Mountain Saver

With global crisis getting worse every day, and time ticking down to do what we have to do to save our planet, our state and federal governments our still in a state of denial that there is no such thing as “global warming.” We continue to spew 70 tons of CO2 into our atmosphere everyday from coal fired power plants. As we stay on this path of “destruction of our planet,” our government is committed, (both parties), on all levels, continuing to invest in clean coal, or CCS. They have said that this won’t be readily available until 2030, and then again , they are’t sure this technology will even work. This CCS is just creating catostropic disaster, It’s the same thing as slurry injections with coal slurry. This is the waste from washing the coal at coal prep plants, that is stored in abandon underground mines located through the Appaiachia mountains. We now are experiencing this coal waste now leaching out and getting into peoples well water. Their water is now contaminated with chemicals, aresnic, sileneium, cadmium, and many other deadly chemicals, and filled with heavy metals. This is a very scarry situation that directly effects peoples health and lives. CCS is practically the very same thing they want to do with carbon. It’s not solving the problem, it’s just creating another. They are just taking it here, and then moving over there, and setting ourselves up for yet another problem to deal with. Now, not later, is the time to invest in renewables, this is the future we have to turn to, if theres going to be a future for generations to come, but that’s not what our leadership is doing, they are not willing to change, as some canidates have said that they are, same old bullshit. Scientist have proven that we must do something to reverse the climate crisis by 2015, so I guess we’ll continue to emitt more and more greenhouse emissions into our air, until CCS steps in to save the day on an already fried planet somewhere on, OR AFTER 2030. Renewable technology is already out there, and ready to start the transition to renewables, this is the only way to be sure that our kids, and their kids have a world to surrive in. But our government is playing the same old game. They don’t care about the future, they are only interested in today, and for greed of that almighty dollar. If they do give a damn about their kids, and their kids, then, what the hell are they waiting for.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to travel with my friends Denny and Jordan, to a community just a few miles from my home, to Drews Creek, the right hand fork of Peachtree. What I wittnessed was destruction like I never seen it before from the ground. As we stood atop a treeless ridgetop, overlooking Clays Branch, this ridgetop had already been preped to be blown apart by mountaintop mining. I could look down the slopes to small comunities that dotted the area, lying at the bottom of these beautiful slopping ridges, which wind theirselves down to the the homes of local residents. I felt an empty feeling for these people, because their homes, which have been there for centuries, tucked away in these tight little hollows which are protected by the tall mountains, are about to be turned into a living hell. Their protection, and their way of life are being blown apart. As we stood atop this ridge, starring in the far distance, towards Whitesville, we could count at least eight different mountaintop removal sites. As far as the eye could see, just total devastation, as mountain, after mountain, are being leveled for the seams of coal lying beneath these ridgetops. Some seams are as small as ten to twelve inches. And at the bottom of these ridges, people’s lives are being destroyed, famlies being poisioned from the heavy metals that are being exposed, and delivered upon these communities at enormous rate, bringing poor health, sickness and disease, to the people that has to endure this massive assault from the coal industry. I pray for this maddness to come to a stop. I close my eyes, hoping, when I open them, that I could see these mountains the way that God had assembled them, to reappear, but they don’t, and I can just look to the skies and think, how on a civilized earth, could this be happening. But there are some who don’t give a damn about God’s beautiful creation, or about the lives that are being destroyed for the greed of an industry that is addicted to the taste of coal. This is just sickening and wrong, when it doesn’t have to be this way. After the coal is gone, and one looks at the aftermath, famalies destroyed, an environmental disaster left to our kids, and their kids, to an extent that they will never be able to recover, how could they be doing this to the most loving people, where hospitality and kindness fills every hollow, that can’t be matched anywhere in the world, is seen by the eyes of the nation as a disgrace, and nothing short of genocide, is being allowed to happen by our corrupted and broken government, is unbeliveable by the rest of the world. This open season on the mountains, and it’s people must end, and we must try to salvage what greatness that God has created, before they destroy what’s left of our mountains, and save and preserve our hertiage, our culture, and our way of life. 

