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October 15, 2006
End Mountain Top Removal Campaign with Google Earth
In an attempt to help spread the word about a travesty of environmental damage being caused by the coal mining industry in the US, an organization has turned to Google Earth to provide undeniable evidence of the damage. The coal industry has been using a new technique for getting to coal that is much more damaging to the environment (although less expensive for them to conduct). They basically blast the tops off mountains to get to the coal, and move the tops of the mountains into the valley's (covering the streams and wildlife in the process). A web site has been created called "ILoveMountains.org" which has a link to the Google Earth content 
, or you can watch videos documenting the process (and damage). Looking at the areas in Google Earth, flags mark the "memorial" to destroyed mountains. The devastation is easily visible even in the low-res areas. How the coal industry could do this much damage without a greater outcry is a wonder of political clout. Of course, hiding the evidence in remote mountainous areas of West Virginia and Kentucky helped. At least until Google Earth arrived. The web site provides steps on what you can do (if you are a US citizen) to help.
Posted by FrankTaylor at October 15, 2006 06:00 AM
Comments
Posted by: Jarno Peschier at October 16, 2006 01:35 AM
Oh, and a road - still in the Google Earth road data for the area - seemed to have run through the mentioned valley. No sign of that road can now be seen in the entire two mile plus stretch of its previous path going right through this mining site.
Posted by: Jarno Peschier at October 16, 2006 01:41 AM
Do you know how many of these mountains are being destroyed every year or what the rate of growth for this mining practice is?
Thanks,
Brad
Posted by: Brad Henry at October 16, 2006 01:16 PM
Don't mountains have rights?
Well no, but then again: If the mountains had arms, surely the mountains themselves would rise up and throw large boulders from their skree fields at the coal companies. The same companies who insist on turning remote unnoticed rocks into jobs and energy in, well, remote mountainous areas.
Perhaps Google should enter the lucrative remote-rock-pile purchase and preservation business. If Google thinks that YouTube was a good investment, why not entire rock-candy mountains???
Posted by: Big Dan at October 20, 2006 04:26 PM
A good percentage of our electricity comes from coal, and a percentage of this comes from mountaintop removal. Are we willing to turn down the lights, adjust the thermostat, lower those cathedral ceilings, reduce our electric usage as part of what needs to be done to ween ourselves from coal? We are all a part of this, until we are ready to address our use of fossil fuels to support our overindulgent lives.
margaret
spirituality and ecological hope
Posted by: Margaret at October 31, 2006 09:58 PM
Thanks for this post! The people of the Appalachian coalfields need all the help they can get. Please spread the word to your friends and family to help end moutaintop removal coal mining. Visit www.iLoveMountains.org to find out how. Thanks for caring!
Posted by: webmaster at November 1, 2006 01:12 PM
I am writing a representive in class and i believe that this needs to come to an end. Coal is very harmful to our lungs.
We need to stop blowing off the tops of mountians for many reasons...
It is polluting the rivers and streams at the botton that some people drink. That coal can get into the water and make people very sick or even cause death.
Breathing in dust of coal is also very harmful.
This has got to stop.
Hillary Clinton and Obama are both for this so we need to vote for someone who will end this now so our future can be a cleaner enviroment.
Posted by: Emily at April 30, 2008 05:22 PM
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Interesting. Looking at the Valley Fill placemark in the Mountaintop Remval Site Tour (tilted down, too bad this XML file does not include tilted placemark snapshots for extra dramatic messure), I cannot help but wondering whether the terrain altitude data is from before work on this began, because the image at the valley fill location seems to indicate a dam-like filling in the valley, while the Google Earth terrain shows a valley splitting into two branches going right into the heart of the site. Creepy...