Early this June, hundreds of people from Appalachia and across the nation will embark on a historic March on Blair Mountain in the heart of southern West Virginia. I invite you to join us on June 11th at the culminating rally to call for an end to mountaintop removal, and for stronger labor rights and sustainable jobs in Appalachian communities, and the preservation of Blair Mountain.
Appalachia Rising: March on Blair Mountain is a peaceful, unifying event involving environmental justice organizations, workers, scholars, artists, and other citizens and groups. The march commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, where in 1921, 10,000 coal miners rose against coal operators to demand the basic right to live and work in decent conditions.
Today, Blair Mountain, like dozens of other historic mountains throughout the region, is being threatened by mountaintop removal. By working to preserve this mountain we are calling for an end to the destructive practice of mountaintop removal that threatens to strip Central Appalachia of its history, its economic potential and its health.
This event is a continuation of the energy that brought thousands to the streets of Washington DC last September and of the Kentuckians who occupied their governor’s office for justice in their state and the region last February.
In this study, residents in counties with mountaintop removal coal mining reported an average of 18 more unhealthy days (poor physical, mental, and activity limitation) per year as compared to other counties: “…approximately 1,404 days, or almost four years, of an average American lifetime.” The authors state that these results contribute to the evidence base in support of the EPA’s April 2010 decision to make new mountaintop removal coal mining permits more difficult to obtain.
Zullig, KJ. and M. Hendryx.(2011) “Health-Related Quality of Life Among Central Appalachian Residents in Mountaintop Mining Counties.” American Journal of Public Health. 101, 5 (2011): 848-53.
This study found that six types of birth defects – circulatory/respiratory, central nervous system, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, urogenital and problems from “other” types of defects – occurred more frequently in areas near mountaintop removal mines. The results also showed a spatial correlation that suggests that mountaintop removal in one county may cause birth defects in nearby counties.
Ahern, M., M. Hendryx, J. Conley, E. Fedorko, A. Ducatman, and K. Zullig. (2011)”The association between mountaintop mining and birth defects among live births in central Appalachia, 1996–2003.” Environmental Research: Article in Press.
A Sundance Official Selection, The Last Mountain is described as, “…a passionate and personal tale that honors the extraordinary power of ordinary Americans when they fight for what they believe in. The Last Mountain shines a light on America’s energy needs and how those needs are being supplied. It is a fight for our future that affects us all.”
Determined to bring the film’s message to every corner of the country, Director Bill Haney and the film crew worked to secure theatrical distribution. Their efforts paid off –Dada Films picked up The Last Mountain, making it the first mountaintop removal documentary to enjoy a nationwide theatrical release.
Haney was inspired to make the film because of “the heroic quality of the people of Appalachia. In an interview with Appalachian Voices he explianed, “I met these people who are so inspiring and want to protect their heritage and use their right to the democratic process. But the fact is that 2/3 of the folks in Coal River don’t want mountaintop removal, but all of their politicians do. This is not democracy and these people are fighting to see it. They are fighting to maintain their cultural heritage and the land they rely on–these glorious beautiful mountains.”
iLoveMountains.org is excited to go on the road with The Last Mountain. We will be present at many of the showing across the country to funnel the passion that the movie is sure to inspire into action. Please support the fight to end mountaintop removal by going to see the film. The length of movie’s run is dependent on how well it does the first weekend it opens, so bring at least three friends with you on opening weekend. If you want to get a big ol’ group of friends to the show, get more info here.
This film is a great way to introduce mountaintop removal to the masses and is sure to compel new voices to join our movement.
Please view the schedule of this film and go see the film or contact Kayti (at) iLoveMountains.org for more information about the possibility of bringing this film to a theatre near to you!
This Wednesday, the House Subcommittee on Water Resources will hold a pro-mountaintop removal hearing called “EPA Mining Policies: Assault on Appalachian Jobs.”
A preliminary hearing was held last Thursday and, despite requests from our allies in DC, panel slots were given exclusively to those who support gutting EPA’s protections for clean water. This week’s hearing will feature four more pro-mountaintop removal panelists, along with just one person from the EPA.
The fact that EPA’s mining policies have led to an increase in mining jobs in Appalachia was just one of many facts that were overlooked by the coal-only panel of witnesses invited by Committee leadership last week. Citizens of Appalachia whose water, land, health, and economies are being destroyed daily were completely shut out of the hearing proceedings. Despite this fact, impacted residents and allies came and filled the hearing room, refusing to be ignored.
These hearings on Appalachian mining issues are being held without the testimonies of impacted Appalachian residents, scientists who have documented the harm mountaintop removal is causing to our air and water, or health experts who can speak to the increasing evidence that mountaintop removal is causing sickness and worse to those who live in the region.
Study, after study, after study, after study, after study, after study, show that these crises are due in large part to the negative impacts of coal mining, burning, and processing.
The Appalachian people have demanded and demanded and demanded that our rights to be protected from these dangers, including the protection of basic rights such as clean air, clean water, and a safe place to live.
What has been the response from Appalachian politicians, like members of the West Virginia delegation such as Congressman Nick Rahall, Senator Joe Manchin , and Senator John Rockefeller? A great big SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP. Rahall, Manchin, and Rockefeller have not only completely ignored the work of the Central Appalachian people to protect ourselves from coal, but these men are actively pursuing policies that make matters worse, while removing some of the simple protections that the Appalachian people have. Its time they are called out on their dangerous and cowardly decisions to toe the coal-industry line at the expense of their constituents.
