May 2003 Photo by Vivian Stockman, May 30, 2003
http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/mountaintop_removal/007/
The EPA is currently taking a hard look at destructive mountaintop removal mining practices. A federal judge in West Virginia took steps to block some types of permits for the practice earlier this week. NPR has a short report on this legal action too.
Subsurface coal mining has its own set of issues. When you have time check out this 40 minute episode of “30 Days” with Morgan Spurlock (the “Supersize Me” guy):
