Appalachian Voices
Appalachian Voicesbrings people together to solve the environmental problems having the greatest impact on the central and southern Appalachian Mountains.
Ending Mountain Top Removal
Surface mining in Fork Ridge Virginia.
Just south of our nation’s capital, one of the greatest environmental and human rights catastrophes in American history is underway. In the coalfields of Appalachia, some of the world’s most diverse ecosystems are being obliterated and entire communities are being driven off their land by flooding, landslides, and pollution resulting from mountaintop removal coal mining. Mountaintop removal is just what its name implies - a relatively new coal mining technique that involves blasting away the tops of mountains and dumping them into neighboring valleys and streams in order to reach thin seams of coal that lie underneath.
Since the 1990s, when Appalachian Voices helped found the West Virginia-based group Coal River Mountain Watch, they have been working with coalfield residents to end mountaintop removal. They have provided funding, training, and other resources to the grassroots advocates in the coalfields. They have sponsored hundreds of overflights in small planes, taking reporters, political leaders, conservationists, and business owners to see the devastation from above.
Appalachian Voices is currently working with coalfield residents to launch a national campaign to end mountaintop removal. They are also working for the passage of the Clean Water Protection Act, a bill that has been introduced in the House of Representatives that would ban the process of dumping mining waste directly into streams, thereby ending mountaintop removal.
Appalachian Voices also sponsors an online action and resource center to inform and involve Americans in their efforts to save the mountains. Be sure you visit “I Love Mountains,” www.ilovemountains.org.
Eliminating Air Pollution
A sinister modern haze has overtaken the famous blue mist that gave the Great Smoky Mountains their name, threatening forests and communities across Appalachia. The three national parks that suffer from the worst air pollution in the entire national park system are in the southern Appalachians. Symptoms of air pollution in our forests include large-scale tree death and visibility so limited that the mountains sometimes disappear.
Asthma rates are on the rise, prompting the American Lung Association to join environmental groups in calling for tighter restrictions on the pollutants that have been linked to the disease. In the central and southern Appalachians, the greatest source of these airborne pollutants is coal-fired power plants.
Appalachian Voices is working to clear the air by cleaning up the sources of pollution and educating the public. Appalachian Voices was a leader in the coalition that passed the North Carolina Clean Smokestacks Act, a state law that will clean up emissions from the state’s coal-fired power plants. They are now working to pass similar laws in neighboring states, while also making sure utilities comply with the new North Carolina law.
Appalachian Voices also sponsors an online action and resource center to inform and involve Americans in their efforts to save the mountains, “I Love Mountains” http://www.ilovemountains.org.
Links Referenced
- Appalachian Voices
- http://www.appvoices.org/
Location
http://www.vcnva.org/anx/index.cfm/1,122,496,0,html
Copyright © Virginia Conservation Network 2012