A POLITICAL ISSUE

Leveling Appalachia

"The legacy of mountain removal mining"

This is a political issue. Researching about this topic made me understand more about how a beautiful picture can have such a brutal effect on peoples lives. Well the image above was taken by a photographer from yales university, an image of moutaintops being removed for coal mining. 

The video below is a video report produced by Chad A. Stevens from yale environmental360 which collaberated with Mediastorm, about practice of mountaintop removal mining which is destroying mountains and streams and covering thousands of streams in southern west Virginia and other states in the United States, it has also affected the quality of the drinking water in the surrounding areas and has caused floods. Many families had lost their homes due to these devastating experiments. Parts of mountains are blown to bits, burning coal is a huge pollution for the environment, has devastating effects on human health and cause birth defects. James Hanson reports that (burning all fossil fuels will destroy the future of the young and the unborn. The fossil fuel that must stop burning is coal, coal is the critical issue. Coal is the main cause of climate change to the atmosphere, it is the dirtiest fossil fuel-air pollution.) There was alot of protesting about this matter and still today. Will they or can they put the moutains and forest back the way it was? No of cause they can't. Many wonderful memories of what was once beautiful now destroyed and taken away from tens of thousands of people.

A PLEA TO THE PRESIDENT OBAMA:

(End mountaintop coal mining)

The Obama administration is being forced into political compromise. It has sacraficed a strong position on mountaintop removal in order to ensure the support of coal-state legislators for climate bill. The political pressures are very real. But this is an approach to coal that defects the purpose of the administration's larger efforts to fight climate change, a sad political bargain that will never get them the change they need on mountaintop removal, coal or the climate.

MY POLITICAL SAY

I think the president should take this matter of mountaintop removal seriously. There are alot of main issues here, coal mining is polluting the environment, climate changes which isn't healthy for all. Water is not drikabe, civilians nearby are worried their homes will be destroyed by flood ,not just by floods but by top of mountains being bombed which will obviously cause an avalanche which will destroy homes below. There are lives at stake here, most people can not afford to move to other environments. I do pity these civilians and the environment I would help protest against the mountaintop removal coal mining. Save the habitat, save the environment, save lives.