The Appalachian Mountains
…We will feel mounting pressure to plunder the environment. We will have a crash program to build more nuclear plants, strip-mine and burn more coal, and drill more offshore wells than we will need if we begin to conserve now. Inflation will soar, production will go down, people will lose their jobs. Intense competition will build up among nations and among the different regions within our own country.
If we fail to act soon, we will face an economic, social and political crisis that will threaten our free institutions.
But we still have another choice. We can begin to prepare right now. We can decide to act while there is time.
-President Jimmy Carter April 18, 1977
How prophetic were the words of this former Governor of an Appalachian state. Almost 30 years after President Carter outlined the energy proposal that would free us from independence on Middle Eastern Oil; our environment is under attack like never before.
“Clean” Coal Technology at work
For over 200 years my family has called the hills and hollers of the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky home. I remember all too well driving to my grandmother’s house in the 1970s and seeing the mountains razed as we passed the overflowing coal trucks on their way to the processing plants. I truly thought I’d never live to see those days again, but now thanks to the Bush administration, what was old is new again and strip mining (now called Mountain Top removal) is back again. Why? The reasons we are given are the increase in mining accidents and the high cost of oil. We’ve got to get that “black gold” to meet our energy needs. (Never mind that many of these mining accidents are caused because the coal companies are digging too deeply and removing support columns that contain coal.) So, the administration is saying that Mountain Top removal is a safer and more efficient method of mining. Safer for whom? It’s certainly not safer for the inhabitants of the Appalachian communities that are under assault. These proud, hard working people are seeing their beloved mountains leveled. Their streams and creeks buried in coal sludge and slurry. The air they breathe full of dust and silica, and their drinking water black and unusable.
Remembering the early 1970s, I was very upset when I heard that Bush had basically told the coal industry, “Go get me that black gold!” But I was moved and greatly heartened this weekend when I saw a piece on Bill Moyer’s Journal about the growing groups of people of faith in the Appalachians who are taking on the coal companies and the Bush Administration head on. A group called Christians for the Mountains poses some very interesting questions. To paraphrase, “Which mountain do you think God would come down here and blow up? Which streams and valleys would Jesus fill up with coal sludge?”
In my article “The Green Hills of Earth” I worried that when most of the Earth’s population is living in large cities, we won’t see the impact that we have on the natural world. Understanding that fact, the very tech-savvy people at ilovemountains.org have used the technology of Google Earth to create a short film showcasing a National Memorial for the Mountains.
You can watch it below.
It’s time that we listen to what President Carter was trying to tell us 30 years ago. It’s time that we break our fossil-fuel addiction and find a better, greener way to provide for the energy needs of our country. Blowing the tops off of mountains to get at the coal underneath is an act of desperation. It’s the act of an addict that is willing to do anything to get his next fix. Is this what America has become? Christians for the Mountains and others feel that the Earth is the body of God and must be protected. I couldn’t agree more. Call your senators and representatives and visit the links I’ve included below. Pronounce to the world that you are a lover of the mountains and fight to protect them!
President Carter’s 1977 Energy Speech.
