Kennedy calls mountaintop removal mining in W.Va. a crime against people, natur

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: AP - Los Angeles Times

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday that mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia is a crime, and that if the American people could see it, there would be a revolution.

"We are cutting down the Appalachian Mountains, these historic landscapes where Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett roamed that are so much a part of American culture," the environmental attorney said at a rally to stop blasting on southern West Virginia's Coal River Mountain.

"It's God who made these mountains, and it's (Massey Energy chief) Don Blankenship who is cutting them down," Kennedy said.

Kennedy spoke as some 300 environmental activists cheered. At the same time, 200 coal miners jeered. The groups were kept apart by a line of state troopers and metal barricades.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-mountaintop-mining-kennedy,0,931761.story

[H2O Man]

1. Recommended.

Robert is right.

[juajen]

5. Hi, waterman! Glad you're feeling better.

I agree. Just the thought of the destruction sickens me. What in the hell happened to leaving the land as we found it? Man has a lot to answer for.

[Chipper Chat]

6. There was a high hill overlooking the small town

where I grew up. It was private land but friends and I would hike up there and sit for hours. We could see the entire town and beyond. It was a wonderful place. In 1977 the owners SOLD THE DIRT. Bulldozers removed the entire hill (about 25 acres). For 20 years everytime it rained huge globs of bare red earth washed down the surrounding streeets and made quite a mess. The neighbors howled but by the time that hill was almost flattened amd it was too late to stop the removal. Everyone wished they had spoken up. I considered it a rape of nature. You are correct juajen - man has alot to answer for.

[earcandle]

2. I heard that this blasting will cause a damn to break and destablize, maybe drown up to 900+ folks..

not to mention the loss of their land. 

Bad news when companies can make these kind of decisions over
the people. 

[Hubert Flottz]

7. "maybe drown up to 900+ folks.."

Those "900 folks" are just "a bunch of dumb inbred West Virginia hillbillies." :sarcasm: That mine is creating 40 or 50 nonunion(scab)jobs, so you tell me which is more important...besides we can build a nice golf course everywhere we flatten a mountain. :sarcasm: The fiends of coal wish only the best for West Virginia, always have, always will and don't you forget it! :sarcasm: ("now watch this Earth shaking explosion") :nuke: :sarcasm:

:sarcasm: Off...

I'm glad people are finally paying attention to the disaster unfolding here in our hills. If you haven't seen it, take my word for it, it's the saddest thing you could imagine. Smash and grab robbery on a grand scale!

Those "900 + folks" have hearts and souls just like anyone else anywhere in the world does. They have names and their kids have names. They have a "Right To Life" too. Trading 50 jobs at the risk of almost a thousand lives is insanity.

[Tippy]

17. Recomends 60 ----Mine was for Hubert Flottz

His family and friends who live with this robbery daily...It's not right....

[Hubert Flottz]

38. Thanks for the Recommends Tippy our people could use a few hugs

instead of all the sick jokes people always make about our loyal little state. We broke away from Virginia in 1863 because we loved America, but we're still treated like people from some other world here. Laughed at and made fun of. The joke is on the fools that haven't seen or even dreamed of the good things that our state has to offer.

"The friends of coal" have been getting away with murder here for a hundred and fifty years and now they want to kill the beauty of the land too. One of the best things about the state of West Virginia. When I think about the words to my state song I can't help but feel a sadness that pierces me to the core and an anger that is hard for me to control. It's about so many things that people who have never lived here wouldn't or couldn't understand completely. Our mountains are our heart and soul and they are being destroyed piece by piece, day after day.

West Virginia's state song...

West Virginia Hills
Words by Mrs. Ellen King,
Music by H. E. Engle

1. Oh, the West Virginia hills! How majestic and how grand,
With their summits bathed in glory, Like our Prince Immanuel's Land!
Is it any wonder then, That my heart with rapture thrills,
As I stand once more with loved ones On those West Virginia hills?

CHORUS:

Oh, the hills, beautiful hills, How I love those West Virginia hills!
If o'er sea o'er land I roam, Still I'll think of happy home,
And my friends among the West Virginia hills.

2. Oh, the West Virginia hills! Where my childhood hours were passed,
Where I often wandered lonely, And the future tried to cast;
Many are our visions bright, Which the future ne'er fulfills;
But how sunny were my daydreams On those West Virginia hills!

CHORUS

3. Oh, the West Virginia hills! How unchang'd they seem to stand,
With their summits pointed skyward To the Great Almighty's Land!
Many changes I can see, Which my heart with sadness fills;
But no changes can be noticed In those West Virginia hills.

