Are You Responsible For Mountaintop Removal? A New Tool Shows How It's All Connected

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/mountain-top-removal-new-tool-shows-how-its-all-connected/

Earlier this week the EPA announced a new water quality standard that could spell the beginning of the end for the destructive practice of mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining.

Referred to as one of the most environmentally-destructive practices of our time, mountaintop removal is a radical form of coal mining where entire mountains are literally blown up and then pushed into the valleys and streams below.

Just 24 hours before the EPA's announcement, a massive explosion ripped through the Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia on Monday, killing 25 miners and leaving 6 others missing and presumed dead. The mine was owned by the infamous Massey Energy, a company has been fined over $400,000 for saftey violations that allowed flammable gas and coal dust to build up inside the mine -- this year alone. Investigators suspect that just such a buildup caused the blast.

There's no denying that MTR is a dirty, dangerous business that encourages our addiction to fossil fuels, speeds the destruction of precious ecosystems, and puts human lives in danger every day.

For those that live outside Appalachia, MTR can seem like a distant problem, worthy of hand-wringing and petition-signing, but little else in the way of action.

Thanks to a new online tool recently released by ilovemountains.org, however, innocence by way of geography isn't going to get Americans off the hook so easily in the future.


FULL story at link.

[Better Today]

1. Entirely ridiculous. Using electricity doesn't make anyone

responsible for MTR. It may be most everyone's problem, but it isn't their responsibility, not even those that live in Appalachia and get both jobs and electricity from MTR. It is the responsibility of the government, fed and state, and they are bought and paid for regardless of how anyone votes.

I totally reject the idea that because our state and federal representatives are corrupt, we should "feel responsible".

[malakai2]

3. But wait -

Just declare the electrons we're using come from wind (or solar, or geothermal, or whatever), and therefore we're not contributing to mountaintop mining or CO2 emissions. Then we can look down our noses at evil folks who want to poison us all with plutonium, or kill us all with coal, or ruin our watersheds with dams, or those damn foreigners who want to do all of the above. We can just ignore natural gas peakers and biomass burning because everybody is entitled to massive, glaring blind spots.

[TankLV]

2. I sometimes think so after I take a dump...

it's truely amazing sometimes...

[joshcryer]

4. This is a useful tool, I thought Colorado got its coal from Canada, but it's apparently Virginia.