Comments on: This Little (Coal-Fired) Light of Mine: Will President Heed 45 Million Prayers?

By: Angela Viney

Angela Viney — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:50:26 +0000

The saddest thing about mountaintop removal mining is the brainwashing that has occurred. Instead of West Virginins collectively being opposed to this hideous practice, they have been brainwashed to believe that mountain top removal must continue for the sake of jobs. Wake up people – if the coal companies were interested in jobs, they would be mining the traditional underground way and not eliminating 100 employees per large mining machine!!!

By: Katheryne Hoffman

Katheryne Hoffman — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:54:50 +0000

Mountain top removal is a crime against man and nature.
I live in an area of great beauty, forests and rivers.
There is nothing that can replace a mountain and its
ecosystem. God must be weeping. Please write and try to
force our President, Senators, Congressmen to stop this
atrocity. No point in writing our Politicos in West Virginia. They are everyone bought and paid for by King Coal
Katheryne Hoffman, Ansted Historic Preservation Council

By: Constance Warner

Constance Warner — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:01:11 +0000

The people who do mountain-top removal mining will put other people out of work, and condemn their own children to an uncertain future. Why? Because one of the few other industries West Virginia has is the tourist industry; people go there to hike, to watch birds, to do white-water rafting, to ski, and to enjoy the mountain scenery. When enough mountains are torn down, the tourists will NOT come back. They can’t ski on mounds of rubble or raft on filled-in streams. So those tourist-industry jobs will be gone forever. What’s especially sad is that, right now, people from overcrowded East Coast cities, especially Washington and Baltimore, are getting interested in moving to W. Va., either as summer residents or year-round residents. Tax dollars and business investment will follow. Will anyone move to a state with a devastated landscape and poisoned streams, and with all the other problems that mountain top removal leaves behind? Absolutely not–I promise you that.
And I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of what happens when the last conveniently extractable coal runs out.
Mountain top removal mining absolutely guarantees that there will not be jobs, or a future, for West Virginia or the other parts of Appalachia, where mountains are destroyed to mine coal. A few paychecks today will mean that there will be no work in the mountains for your children tomorrow. They will have to leave to survive.

By: Mack and Shelly Epps

Mack and Shelly Epps — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:53:34 +0000

God bless our brothers and sisters who toil for environmental justice in Appalachia. –your brothers and sisters of the Ozarks

By: Merritt Ireland

Merritt Ireland — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:35:21 +0000

Thank you for making the film . It is very strong and I hope it will get the attention of alot of people who have not paid attention to this enviromental horror and they will join in to help preserve the mountains and the people who have lived there for generations.

By: Roberta Dees

Roberta Dees — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:10:03 +0000

It doesn’t take very many workers to destroy mountains. Most of the work is done by machines, so it wouldn’t put many people out of jobs, to save our remaining mountains.

Talk to the workers and families or read what they say. You will find that the loss of their mountains is grievous, much more than losing a job might be.

By: M.R. Cooper

M.R. Cooper — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:43:06 +0000

There would be many more people with jobs if that coal was mined by customary deep-shaft mine methods. The profits from MTR mining goes to the coal mining executives – who save labor costs and leave the environmental costs to the mountain people!

By: Marie Eibert

Marie Eibert — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:24:40 +0000

We need to let go of this “debate” of jobs vs. the environment, humans vs. the rest of life on the planet, so that we can move forward together realizing that there IS no conflict, just the need for a new way of doing things.

Look at the current politics around climate change legislation – I remember President Bush refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol because he said it would be bad for the US economy. I said, well, YES! Of course it will be bad for this economy, because we need a new economy! We need to create new/old sustainable energy, sustainable agriculture, sustainable communities. We need to create new green jobs – alternatives to jobs that are destroying not only the earth but our health, and stealing future quality of life from our children.

Saving the mountains IS saving the people who live in these mountains – if we have the political will and collective vision to make a new green economy work for all of us.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:49:27 +0000

Think about what you just said… If there are no mountains on which they may live, how can there continue to be ‘mountain people’?

By: Jason Elswick

Jason Elswick — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:20:54 +0000

In response to that clip on mountaintop removal. I think we should take a long look at ourselves. How can good christian people ask our goverment to put all those families out of work? Folks people need jobs to pay the bills, taxes for our roads and our schools, or is that what the lottery is for? I would like to think you for your time and also thank you for looking at both sides of the story. I don’t want to see our mountains disappear, but I don’t want to see our mountain people disappear to other places for work either.