I watched Bill Moyers Journal tonight on PBS. The blatant neglect and disinterest of President Bush of the people in the Appalachian Mountains are clearly evident. President Bush believes the effects of coal dust from coal mining by blasting off the tops of the Appalachian Mountains is not only acceptable but should unleash MORE toxins on the United States citizens who live in these areas, such as West Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains. The Bush Administration/Environmental Protection Agency wanted to allow the disposal of waste into the nation's waters. According to a senior counsel for Earth Justice, this decision is "the biggest threat to our nation's waters in decades."
Mountaintop Method of Coal Mining
Mining in the United States is changing — as is the life of the miner in West Virginia and nationwide. The percentage of the nation's coal that comes from surface mining rose to 65% in 2000, and the Department of Energy expects that number to rise. In West Virginia, surface-mined coal now accounts for over 33% of the total — up from 10 percent 30 years ago.
Yes, personally I have chosen the human rights cause of working to stop genocide.
www.savedarfur.org
www.dreamfordarfur.org
www.sudandivestment.com
www.standnow.org
However, this issue of being totally untrustworthy of protecting our people and our planet - specifically the land our government should care for because it is within our boundary lines - just stinks. And according to a mother who lives in West Virginia and has black toxic tap water says the water from her tap stinks.
Why is it such a struggle to get our President, our congress, to do the right things? Paid corporate lobbyists are not in our best interest. And a government giving the lobbyists and corporations license to rape the land and rape us of our rights to water from our taps not to be toxic from corporate CEO’s abuse should not be a battle that we have to fight. We have a right to treatment better than this. Is it really a debatable wrong - that black toxic tap water is wrong? How can it be right? How can breathing coal dust be dismissed?
Life and resistance in coal country
West Virginia Town Fights Blanket of Coal Dust
Series Part Two
by Kari Lydersen
Sylvester, West Virginia; May 9, 2006
Residents in a small West Virginia fight against a coal crushing plant that has blanketed their town with dust and ruined their quality of life.
http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3140
The NewStandard that published the article at this link ceased publishing on April 27, 2007. Boy, I’d like to know what brought the shut down of this newspaper! I wonder if Don Blackenship, CEO of Massey Energy had anything to do with that!! Don Blackenship: "Seventh scariest person in America" at this link
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/10/24/164045/58
Another article from the same now defunct newspaper…
Dirtier Side Betrays Promise of ‘Clean Coal’
by Kari Lydersen
Mar. 15, 2006 –
Between the coal-rich Appalachian Mountains and coal-hungry energy consumers like the state of Ohio, critics say the concept of an eco-friendly use for the fossil fuel is far more misnomer than reality
Though most people probably associate coal with the bygone Industrial Age, the Bush administration considers it an essential part of the nation’s energy mix. At least 114 new coal-burning power plants are currently in the building or permitting stages around the country. According to a 2006 report from the US Energy Information Administration, US power consumption from coal is expected to rise 1.9 percent per year through 2030, significantly more than the expected rise in energy consumption from petroleum (1.1 percent) and natural gas (0.7 percent).
Coal burning power plant
Elisa Young, an aspiring organic farmer in Racine Ohio, finds herself surrounded by this growing industry. Up to four new coal-burning plants are proposed for her area, even though her bucolic land is already ringed by smokestacks. Three major coal-burning power plants are visible from her farm, which has been in the Young family for seven generations. Within a short span of 20 miles, American Electric Power Corp. (AEP) operates three power plants, and Ohio Valley Electric Corporation owns another.
Young would like to stay to farm her land, but she is up against an industry that would rather buy out the area than acquiesce to the health and environmental concerns of residents……..This is worth reading the entire article.
http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2936
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29 seconds of Bill Moyers Journal on what happens when the mining of coal is more important than the people who have to live with the effects. 29 seconds worth your time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1v6Pn3zGR8
From http://www.PatchWorkFilms.com
Mountains Don't Grow Back
Filmmaker B. J. Gudmundsson
This is excellent.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPixjCneseE
from www.ilovethemountains.org
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziuFW-7h1LM
"Wholly" Shit…Slurry that is
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http://appvoices.org/
Bringing People Together to Protect Our Mountain Heritage
Appalachian Voices
http://christiansforthemountains.org/
Christians who have become activists against the government, a government which was created in order to protect them. But instead the government has become a battle ground for drinking, cooking and bathing water that isn’t full of toxic residue from coal mining blasting.
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US: New coal dust standards mean increased black lung for miners
By Paul Sherman
25 June 2003
The Bush administration is proposing changes to safety measures for coal miners that will result in the additional deaths of hundreds if not thousands of miners from black lung each year.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has drawn up a set of new rules governing the acceptable levels of coal dust that miners can be exposed to while working in a mine. Under the new rules, which are set to be finalized and take effect later this year, mines will be allowed to quadruple the level of coal dust that miners breathe from the current level of 2 milligrams per cubic meter to 8 milligrams.
Under the proposal, the MSHA will take over dust testing, which is now done by the coal operators. This has been long sought after by the miners, because it is common knowledge that operators routinely falsify test results. However, the MSHA is currently understaffed and the Bush administration has cut back its funding, meaning the agency will not have the resources to check dust levels. To get around this problem, the new regulations will reduce the current level of 30 samples per year to as low as 2 or 3 a year for some mines.
The new rules will also exempt dusty mines from meeting health standards if they provide miners with spacesuit-type helmets that filter the air. Miners object to these devices because they are heavy to wear, block vision on the sides, get covered with dirt and grease, and scratch easily, drastically impairing vision.
The breathing of coal and rock dust causes black lung, the common name given to the lung diseases pneumoconiosis and silicosis. An excruciatingly painful and deadly disease, black lung killed more than 55,000 miners between 1968 and 1990 and more than 1,000 miners still die each year. Another 112,000 miners receive black lung benefits, but these numbers underestimate the extent of the disease, since government workers compensation laws have been changed to make it more difficult for miners to prove they have black lung and thus qualify for benefits.
From http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jun2003/coal-j25.shtml
This Land is Your Land
This Land is My Land
This Land was made for you and me.
OR THIS LAND IS NOBODY'S LAND
......THE LAND DOESN'T BELONG TO US
BUT WE BELONG TO THE LAND
THEREFORE THE LAND, THE PLANET, THE UNIVERSE
MUST BE PROTECTED
FROM US
This Land is My Land
This Land was made for you and me.
OR THIS LAND IS NOBODY'S LAND
......THE LAND DOESN'T BELONG TO US
BUT WE BELONG TO THE LAND
THEREFORE THE LAND, THE PLANET, THE UNIVERSE
MUST BE PROTECTED
FROM US
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