Protecting a Mountain Heritage

January 20, 2008 8:17 PM

"It's like having a gun held on you with the hammer back and not knowing when the man's gonna pull the trigger," is the dramatic introduction to Appalachian Voices' coverage on mountaintop removal. The on-line journal is an environmental advocate for the Appalachian mountains, covering topics from air pollution to forest restoration, but also subjects like box turtles, coyotes, poison ivy and timber thieves. They also have a blog.
posted by Atreides (8 comments total)

In my opinion you should add a heros tag to this post. These guys should be more important than.... oh I don't know, how about professional sports.
posted by Mr_Zero at 8:34 PM on January 20

figures.
posted by Mr_Zero at 8:36 PM on January 20

Also see Lost Mountain by Eric Reece.
posted by F Mackenzie at 8:37 PM on January 20

This is great.

I only wish for another Miles Horton for our age.

His Highlander Schools were resposible for much of the union organizing in Appalachian mines in the 30's. After that, the Highlander schools educated MLK and Rosa Parks in the 50's, providing the fertile ground for the organizing that resulted in the Civil Rights Movements.

This post seems very timely (with MLK day tomorrow) and thank you for it!!
posted by localhuman at 8:44 PM on January 20

Related post.
posted by homunculus at 9:32 PM on January 20

I know we need mines, but it seems to me that almost any mining operation costs more in the long term than it ever generates in terms of jobs and revenue for the local economy. Of course, if you're poor and unemployed and your local pols are corrupt short termism is still attractive. But whatever happens, the mining companies' easy assurances that 'everything will be restored' always turn out to be untrue and taxpayers always pick up the tab for the cleanup.

The industry's motto should be "What's yours is ours and what's mine is mine - except the toxic mess - that's yours."
posted by rhymer at 2:53 AM on January 21

Documentary film by Catherine Pancake.
posted by zoinks at 11:01 AM on January 21

Stopping Coal in Its Tracks: Loosely affiliated activists draw a hard line -- and hold it
posted by homunculus at 12:01 PM on January 25