I just came from Washington, D.C., lobbying for bill H.R. 2169, Clean Water Protection Act, and we gain some more co signers to the bill. We had 113 members of The Alliance For Appalachian who all worked endlessly for five days, and a whole lot of back breaking walking to and fro on Capitol Hill. We have now a total of 133 co-signers to the bill, with many follow ups to get back with. Our members represented 20 states, who are apalled at MTR thru out Appalachia. We heard from states from all over the nation, wondering how can this be happening, we are blowing up the Appalachian Mts., and posionning our water. Then people gathered to watch  ABC Nightline on Mon. night. They all saw our Supreme Court Justice, whoring around Monaco with Massey CEO Don Blankenship, while setting on the bench in law suit hearings against Massey Energy. They watched as Blankenship threaten ABC News reporter and his camareman, that they would liable get shot because of photographing him, then the assault that Blankenship inccured upon them, and it all was caught on tape. I have to tell you for the first time, I was ashamed to be a West Virginian. But WAIT, I was ashamed again on Tue. for the second day in a row, when several citizens from WVa., and one resident from Michigan, a pre-med student, and a evengellical christian, arranged a meeting with with W.Va.  Congressman Nick Rahall. This was a really tough meeting, as Mr. Rahall was extremely disrespectable to all of us. He talked to us like dogs. He doesn’t represent the people’s views, just his own interests are served. Not ONE representive from West Virginia, has signed onto the Clean Water Protection Act. When you get to talk to representives from W.Va., one can plainly see the corruption that goes so so deep that one can only say it’s very shameful and embarassing in front of the nations eye, to say that I am from West Viriginia. this state is broken so badly, that we must fight for clean elections, and to take back our government, wich has oppressed us for so long. If West Virginias could have wittnessed what I saw this week, there would be a massive outcry, and a massive march to Charleston, to take back our government, our capitol, and crush the corruption in the politics, that is notthing but a ses-pool,  low life individuls, telling us what we gotta do, and how we gotta live. This is a BROKEN STATE, and we have to take it back, and we are little by little. Talk to your U.S. Senators and Congressmen and tell them to either co-sign, or the senate to enter a companion bill, and support house bill, the Pallone Bill, H.R. 2169, and protect our most precious resource, WATER. This will protect our waterways, so that generations to come, will be assured of clean, fresh drinking water, THANK YOU, Mountainsaver.

Lately you’ve seen the Friends of Coal doing some really freaky things. Thats because they are scared. Their dirty secret about how they have been doing bussiness with the evil of phony propaganda, backed by their money, which is dirtier than the coal, which they claim can be “clean coal”, which anyone with any common sense knows there no such thing, and people are now uncovering the real truth, and that is coal kills. They are scared, and that’s why they are now using the method of mountaintop removal, to get it as fast as they can and in the process, making as much profit as they can. Peoples livelihoods means nothing to these criminals and their paid politicans. Communities are being destroyed, children are being posioned from contaminated drinking water. Illness, disease, and death are spreading thru coalfields communities who are the ones who are paying the ultimate price for this so called “cheap energy”. What this industry is doing is nothing short of genocide. So as the real truth keeps unfolding, expect to see them turn to they’re old tactics of intimadation and violence that they have used now for over 100 years. Do they really think that these tactics will still work, WRONG, people now understand the criminal acts these thugs have been doing to try to scare people so the real truth doesn’t come out.Why is West Virginia ranked dead last with the highest poverty rate, while we’re setting on the richest coal reserves in the world. It’s because like this method of mountaintop removal, which they say provides jobs, has taken 135,000 jobs from underground miners. In the 1970’s we had 150,000 coal miners in W.Va, and now we have less than 15,000 miners. This is one good fact that proves their misinformation and their phony propaganda is just plain old BS. So as they drop to their knees, expect more desprate actions to be taken against people who knows the real truth, and who is spreading the word about the coal industry dismantling of God’s creation.