CHORUS

4. Oh, the West Virginia hills! I must bid you now adieu.
In my home beyond the mountains I shall ever dream of you;
In the evening time of life, If my Father only wills,
I shall still behold the vision Of those West Virginia hills.

CHORUS

http://www.50states.com/songs/westva.htm

[glitch]

28. +75 recs - Smash and grab robbery - and the people doing it should be doing time. nt

[earcandle]

30. I am in total empathy with your town. I saw your people confront your governor or mayor. What can

we do to help?  Sorry this is happening.  It should not be
happening in a Democracy.

[Hubert Flottz]

40. Our governor or mayor will do what they did the last time a dam broke

here and killed 125 people...they'll call it "An Act Of God"

[soarsboard2]

39. AMEN Brother

It is a disaster in our midst. It is like the USA is occupying and destroying this wonderful part of America.

[defendandprotect]

3. "Manifest Destiny" and "Man's Dominion Over Nature" . . . Patriarchal war on Nature....

Set up to allegedly give "godly" permission to exploitation -- !!!

:eyes:

[LaPera]

4. If the corporate media doesn't expose it, people won't go out of their way to find out

They'll believe the bullshit the mining corporations propaganda puts out, (like the "clean coal" bullshit, no such thing) the coal industry spends millions to feed the ignorant public their lies for profit...

It's truly sad and they will destroy anything to get fatter & richer and scream that they these lying greedy racist hateful slave driving pigs are the Christian moral patriot's and are doing it for America energy independents ...filthy fucking liars, they do it ONLY to stuff their pockets with money from our heritage.

[Hubert Flottz]

8. 27 recs...

should have a thousand! If people could see, smell and hear this thing that is ripping our mountains apart, it would have a thousand. It gets harder for me to vote for anyone who goes along with this short sighted ignorance, every election.

[SallyMander]

9. Breaks this biologist's heart

Sad K&R :(

[april]

10. this also has polluted rivers, streams & air

[Seedersandleechers]

11. I thought

the new environmental protection agency stopped this when Obama came into office. Was I dreaming?

[orbitalman]

12. I totally AGREE...

Besides, Coal is DIRTY energy, for god's sake; no matter what the coal industry advertises.

[chervilant]

13. hmmm...

We're ALL dreaming if we think humanity is going to all of a sudden wake up from its collective hedonism and smell the coffee...so to speak.

This is an excellent example of NIMBY--and our species' rather ignorant arrogance. Ironic--AND so totally insane--that so many of us think we can continue on this path of raping and pillaging our environment without consequences.

At some point, when our infestation has become so out of balance that we can no longer be sustained, Gaia will simply roll over and scrape us off her backside. And, we'll just have to go along for the ride.

[prole_for_peace]

14. Why does he hate America?

:sarcasm:

[ensho]

15. kick

nt

[L. Coyote]

16. Only one species went insane, and all species are now perishing.

[The2ndWheel]

18. The Parable Of The Tribes

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC07/Schmoklr.htm

"In nature, all pursue survival for themselves and their kind. But they can do so only within biologically evolved limits. The living order of nature, though it has no ruler, is not in the least anarchic. Each pursues a kind of self- interest, each is a law unto itself, but the separate interests and laws have been formed over aeons of selection to form part of a tightly ordered harmonious system. Although the state of nature involves struggle, the struggle is part of an order. Each component of the living system has a defined place out of which no ambition can extricate it. Hunting- gathering societies were to a very great extent likewise contained by natural limits.

With the rise of civilization, the limits fall away. The natural self-interest and pursuit of survival remain, but they are no longer governed by any order. The new civilized forms of society, with more complex social and political structures, created the new possibility of indefinite social expansion: more and more people organized over more and more territory. All other forms of life had always found inevitable limits placed upon their growth by scarcity and consequent death. But civilized society was developing the unprecedented capacity for unlimited growth as an entity. (The limitlessness of this possibility does not emerge fully at the outset, but rather becomes progressively more realized over the course of history as people invent methods of transportation, communication, and governance which extend the range within which coherence and order can be maintained.) Out of the living order there emerged a living entity with no defined place."

