Carol Forsloff - "One of the greatest environmental and human rights catastrophes in American history is underway just southwest of our nation's capital," claims Appalachian Voices as film actress Ashley Judd compares it to the oil spill in the Gulf.
The organization goes on to describe what is happening as a whole-scale evacuation taking place, as people are literally driven off their lands by the flooding, landslides and blasting that is occurring in areas where families have lived for generations.
Mountaintop removal mining is said to have been going on since 1970's as an extension of conventional strip mining and is reported to be growing in use because more coal can be mined with fewer workers.
This is what is involved in the process, according to Earth Justice:
"Mountaintop removal mining is a form of strip mining in which coal companies use explosives to blast as much as 800 to 1000 feet off the tops of mountains in order to reach the coal seams that lie underneath.
The resulting millions of tons of waste rock, dirt, and vegetation are then dumped into surrounding valleys, burying miles and miles of streams under piles of rubble hundreds of feet deep."
Ashley Judd spoke recently in at the National Press Club, talking about mountaintop removal mining and its devastating impact on Appalachia. This is seldom read about in mainstream newspapers, however people point out that Appalachia may be a center for energy-producing coal but hasn't benefited from it in terms of better schools and infrastructure. Judd's description provides a significant overview of this issue.
"This wouldn't go on in New England," Jack Spadaro told Grist.org July 2008. " It wouldn't go on in California, nor Florida, nor along the East Coast. After the '60s, America and the mainstream media seemed to lose interest in the problems of Appalachia. Though the Martin County slurry pond disaster was 20 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill, The New York Times ignored it for months. But the seeming invisibility of the people in Appalachia does not make their plight any less real."
Judd compares this disaster with the oil spill taking place in the Gulf region where many people work hard and often don't get the full benefits from the oil that comes into Louisiana, as Louisiana too struggles with its education and infrastructure in a number of areas, while the oil spills into the Gulf.
People ask the same question in Louisiana as Spadaro asked in 2008, would this happen in New England?
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