As the sun rose on the Frankfort capitol in Kentucky on this beautiful winter morning, 14 anti-mountaintop removal activists were already in meetings on the third day of their historic protest. After marking the second night on the floors and chairs in their Kentucky Rising occupation of Gov. Steve Beshear's office, four of the sit-in participants, including the celebrated author Wendell Berry, appeared at the east capitol entrance for an exclusive interview with Huffington Post blogger Jeff Biggers and Kentucky filmmaker Ben Evans.
"This is neither the beginning nor the end," declared Kentuckians for the Commonwealth activist Teri Blanton.
Noting that "consequences" were already resulting in a bellwether moment for the state of Kentucky and across the coalfields, Wendell Berry called on the nation to do "what is right" and end the egregious practice of mountaintop removal mining.
As part of a growing movement across the central Appalachian coalfields--and the nation--to abolish mountaintop removal, a devastating strip-mining techniques that provides less than 5-8 percent of national coal production and results in irreversible health and environmental damages, the Kentucky Rising participants are calling on the governor "to lead by ending mountaintop removal, by beginning a sincere public dialogue about creating sustainable jobs for our hard-working miners, by putting the vital interests of ordinary Kentuckians above the special interests of an abusive industry."
In anticipation of the planned "I Love Mountains" march on the Capitol on Monday, the Kentucky Rising participants are leading video conferences today on the "History of Unions and Organizing in Eastern Kentucky," with 41-year coal mining veteran Stanley Sturgill, eastern Kentucky nurse Bev May and Appalshop filmmaker Herb E. Smith, and a discussion on "Where the anti-mountaintop removal movement is today and where we need to go," with eastern Kentucky mountain residents and organizers Teri Blanton, Mickey McCoy, Rick Handshoe and Tanya Turner.
Along with Berry, exclusive interviews took place with retired UMWA coal miner and MSHA inspector Stanley Sturgill, Appalachian historian and author Chad Berry, and KFTC organizer Teri Blanton.
Wendell Berry on the urgency of the moment: "We have exhausted all other possibilities."
Wendell Berry on why the sit-in continues:
Former UMWA coal miner/inspector Stanley Sturgill on how strip-mining strips jobs: "Due to mountaintop removal mining, many many jobs have been lost."
Teri Blanton on living among the mountaintop removal operations in the Appalachian coalfields: "We have lost over 2,000 miles of streams."
Chad Berry on social justice movements in the coalfields: "Appalachia is the most misunderstood region in the country."
The whole group on the details of the demonstration:
Wendell Berry: "Everyone in the crowd must examine his or her own personal economy."
I neither defend or demonize the people who depend on the coal business for a livlihood. I will say that making people "wrong" for making a living from coal mining is counterproductive - at best. Their future is coal. They will fight to preserve it.
Businesses that manage their operations in a manner that causes damage to other persons' property, businesses, and trained employees should expect to face a vigorous resistance from the people damaged by those activities. Public resistance will likely cause this type of mining's demise.
Meanwhile, the planet, is experiencing increasingly extreme weather events. The chemical balance of the atmospheric gas mixture is energized beyond levels familiar in human history in response to humans burning hydrocarbon fuels and creating GHGe. Bad weather = bad crop yields = people/nations fighting over food.
40% of the GHGe globally, comes from burning coal.
The US derives over 50% of its electrical power from coal.
What about what's left? The "craters"? They can be restored as "oxygen farms" by establishing timber plantations of trees that are high-performance CO2 filters that also generate biomass for cellulosic-based fuels. This creates a sustainable future in coal country on land where the coal resource has been removed.
STOP GLOBAL WHINING
If you get to live in this country, you're just blessedly fortunate. If you're willing to destroy it for profit, you don't deserve to live here. Go live where clean water, air, "the environment" (it is US!) don't matter!
NPR and PBS are all over the airwaves crying for voters to help save them from budget cuts. They report on every movement of the Pope and Sarah Palin but where are the hard-hitting reports on the destruction of the Appalachians and an entire ECOLOGY??!!
Here is a quote from an AP report: "The people from the mountains, legislators and residents, understand the value of flat land," said state Rep. Jim Gooch Jr., D-Providence, chairman of the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee. “They understand that these environmentalists play on emotions, not facts.” “Gooch said some Appalachian communities wouldn't have enough level land to build industrial parks, airports or athletics fields without the reclaimed mining areas."
Apparently Gooch prefers industrial parks, airports and athletic fields to mountains, streams and valleys.
Instead of "America the Beautiful" in which "beautiful forespacious skies.......purple mountains' majesty....." figure, singers can laud "beautiful industrial parks......airports.....athletic fields" (there have actually been articles which tout the development of golf courses where once there were wild mountains and streams).
It's hyperbole to decry the destruction of a mountain range, of an entire ecology, for short-term, short-sighted profiteering and greed? You like hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") for natural gas, too? How about that beautiful sheen and its rainbow colors from oil in the Gulf of Mexico? You like the acidification of America's waters from coal-burning? Hyperbole, too?
Is everything hyperbole except what Big Coal, Big Oil, Big Gas put out in their propaganda?
The METHOD of coal plundering called mountaintop removal mining/strip/surface mining is an environmental and human disaster. It also COSTS jobs.
Let's see how it works in KY.
.F&F
Kentucky receives 20 billion more each year in federal spending than they contribute in taxes. A lot of the money flows to the mining companies and another chunk to cleaning up their mess.
I'm happy to see the people of the state stand up and demand that practices designed for quick profit at the expense of the people living there need to stop. I'm happy to see them concerned about transitioning away from unsustainable practices and demanding a focus on jobs that will be good for people over the long run.
But your representatives sent to Washington are demanding that the one agency that could have some teeth in this issue, the EPA, be disbanded. Please take this message further than just your Governor.