Friends of Coal Put Out the Word
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.28.08
Catherine Porter toured West Virginia and writes an astonishing article in the Star about mountaintop removal coal mining. It doesn't take too many people to mine coal this way; in 1950 there were 120,000 coal miners and now there are only 21,000. So the miners aren't working, they are watching, as the landscape changes around them.
"We're mountain people. You don't understand our connection with the land," says [former miner] Gibson, who traces his heritage back 120 years to this very spot. He had never ventured beyond the company store, halfway down the mountain, until he was 11. "We didn't live on the land, we lived with it."
But even though so few people work in the industry now, that doesn't stop the companies that make and service the machinery that displaced the miners from trying to convince those who are left that coal is wonderful. Steve Walker of Walker machinery says the locals opposing the mines "range from uninformed citizens to eco-terrorists." He continues:
"I don't know what these people want. There's a religion now of global warming, that man (?) has caused everything. It's hard to understand where all of this has come from in the last several years. The water coming off these mines today, going into rivers, is cleaner, almost completely cleaner than the water that's already there."
So he has funded "Friends of Coal" to deliver the message through ads like the one above. ::the Star
see also Planet Green: Find Out Your Connection to Mountaintop Removal and TreeHugger: Majority of American Public Opposes Mountaintop Removal
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Quote of the Day: Don Blankenship on the Thin Edge of the Wedge
- China's Coal Fires Burn 20 Million Tons of Coal Per Year
- Coal Pellet Stove Introduced in Uganda
- A Carbon Neutral Futurama
It does not surprise me that there is sites like this. To me it all reeks of lack of leadership at a federal level. Once people feel attacked they start to defend. They need support at a federal level to move into different industries.
The silver lining about this, is that the 'uninformed' citizens are starting to open their eyes to the fact that coal is not their friend and does not help the economy. Souther W. VA. is a one industry area and its also one of the poorest in the country. Perhaps these 'uniformed' citizens will start electing politicians that are willing to fight for their interests and not the interests of big coal.
PS The quote is spot on about their connection to the land. I took a Civil War Perspectives class that focused on the guerilla warfare in the Appalachians that that was connection was stressed from the beginning in several of our texts.
Hm, I question whether it is a lack of leadership. Massey, for instance, was a significant contributor to the Bush presidential campaign. Supposedly, the direction to federal mine inspectors to look the other came from high up.
hell i am fer coal..tear down tha dern mountains and create jobs..shux we got 100's of mountains, it ain't a gonna hurt to rip a few of em apart..yepp, i am A FRIEND OF COAL..yepp..james roberts