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16 Responses to “VIDEO: Aerial flyover of Mountain near Mud”
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April 5th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
As a descendent of Appalachians (the double “d” surname is a dead giveaway). My granddad built the railways that carried the coal. I remember the beautiful mountains of West Virginia where we used to camp. This is the clearest real example of what hippies are ridiculed for crying: ‘planet rape’. These are beautiful mountains in a precious ecosystem. Salt in the wounds, the vast majority of the local people are no longer benefitting from the coal industry; they only suffer unmediated environmental havoc. And to top it off coal is the worst possible fuel in terms of greenhouse gasses. It is time for our nation to drop this filthy industry and move on. We have other ways to keep the lights on; so go tell Mr. Peabody we are taking Paradise back, thank you very much.
September 23rd, 2007 at 7:14 pm
EVERYBODY HAS THE SAME SPEECH ! WE NEED FUEL, WE NEED TO DECREASE OIL USE, WE NEED TO RAISE OUR STANDARD OF LIVING !
EVERYBODY IS ALL FOR DEMANDING EVERYTHING ………UNTIL THAT SOMETHING IS IN THEIR BACKYARD ! THEY WANT INDEPENDENCE FROM FOREIGN OIL, BUT THEY DON’T WANT A NUCLEAR PLANT ANYWHERE NEAR THEM. THAT LEAVES COAL AND IT DOESN’T JUST TAKE ITSELF OUT OF THE GROUND !
YOU CAN’T REMOVE SOMETHING FROM THE GROUND AND HAVE THE GROUND BE EXACTLY THE SAME AS IT WAS BEFORE !
YOU WANT LIGHTS, HEAT, ETC ? THIS IS WHERE IT COMES FROM BUCKWHEAT !
November 24th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Where’s Steven Segall when you really need him?
December 9th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
cars put more co in air then coal less all walk!!!! hi hi i did not thank so get over it………..from a proud wv coal miner.
December 12th, 2007 at 6:05 am
THESE SCENE ARE GROSS ,BUT NOT AS BAD THE **RAPE** OF SW VIRGINIA ,WISE COUNTY TO THE KENTUCKY BORDER IS ONE BIG SCAR ,GO TO HIGH KNOB AND LOOK NW ,YOU WILL SEE WHAT I MEAN !
January 17th, 2008 at 1:38 am
I watched this video, and a couple others, and they made me sick to my stomach. This is seriously wrong, and should be stopped. This reveals how deeply corrupted by greed and waste our nation has become.
Since they will forever continue mining the region till the coal is gone, they should come up with alternative and modernized drilling methods that would maintain the landscape and eco-balance while providing jobs and economic growth to the region instead. You would think that giant energy companies that are currently making record breaking profits as well as providing record breaking salaries to their executives could afford it.
They keep saying that it would hurt consumers and spike energy prices. Hmm.. maybe they are also overly concerned their own profits and investors. Yes, those pesky little investors get really angry when they don’t get those juicy divedends (I admit, I have a 401k that I worry about myself) and until our population boom slows down or people start dying faster (mountain top removal will probably hasten the latter) our energy prices will still go up.
Oh well, I guess when Dick Cheney is no longer heading up the Energy Commission we can see if something can be done. Just one more thing to keep me from sleeping tonight. LOL
January 21st, 2008 at 4:08 pm
In response to Chris, January 17th - it’s very shallow and shortsighted to blame the current administration for this problem. The forebearers of today’s mines saw the great potential locked up in these hills near the rivers and started this process, on a small scale effort, well over 100 years ago. Question - how do you take the billions of tons of coal out of the mountain without affecting the structure and stability of the mountain? Can’t be done. This is a process many years, and presidential adminstrations, in the making, and cannot be undone overnight - I guarantee you, the next administration - democratic or republican - will not be the one to turn off the switch on Mud River, Big Ugly, and all the other landscapes and communities in this area.
It’s a bad position - until it’s more economical to find an alternative fuel supply AND provide it to the masses than coal currently is, nothing will happen. The alternative technology is growing, but we’re still years, if not decades, away from walking away from Mud River.
March 28th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Rocky Top you’ll always be home sweet home to me!We all should be ashamed of our selves.Stop the butchering.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Well holy shoot! I just looked at the before and after overlays on GE and oh my god….. thats terrible. How we can destroy nature on such a large scale is beyond me. I understand the need for fuel, however if more pressure was put on stopping this, then more time and money would be *have* to be put into renewable/alternative energy/fuels.
I visited Appalachia last year, its a truely amazing area, which makes it even more of a shame that such a large area being destroyed so quickly. What will we do when all the coal is gone and a desilate landscape is left that will take centuries to begin healing itself?
Now is the time to look for another way, not once its too late.
I agree we need power & energy, but more importantly we need to look to the future and find and alternatice source!!
And yet expansion and enlargement of these projects is being licensed……?!
