In the past I had helped to deliver donated foods to the poor people of the Appalachian hollers. They are America's poorest people and their plight and the plight of the land is a black spot on America's conscience. I would like to see a day in which we are not always on a defensive when it comes to "saving" or "conserving" America's green, America's nature. Why aren't we putting those who would strip the top of a mountain on the defensive. They are just a corporation with some employees. I say reclaim the land and the land their corporate offices are on. Start to take back, reclaim, undo. Make them spend all their time trying to defend their land against our encroachment. Everyone always talks of saving a species, or a plot of land, or cleaning up after these destroyers and polluters. Why wait until the damage is done? Why so defensive? Put them on defense.

Thank you very much for this well written article.

My father was from Hazard; at least once a year, I like to drive to an area near there, Pine Mountain. It's a beautiful, beautiful area, and the views from the nearly 100 mile long ridge of Pine Mountain are awesome and, as best as I can tell, still unspoiled from the devestation of mountaintop removal mining.

Like millions of other people, I get my cheap electricity from one of those coal-fired power plants. And it hurts me to realize that I'm as guilty as any coalmining operator for what's happening in my father's land, even if I don't have coal slurry on my hands.

Coal plants are replacing nuclear plants for electricity in this nation. One half of result is outlined in this article, the other half being the air pollution that these plants cause. But what about three mile island? - I suggest that if you go there you will see something that looks a lot better than Lost Mountain. Hardly any radiation escapes from nuclear plants. Airline pilots get more work related radiation, due to the height they travel at all day, than do nuclear workers. If you want clean power, start building nukes. Other dreams like wind and solar will not work on the scale to save mountains of coal. They have been tried in Europe, and all that happened was a lot of money went down the drain. New nuclear plants are really well designed. One of the founders of GreenPeace, Patrick Moore is big on nukes.

http://www.greenspirit.com/

http://www.greenspiritstrategies.com/D127.cfm

--Tom

Oh please. Wind and solar have been "tried" in Europe? Germany has 14,000 MW of installed wind energy. Denmark gets around 25% of their energy on average from wind, and on a few days a year, actually produces all of their energy from wind with a bit extra to export. Wind is at present about the same cost as other energy sources. If you include costs of mining, security, and pollution, it is better. Japan is all about solar, not Europe. Educate yourself more on the wind and solar industries.

Also, to those excited about nukes, take a good look at the full cost. Nuclear power operates only by the grace of massive government subsidy (look up the Price-Anderson Act), the likes of which other energy industries can only dream, and features some astronomical socialized and externalized long-term costs. Meaning, if you have a far-sighted, intelligent, science-based, war-proof, hyper-stable society, then go nuts and put in some nuke plants, assuming you've done your research and are willing to accept any consequences. If those adjectives don't fit your society, beware.

I'm very glad to see this article on Salon. Mountaintop removal is so outrageous, and so absent from the radar of the general public. To destroy these old, old mountains- all their rich soils, the geologic history encapsulated in the undulating layers of rock, streams, salamanders, songbirds, everything- for short-term, polluting profit is insane. Those who have perpetuated this practice will be regarded by future generations with much-deserved scorn for their short-sightedness and greed.

I'm a West Virginia native, and moving back this spring to dig in and fight for my state. Sans tie-dye and bongos.

I will be definitely checking this book out. For many years my family made an annual pilgramage to Banff, and every year along the way we passed Lac Des Arcs. There's a big cement factory on the shores of the lake. It took about 10 years for them to destroy a mountain - every year there was less and less of it. As my brother and I grew up, the annual vacation faded away...and when I made my first trip to Banff as an adult with my husband, I was surprised to find the mountain totally gone. It's such a blank space in the scenery. I can't recall if they started on one of the mountains behind the old one now.

I can hardly imagine a crime against humanity, nature, and future generations as great as the one by one removal of the Appalachian mountains. Even though I live in upstate New York, I've lost sleep over this issue, and now, thanks to your article, I'll probably lose some more. We don't need foreign terrorists to destroy our country--we're doing it ourselves.

One thing that often seems to be omitted from mainstream media discussions of Mountaintop Removal is what happens to those mountaintops. As if it isn't enough that forested mountaintops are being destroyed wholesale, the waste rubble produced from the mining is 'deposited' in valley fills. That is, we/they are burying hollows and streams with the unwanted parts of the former mountaintops. Hundreds of miles of what were healthy aquatic ecosystems have been obliterated, and continue to be obliterated, under tons of rock rubble. The volume of waste material created is significantly greater after mining than the consolidated rock layers were in their pre-blasting state. So, the volume of the fills exceeds the volume of the mountaintop that was removed. Just as the intent of SMCRA was subverted to allow mountaintop removal, the intent of the Clean Water Act was subverted to allow valley fills.