Strip-mining is fun! Bring the kids!
In a bold new effort to counter "ill-informed" statements by coalfield residents and addled scientists and expose the "out-of-touch" regulatory efforts by Obama administration officials, Big Coal is launching a new series of commercials to set the record straight.
The first commercial -- "Just Adjust Your Attitude, Strip-Mining is Fun!" -- reminds so-called environmentalists that instead of harping on the destruction of strip-mining operations in 24 states -- mountaintop-removal mining in Appalachia, for example, has ONLY destroyed 500 mountains and 1.5 millions acres of hardwood forests, and jammed 2,000 miles of headwater streams with toxic coal waste, so what's the big deal -- the American public needs to look at the potential recreation benefits.
Last week, West Virginia Coal Association Senior Vice President and Mountaintop Mining Coalition Co-Chair Chris Hamilton joined the coal industry's planned rally on Sept. 15 "to call on lawmakers and administration officials to discontinue efforts to regulate the coal industry."
Regulate the coal industry? What an outrage.
Bottom line: Stop cursing the darkness of strip-mining and the largest forced removal of American citizens since the 19th century, and start lighting a candle for opportunities.
Here's the first ad: Shawnee Hills Recreation
As a special pro bono project for Big Coal, this ad was created by YERT filmmaker Ben Evans for the Coal Free Future Project. Check out YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip) and their forthcoming feature film documentary @ YERT.com, along with the 50 short films already on their website. Here's their trailer:
As mountaintop removal mining has become increasingly controversial across Appalachia, the debate over the fate of Coal River Mountain has become something of a symbolic line in the sand
http://www.newslook.com/videos/241996-fighting-for-a-mountain?autoplay=true
- Aldo Leopold