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
What goes on in this country with our strip mining and nuclear is horrible. If you go to google earth and enter 40′37′17.73 north an 80′30,47.44 w there’s a huge nuclear waste lake. Straight across from East Liver Pool OHIO. It’s the glowing neon blue lake. This kind of stuff needs to stop!
April 25th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Posted on Google Earth was this comment which is worth reading. Actually the water in this lake does look like the water in the tropics that is cleaner than water closer to the US borders. You can see it on Google earth at Georgetown, Pennsylvania. The “little blue” comment is posted in the middle of the lake.
Man-Made lake created from the hot water from a Nuclear Power Plant in Aliquipa, Pa. Water isn’t radioactive but is free from all impurities which makes the water appear to be so BLUE.
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Okay, we have all done this to ourselves by our own life styles. We the people own this problem and only the people can change it by changing their energy sources. The real answer lies in alternative energies. No one will stop this as long as it’s less expensive than the alternatives, and less scary (nuclear). I hate paying $75 bucks for a tank of gas, or $2,000 for a tank of fuel oil for my house, or the highest electric rates in North Carolina, but these high prices will “fuel” conversion to other energy sources, and nothing else will do that. When prices for current sources equal or exceed development and deployment of the alternatives, then we will see the alternatives in the field. Not until then. So we live with this destruction until then. Profit talks.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:44 am
We must find a way to protect ourselves from this devastation, and we must do it now. Massey Coal just promised to up production by 40% in the next two years 08-10, and I’m certain they mean to take it all. Some people sell their land to these guys, but some people don’t– and they take it anyway. No one who lives in the areas where this happens likes it, but they scream and yell and pull out the hair, swear and pray, kick and spit, and the blasting continues and gets closer to the road, closer to the bigger towns, the bigger rivers, taller trees, and live trout streams, but they won’t stop on their own accord- WE HAVE to STOP THEM. Like babes stopping a 130 car train- How will we do it?
The Clean Water ACt- tell the DEP, the US Congress and the Newspaper that you want our waterSHEDS protected from filling
The EPA’s Clean Air Responsibility Question- tell them YES! global warming and MTR endanger human life.
Tell Rahall and Rockerfeller that you DO NOT support coal to gas liquidation or whatever it is. Tell them you do not believe in Clean Coal technology and You DO NOT want sludge ponds in WV behind pushed earth barriers.
Call the VENT lines for the Newspapers every week and speak out against these atrocities.
If you want to see more, it’s true, go look at what they did to Kentucky– don’t let it happen here too, not like that, and not worse.
They think we don’t care.
They think we don’t know.
They think we are stupid, and ignorant people who won’t stand up to them.
They think we don’t know what we have here in Appalachia.
They think we don’t know we have the surface area of Texas (and NO desert– til they got here) and 87% forest coverage.
they think they can destroy our forests, run off our game, destroy our recreational waters, our drinking water and our well water.
They are wrong.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:50 am
I’ve just found the video by chance. I’m no environmentalist, I’m certainly not a tree hugging hippy and I think Global Warming is an unproven science, but if the scale of this destruction were carried out here in the UK there would be riots outside our Parliament.
If anyone reading this has ever visited our National Parks (New Forest, Snowdonia, Lake District, Scottish Highlands, etc) then imagine them stripped bare like the surface of the Moon or Mars. That’s how this looks to an outsider!
There are alternative fuels, the start-up costs are expensive and construction takes years. Look to your past, America, and the great building projects of the Depression era. The Hoover dam is still providing water and power after 70 years. Can dams be built in these mountains? Would the new lakes that formed provide leisure and employment opportunities?
I hope that your new President, Congress and the Senate can do something positive to stop the destruction at the same time as providing ‘clean’ energy and employment.
Best of luck,
Johnny R, Eastleigh, Hampshire, England
May 9th, 2009 at 12:02 am
I live in the tar sands region of northern Canada. We are under the same type of assault, only perhaps bigger. 15,000 square miles will be destroyed in the next 40 years if the Alberta government has its way. The Mackenzie River watershed (the size of the Mississippi valley) is threatened. The tar sands is one of the world’s fastest-growing contributors to global warming. Our great rivers are being drained and polluted. For a bird’s eye view, google Fort McKay, Alberta. Many of the google images are years out of date, what google earth shows is about 20% of what is already developed and only 2% of what is planned.
I have met journalists who covered the West Virginia disaster and I empathize with your plight. I still dream of defeating big industry here in the North, with support from the global community. Perhaps we can work together.
John Rigney
Fort Chipewyan Alberta Canada
May 10th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen since Alberta’s oil-sands mess. Mr. Rigney (above) makes an an excellent point and it would be in the best interests of anyone interested in stopping this type of destruction to become informed.
In regards to Mr. Welch’s (near top) comment… nuclear power is a safe, viable alternative to coal or oil. Eventually, we will have solar, wind and water power that will become practical and economical for everyone, however, for now we need to look at nuclear power and stop burning fossil fuels.
Bryan
Fraser Valley, BC, Canada