A group of West Virginians impacted by mountaintop removal recently ran into Senator Rockefeller in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, to ask Senator Rockefeller to come for a tour of mountaintop removal in southern West Virginia. Here is video of the interaction between Rockefeller and his constituents.
Rockefeller, who first ran for Governor of West Virginia in 1972, had a strong stance on strip mining, saying:
Strip-mining must be abolished because of its effect on those who have given most to the cause – the many West Virginians who have suffered actual destruction of their homes; those who have put up with flooding, mud slides, cracked foundations, destruction of neighborhoods, decreases in property values, the loss of fishing and hunting, and the beauty of the hills. …
Unfortunately, he made a 180 degree turn when he ran again four years later, handily won the governorship. He has been supportive of the coal industry ever since, and has all but ignored the part of his constituency who have been fighting to protect their homes, communities, waterways and mountains from the devastating impacts of mountaintop removal mining. Rockefeller’s story demonstrates the institutional power of the coal industry and its stranglehold on true democracy in West Virginia and other states where mountaintop removal is occurring.
This stranglehold is why its so important for the entire nation to join citizens directly impacted by mountaintop to build broad-reaching support, within and without the Appalachian coal-bearing regions. The bottom-line: the voices fighting to protecting their very lives are being drowned out, and a bigger choir is essential to make sure the message is heard loud and clear: Mountaintop removal coal mining is destroying Appalachian mountains and communities and it needs to end.
Because as Americans we believe, as Martin Luther King Jr, wrote so succinctly in his letter from Birmingham Jail, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
This movement has created real change- we now see more and more, members of Congress willing to speak out against the politically powerful coal industry. We most recently witnessed this show of political courage in the recent budget debates, where several policy riders in the House bill threatened to stop the EPA from living up to its name in protecting the environment in the Appalachian coal-bearing regions. Many members of Congress got on the floor of the House when those amendments came up for debate and spoke so eloquently and passionately against the destruction of America’s oldest mountains for 5% of our nation’s electricity. As members of the Alliance of Appalachia, we recently hosted a Congressional Reception during our 6th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, where we invited those members of Congress to accept an award and say a few words. Here is a montage of their comments– THIS is what democracy sounds like!
Two citizens reflected on their experience in Washington DC below.
Wendy Johnston of Mercer County, West Virginia:
In West Virginia, where I live, people are dying. They are dying from drinking poisoned water and breathing air filled with coal dust and the explosive dust that rains down on them from the mountains above their homes that are being destroyed for coal. The coal industry rapes and pillages our mountains daily to extract whatever coal it can find in what used to be the oldest mountains in the world.
As someone who left 25 years ago to go to college and moved back 10 years later to raise her children in the most beautiful place on earth, this was heartbreaking.
When we ran into Senator Rockefeller after meeting with his legislative, he remarked that I lived in the Northern part of the state when I told him I was from Mercer County, which is actually one of the southernmost counties in our state. When we begged him to visit our communities and pointed out that the mountains and communities there were decimated he said, “I’ve been on all of them”. He showed no emotion when he said this, it was obvious he did not care. I left there pleased that we had been able to voice our opinions to him but wondering what good it did. I didn’t realize that just because that was what I had come to expect from my representatives that other people expected more.
When I heard the Congressmen from Virginia and Kentucky speak to the Alliance for Appalachia gathering last night it hit me. I realized that other representatives do care, they see the value of the mountains, clean water and clean air but above all that they see the value of the people. I now have a new understanding, I must give my life, my family, my environment the value that I think that it deserves and demand that those representing me reach my high expectations and if they cannot I will no longer support them.
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-West Virginia Resident, Robin Blakeman (OVEC member/employee):
In Senator Rockefeller’s office… An appointment with an aide – Pat Bond – someone whom we know, from previous meetings, doesn’t do much after we talk to him. He has even occasionally been quite hostile to our citizens. He seemed to listen to us this time. He seemed to respond to personal stories. He agreed that tourism and water quality are important to the state’s economic and social well-being.
When we left, we were somewhat hopeful that there might be a response to our two requests: 1) that the Senator arrange to come to West Virginia and meet with many of the affected residents we know, and 2) meet with Sen. Alexander of Tennessee to discuss reasons that he’s sponsoring the Appalachian Restoration Act.
Afterwards, standing by the elevators, trying to comfort the folks who were upset, we saw Sen. Rockefeller himself walking out of a nearby elevator.
After a few moments of listening to us quickly pour out our hearts – regarding why we were there, and about the connections we had back home which were being severed – he abruptly said, “Hey, do you know what happened to me last night? My electric was off… and I’m now a half hour late for a meeting…” Within the next 30 seconds, he had turned for us, and was gone, with us shouting our thanks to him for the few minutes time he granted us.
Tonight, however, listening to John Yarmuth and others speak – our champions, I realized what a true “public servant” is supposed to be like. I also realized that, in West Virginia, we do NOT have any national level public servants. We only have elite corporate lobbyists and their representatives, whose very existence, it seems, depends on serving those who covet a dirty, lifeless, flammable, and toxic black rock. I wish we could clone public servants like John Yarmuth, and somehow replace our NON-representatives with them.
If you haven’t yet joined the national choir to stop the destruction of our nation’s oldest mountains and to help democracy thrive in all parts of the country, please sign the pledge to end mountaintop removal at iLoveMountains.org.
Early this June, hundreds of people from Appalachia and across the nation will embark on a historic March on Blair Mountain in the heart of southern West Virginia. I invite you to join us on June 11th at the culminating rally to call for an end to mountaintop removal, and for stronger labor rights and sustainable jobs in Appalachian communities, and the preservation of Blair Mountain.
