A new leaf for Appalachia

I pulled up the route from Middletown, OH to Blacksburg VA to get to the statewide PowerShift conference at Virginia Tech. We would pass right through Charleston, West Virginia. 

We stopped in Charleston last fall and twice visited Kayford Mountain, an infamous mountain top removal mining site. Our first trip up the mountain came as part of teach in on the deleterious effects of Mountain Top Removal led by Judy and Lorella--two tough silver haired coal miners's daughters now working with Coal River Mountain Watch to stop destructive mining and build sustainable communities. Our second trip came in the back of a pick up truck as Jimmy, a retired rail road worker and new friend of BioTour took us in to the site through the back roads. Jimmy, who made his living as foreman in a coal train yard, and spent much of his life bow hunting deer and wild ginseng, gave voice to the paradox--"a man's got to have a job, ya see what I mean, but it's a shame what they done to these mountains". 

In some places coal production is viewed as a way of life, and seems like the only thing keeping some communities from complete destitution. A longer view of history reveals the role of the coal industry in keeping the communities of Appalachia in poverty. Even today as jobs in coal mining have declined significantly due to the less labor intensive mountain top removal strip mining.

Coal

also provides about half of the electricity in the United States. So for most people it is, just as the "Friends of Coal" billboards and bumper stickers say, coal that "keeps the lights on" (so change your light bulbs already (ps LED bulbs are available online). So maybe coal still makes sense for right now until we are able to make a smooth transition to renewable energy?

On the road up Kayford Mountain today we passed a sign that read "Warning: 

Trespassers will be arrested by any force necessary including deadly force. Vehicles and property will be seized indefinitely". 

A pick up truck pulled alongside us. I turned around and introduced myself. The man in the truck worked in seeding and "reclaiming" strip mines, and he explained with gregarious passion how strip mining was not as bad as people say, that there's a lot of lies being told about it. It's thoroughly regulated for one, it provides jobs, the valley fills actually filter the streams that they cover and the water comes out cleaner the other end, he said.  He even told me that the wildlife loved the strip mines. "You know in fact I have never seen a bobcat anywhere besides a strip mine, and you should see the way the deer take

 to that grass." He told me with a straight face, having convinced himself that the job that supported his kids was a good thing.

We continued on up the dirt road under the vibrant broad leafed forest and past the little campground--the last outpost of folks who refused to sell their property to the mine. Past the old family cemetary, and the little car trailers built into little house 

trailers with little wooden front porches, and finally up the last wooded slope;

we emerged from the trees and looked out over the gaping

 wound in the earth where a forested peak once stood.

 Explosions sent clouds of earth billowing from the hillside, and bulldozers scraped away the top soil i

nto piles of rubble. Like hobbitts reaching Mordor or Isengard 

we watched in shock and gloom.

The reality of destructive coal mining quickly dissolves the apolog

ies and excuses for the coal industry. For the communities around the mines, processing facilities and power plants throughout Appalachia the ecological crises does not wait in the imagined future, it is in their water that runs gray from the tap, in the air as children and the elderly struggle to breathe; hundreds of mountains have been destroyed, streams filled in, nearby homes destroyed by mudslides down treeless slopes, and slurry ponds of toxic waste pile up between the hills.

Mountain top removal mining must stop and no more public funds dedicated to new coal fired power plants, and no more tax breaks given to the coal industry. Those resources shoul be used to create healthy and sustainable communities in Appalachia. The land and the people of this region have fueled the economy of the United States for over a century and they deserve to share in the benefits.

Green jobs now. No New Coal. PowerVote

To learn more about Mountain Top Removal in Appalachia please visit Ilovemountains.org

Word.

Ok I should sleep because we just arrived at Virginia Tech a few hours ago, and in a few more hours we will be joined by hundreds of organizers and student activists from all over the state, and we have work to do.

Iowa to Chicago...without a bus

With my large pack strapped to my back and a laptop thrown across one shoulder, I stood in the breakdown lane of I-80 East with my thumb out, holding a sign that read ‘Chicago.’ And hour and a half passed, while I listened to cars whiz past me. I was surprised no one picked me up and reconsidered how I was going to get to Chicago from Pella, Iowa. As I began walking off the highway and truck cab without a trailer pulled over. My faith in humanity was bolstered, but I passed up the ride that was only going to Iowa City. I walked off the highway to a nearby hotel.

The woman at the hotel desk handed me a map of Des Moines with directions to the bus station, which was too far to walk. So, I called in a favor from a friend living in Des Moines who I had run into earlier in the day.

Christina pulled up in her car with a gift of three slices of Des Moines’ finest pizza, then dropped me off across town. I bought my one-way ticket to Chicago, sat down on a bench, opened my laptop and started typing my thoughts.

“Are you going to Chicago?” a man with a soft Indian accent asked.

“Yes. You?”

“Yes, I am flying home from Chicago after three years in the United States.”

“Where’s home?”

“Punjab.”

“Aman is my name.” We shook hands.

As we spoke, my computer screensaver activated and BioTour photos streamed across the screen.

“What’s that?” he inquired.

“That’s the bayou in Atchafalaya, Louisiana.”

I narrated a photo slideshow of the BioTour. The conversation went on. We shared stories, cigarettes, and pistachios. He told me about his two children, his homeland, and his friends. Before long, we were friends and he invited me to Punjab to stay with his family, even offering to buy my plane ticket.

The plan for Punjab is now forming. I slept all the way to Chicago.