Communities, Welcome to Black Mountain, Virginia
Help the People in this Community Stop the Destruction
Sunday, October 14th, 2007
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HELP SPREAD THE WORD — Join thousands who are standing up against the destruction of Appalachian mountains and communities and who are helping to spread awareness of the other inconvenient truth about coal: mountaintop removal. |
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THEY’RE BLOWING UP OUR MOUNTAINS AND THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW! Ask your representative to support the Clean Water Protection Act – a bill that would curtail mountaintop removal and protect clean water for millions of Americans. |
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TELL YOUR ELECTRICITY PROVIDER — “NOT IN MY NAME!” — Click on this link, submit your zip code and choose “Take Action” where you can print out a letter – tailored to your own electricity provider – asking them not to do business with companies engaged in mountaintop removal strip mining. |
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DONATE WHERE IT’S NEEDED MOST — The most immediate way to help the people fighting to save their homes and mountains near Black Mountain is to support Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. SAMS is committed to stopping the destruction of communities by surface coal mining and to help rebuild sustainable communities. Click here to donate to SAMS. |
November 16th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
We are destroying our natural habitats faster than we can blink, and it WILL catch up with us; just as it has in the tragic story from above. When are we going to realize that by killing nature, we are essentially killing ourselves?
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:38 am
I never new before now, that this was happening. It is truly awful.
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Dear Applachian Friends,
Before I left TN 40 years ago, I hiked and collected fossils from the strip and dog-hole mines in the Cumberland Mountains, often shut for months by UMWA miners striking for a safer, cleaner life. We buy power from a wind retailer but our distributor, Center Point Energy, buys coal from a nuke plant and the Pardee mine in Wise County, VA, which my mom’s ancestors left for Hancock Co. TN. I miss nothing from childhood more than those beautiful mountains. Thank you for fighting to save them – let’s decorate those mountaintops with “whirligig” generators so we can shut those mines foever!!!
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:00 pm
This website is ingenious as it really gives one (even in a city far from these mines) the connection to this … their own power grid. With China coming on board with more and more coal powered electrical plants, we must act on this now. Renewable resources that don’t leave a large carbon footprint in solar and the wind need to be on-line now. The jobs that we can create in this new arena is of the same proportions of the New Deal. We must demand more. You need to get this website in front of the many – thanks to Robert Kennedy, Jr., and his blog on Huffingtonpost.com, I am one more.
February 25th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
The stories connected with mountaintop removal astound and appall me. I am in the process of letting friends and relatives know that we are all connected with this issue and need to take action. I am a pastor’s wife, and I am also going to contact my denomination’s (the United church of Christ) social justice team because I did not see the UCC
listed among the denominations who are taking action!
June 4th, 2008 at 12:25 am
I’m from WV and have been an anti-MTR activist. I knew our electricity in Colorado came from Wyoming coal but was surprised at the direct connection. What a cool site this is. Very creative idea. I’m forwarding it to Colo friends and organizations.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:23 am
When we look back on these times would you rather be able to say that you took part in the fight against the greatest environmental and civil atrocity in US history – or will the memories of your apathy be sufficient?
Each of us must decide: “Which side are you on?”
Help stop mountaintop removal for the future of all beings. Help – while you still can!
December 30th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Thank you. You really bring the problem home, and home is where it lodges. NONE of us are exempt from this problem. The more we know about the dangers of coal, the more we inform ourselves (with your help), the more likely we are to be part of the solution and less of the problem. Thank you for your great work.
April 9th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Thank you for clearly showing how electricity production in a given area adversely impacts communities/environments not only in one’s own area, but thousands of miles away. I will share this site with others and endeavor to continue to reduce my electrical use and support alternative energy production. I am horrified by the environmental destruction strip mining causes and am hopeful that our current administration will adopt a more long term, sustainable approach to energy producton to ensure the health of the planet and the survival of future generations.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for this excellent Web site that allows me and others to track my/our connection to mountaintop removal in the East even though I live in the Midwest.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:50 am
Please earnestly support S696, HR1310, & HR2169.
Thank you.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I never knew that Commonwealth Edison in Ilinois was purchasing mountain top removal coal. I do a Care of Creation article for our weekly church bulletin and information from your website will go into a column.
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:10 am
As Naomi Klein says in her book, Shock Doctrine, ‘they’ will not stop, we have to take action to make them. As long as you have the peoplle your side, you can exert influence. I was at ClimateCamp (org.uk) last weekend, and have been a long-term volunteer for Greenpeace so I know Non Violent Direct Action, genuine committment and lobbying forward looking politicians can bring results.
October 25th, 2009 at 5:05 am
I had no idea how closely-tied the rest of the U.S. is with Appalachian mountain coal mining. I will definitely try to shine awareness on this issue with the people around me and express my concerns to our leaders.
January 10th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
This whole issue is an outrage and has to be stopped, my heart goes out to the Davidson family and all of the Appalachian people. I hope to visit the beautiful mountains of Appalachia someday, but worry it won’t exist. Have written my Senators and will join in the effort to have this stopped once and for all.
March 18th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Thank you for your good work and for sharing the Davidson’s story. I am including their story in a very strong letter to John Roberts, opposing his and The RATS Brigade’s (Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia) handing the country and our children’s future to the heinous corporations who care nothing about anything or anyone but themselves. We will carry on, and continue to resist and eventually defeat injustice. We have no other choice unless we decide to leave nothing but chaos and despair for our young folks’ future.
September 15th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
The story of poor Jeremy being a victim of mountaintop removal is enough to convince me to take action. I will contact my representative to support the Clean Water Protection Act. Let’s also be willing to make changes in our energy sources and uses. I’m clicking on the link to let my energy provider know that I do not support the destruction of mountain tops!!!
November 28th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Thank you for putting together this interactive website. It angers me how often our lifestyles are created for us by corrupt corporations such as those of the coal mining industry. Each month we give our money to the electric company, believing that we are being responsible citizens, only to find out one day that by doing so we indirectly play a role in horrible atrocities such as mountaintop removal. I am tired of not knowing where my investments into this country (bills, taxes) are going, and when I find out where they have gone, feeling ashamed.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:06 pm
Hi:
I think what you all are doing is just terrible. You should start with India and China and get them to stop using coal rather then putting American Labor out of good high paying jobs to satisfy your elitist life style. You can’t get employment for these people in your area after you stop using responsibly coal!
Admiring the view of trees and fields with you tree huggers surrounding them does not feed people, cloth them are attend to their spiritual needs. You useful idiots should be sued by these unemployed workers along with the democratic party for putting them and their families out of work. FEON
September 9th, 2015 at 5:12 pm
I’m learning about this through a book we are reading in our church book club called”Ecoliterate”. I will explore ways I can reduce my own energy use. I’m horrified at what’s happening to the people an land of Appalachia.