There is a war going on but it is not in some far off country, submersed in a misunderstood culture. This war is happening on our own soil, or our soon to be lack-there-of. This war is called Mountain Top Removal (aka surface mining.), a practice in which the soil and rocks of the earth surface are removed in order to extract minerals and in the case of the Appalachia, this mineral is coal.
What is left after this practice is a desert. There is no soil to sustain the ecosystem that once existed here. This was a landscape so special that it was capable of growing plants otherwise not seen in the US. The unique terrain makes it ill-fitted for large scale mono-cultures but perfectly suited for small scale farms that could empower the people of Appalachia and cut off the confinements of corporate dependence. We have suddenly lost this sustainable, agriculturally viable zone capable of vast permaculture practices that would provide and protect the environment. For what?
A little coal in an era capable of renewable energy. We have turned communities into dependents of the coal industry and an environment devoid-ed of it's natural resources.
At what cost is it to strip the EPA? At what cost is it to give dirty energy companies a one-up? Mountains are being blown apart and compromising not only the health of those in Appalachia, but the sustainability. It is bad enough that the coal industry has been able to fly under the radar for so long, we do NOT need to go even farther in the wrong direction by ridding what little oversight there is to these american atrocities. This has got to STOP! Clean coal is a DIRTY lie.
Please call President Obama now and tell him to stand firm against this giveaway to coal companies at 202-456-1414.
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