"Imagine a group of tribes living within reach of one another. If all choose the way of peace, then all may live in peace. But what if all but one choose peace, and that one is ambitious for expansion and conquest? What can happen to the others when confronted by an ambitious and potent neighbor? Perhaps one tribe is attacked and defeated, its people destroyed and its lands seized for the use of the victors. Another is defeated, but this one is not exterminated; rather, it is subjugated and transformed to serve the conqueror. A third seeking to avoid such disaster flees from the area into some inaccessible (and undesirable) place, and its former homeland becomes part of the growing empire of the power-seeking tribe. Let us suppose that others observing these developments decide to defend themselves in order to preserve themselves and their autonomy. But the irony is that successful defense against a power-maximizing aggressor requires a society to become more like the society that threatens it. Power can be stopped only by power, and if the threatening society has discovered ways to magnify its power through innovations in organization or technology (or whatever), the defensive society will have to transform itself into something more like its foe in order to resist the external force."

[L. Coyote]

41. Fallacy = "no longer governed by any order"

Disturb the natural order and there is always a price to pay. It will take 400,000 years for our CO2 to completely sequester!

[jtylerpittman]

19. does anyone have a picture of this

it has to look awful

[WriteDown]

20. WriteDown calls opposition to Cape Wind project a crime against people, nature...

as well as mountaintop mining.

[glitch]

29. Check your facts. They wanted the windmills moved further out, not eliminated. nt

:thumbsdown:

[WriteDown]

35. They basically prevented the project from EVER taking place....

and he knew that would happen. Wouldn't want to spoil that view though. :eyes:

[newtothegame]

21. Yeah but Obama's ok with it so it's ok. n/t

[avaistheone1]

22. Obama will take care of it in his second term.

:sarcasm:

[HisTomness]

23. Perhaps if the operation were costlier

the companies would be less inclined to engage in this sort of land rape.
Now how to up the cost...?

[texastoast]

34. Here's what I did

I got a call from one of the energy companies here wanting to sell me cheaper energy. I asked them if they were 100% renewable and pressed about whether any of their product comes from coal. When they apologetically said that yeah, some of it comes from coal, and no, actually, NONE of our energy is from renewable sources, I told them goodbye.

[HisTomness]

24. Ignore - repost

[Sunnyshine]

25. Too many mountains are gone for good- this must stop:

[vinylsolution]

26. The government needs to step in ....

... to save these mountains, and the health of the folks who live arounnd here.

These mountain top sites will make perfect locations for wind farms.

No more pollution, no more blasting, just endless supplies of cheap energy.

Or have I missed something here? Ah yes - the power of the fossil fuel lobby. :(

[WriteDown]

27. A thread about RFK Jr. that mentions wind farms?

:rofl:

[Algorem]

31. it's not like it's the Rockies.it's just those hillbilly mountains.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

32. This is the latest video from I Love Mountains.

My computer isn't handling videos very well right now, so I haven't been able to watch the entire thing yet, but it is worth watching if you haven't seen it yet.

It concerns the local residents opposition to MTR and the wind farm as an alternative.

A better outline of the video.

As Lorelei Scarbro, who lives in Rock Creek, West Virginia, at the foot of Coal River Mountain, says in the video, Coal River Mountain represents a crossroads in our future.

Massey Energy plans to mine more than 6000 acres of mountaintop at Coal River Mountain, which would destroy the opportunity to build a 320 megawatt wind farm on the ridges of Coal River Mountain.

Instead of 320 megawatts of clean energy that would power more than 70,000 homes indefinitely, Massey’s plans would release 134 million tons of C02 — the equivalent of putting 1.5 million more cars on the road for 17 years.

That’s what makes Coal River Mountain a “cauldron of Climate Change,” in Lorelei’s words. That’s why Google is showing millions of Google Earth users and the delegates in Copenhagen what’s at stake at Coal River Mountain, and why people from around the region are gathering today in Charleston.

Can you stand with the activists in Charleston and the delegates in Copenhagen today by taking two simple actions?

1. Watch the Coal River Mountain Video and forward it to your friends and family. Ask them to join you in stopping mountaintop removal coal mining by signing up at iLoveMountains.org.

2. Email your Senators and tell them to pass the Appalachian Restoration Act. If Congress is serious about addressing climate change, we need this bill to dramatically reduce mountaintop removal coal mining, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIwO9Z3IlRo


Link to http://www.ilovemountains.org/

[wpsedgwick]

33. Kennedy is right

Kennedy is right, at least on this issue. The mountaintop mining, while consistantly worldwide a very common practice, has contributed to the destruction of some of our most delicate ecosystems. Not to mention turning something beautiful into something ugly.

[Uncle Joe]

36. I believe they're altering the climate on at least two levels;

the burning of coal and the removal of mountains, raping the land and killing the geese that lay the golden eggs all in one swoop, for the sake of short term mindless greed.

[pleah]

37. K&R

[donheld]

42. K & R