Destroying Giants

Just take a sec to imagine waking up every morning in fear of the environment around

you. Constant blasts ring out in the distance. You cant remember the last time you didnt have

that annoying cough that seems to get worse everyday. Before you send the kids off to school

you warn them again not to drink out of the fountains or they may get very ill. You are watching

your friends and family dying everywhere you look because of cancer or some other ailment.

And on top of all that not only does your government not address these problems they are the

ones pushing for this and exploiting the ones who cant fight back. This is no war stricken area or

cruel dictatorship. This madness lies closer to home, in the foothills of Appalachia. For years the

rural communities that lie in the Appalachian Mountains have been trampled over by the coal

industry in the search for a quick dollar.

 Being one of the more recent advantageous types of mining mountaintop removal has

also one of the most devastating. It had rose in popularity since the 1970s as a way to get to coal

vines that traditional deep mining couldnt get to. What amounts to only a mere 4% of all coal

mined they are moving mountain for pebbles. The practice throws caution to the wind as it

crudely dismantles a mountain that has stood for millions of years. Bo Webb a native of Coal

River Valley, West Virginia reminisces to his childhood about the mountains Growing up on

Coal River has been one the greatest blessings in my life. From spring until winter we fished and

camped up and down the river. From the mountains above we gathered wild leeks, mushrooms,

ginseng, blackberries, raspberries, yellow root, and wild greens. We grew our gardens in the flats

of the mountains, in rich black mountain soil. We hunted and preserved our game and garden

vegetables. Those once thick sprawling forests that sat atop great mountains are scraped bare by

huge droves of bulldozers. Their diverse ecosystems decimated with no hope of recovery. The

companies then tend to push the newly trimmed forest into a trash heap and burn with other

waste materials. Thats when modern technology takes over. Massive towering drills and brought

in to crave mile long bores into the Earths surface. Then they are filled with the toxic mixture of

ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, the same famous mixture of the Oklahoma bomber. Familys hear

the rumble for miles away. Children come to a pause during the recess games to ponder the loud

noise ringing about them. The unfortunate ones that live close to the site watch helplessly as their

house is shook so violently it shifts the whole foundation. Cracked walls, broken windows,

everyday life. The problems dont end there though. Giant coal waste sludge dams containing

billions of gallons of toxic coal sludge hovered over the Coal River Valley, one of those directly

above our elementary school. I knew I was experiencing a life-changing moment. Says Webb.

After the mining company is done with reclaims the mountain by haphazardly placing the
remains of the mountain. Most often filling local streams with massive amounts of mud and toxic

dust and sludge. A harmful mixture that has heavily plagued the areas beneath with illness and

disease. In a recent study done by a team at West Virginia University this deadly waste material

was directly linked to cancer outbreaks doubled of that of a town not near one of these sites.

Webb tells his firsthand experience with these horrible effects. They're dying from high rates of

cancer in Appalachian communities beneath these mountaintop removal sites He rattles off the

names of neighbors and others stricken with the disease, including two boys across the river: a

12-year-old who died last year and a 14-year-old who is dying.

The people in the communities face these challenges day in and day out with little hope

in sight to escaping this nightmare. To make matters worse most people in these valleys are

powerless to speak out against the powerful coal companies. They have used the economic

prosperity they brought to the area as a way to have power over the poor valley communities.

Carl Shoupe a third generation coal miner from Harlan County Kentucky couldnt stand this

anymore. He watched helplessly as his town, his home was poisoned around him. He felt in his

heart he had to do something to stop this disgusting act. I talk about it daily, said Shoupe, At

the grocery, at the speedway, wherever. I had a conversation yesterday morning; a very respected

man in the community. A professor. He said, You go, Carl, buddy, you get out there and keep

talking, youre doing a great job. I said, Why dont you help me out a little bit? And he said

Ah, buddy, I cant say much; theyd run me off. Even upper class of these communities are

afraid to talk out against these companies. So see, says Shoupe, people know its bad, that its

destroying our water, our culture, but like everything else, it's about money. People aint

speaking out about it. People are afraid of losing their jobs.
 Thankfully to citizens like Webb and Shoupe the people of Appalachia have a hope in this

bleak situation. They fight every day protesting new mountaintop removal projects and spread

the word of the conditions people are forced to live in because of its existence. Taking down a

multimillion dollar industry isnt an easy task and they are repeatedly encountered with strong

opposition from the coal companies. It is their hopes to unite all of Appalachia and stop

mountaintop removal for indefinitely.

OUTLINE:

1) The topic is mountaintop removal and its effects on poor rural communities. I

have taken personal accounts of those affected by the practice and the troubles they face

because of it in an effort in inform about the bad conditions within these towns.
2) I am writing for the general American public as well as a global audience.
3) This offers an interesting first person perspective into what it is like to live this

environment. Haunting personal tails and hard evidence accurately describe the true

nature mountaintop removal.

http://earthjustice.org/mountain-heroes/bo-webb

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/03/nation/la-na-mining-20101003

http://www.alternet.org/story/150427/next_steps_for_the_anti-mountaintop_removal_movement

%3A_activist_bo_webb_speaks_out

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/28/3652093/mountaintop-removal-affects-communities/

http://appvoices.org/end-mountaintop-removal/health-impacts/

http://www.plunderingappalachia.org/theissue.htm

http://www.utne.com/environment/telling-the-story-of-mountaintop-removal.aspx

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-dirty-effects-of-mountaintop-removal-

mining/2014/10/21/851c4236-58a2-11e4-bd61-346aee66ba29_story.html

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/676997?seq=5#page_scan_tab_contents

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/ipdf/10.1021/es504263u