I LOVE MOUNTAINS

This past weekend Jessica and I went up to West Virgina just miles from where the most recent mining tragedy took place. Here is a link to a New York Times article discussing the tragedy if you are not current on the situation WV Mining Tragedy.

Jessica and I went with a group of college students from WCU who are participating in an environmental ethics class. We went to view some mountain top removal locations, meet some local activist groups, and find out what we can do to help spread the word. This blog post is part of our commitment to make friends and family aware of mountain top removal. Hopefully we can help reveal the hidden dirty secret in West Virgina. A dirty secret that coal mining companies want to remain hidden behind the ridges of mountains so that they can continue getting there paltry coal and destroy family cemeteries. Here is a link to a great website with volumes of information on mountain top removal please visit this site sine they have been writing about mountain top removal much longer than we have and know zillions more about it.  I love mountains.org.

We of course took photos of the sites and people who were involved. Many of them were taken with the film camera and so need to be developed, printed, and scanned to a digital format before we post them. We do have some digital photos, but we need to go through them and then upload them. Uploading is easier to do at WCU than home so expect some photos tonight.

We do not want to go on and on about mountain top removal. We do not want to spout out information that can be easily accessed through existing websites. We do, however, want you to visit the websites and inform yourself of what is going on. We also want you to become involved anyway you can. Coal companies work very hard to hide mountain top removal, but there are thousands of activist getting the word out. We just want to support them in their mission. So please visit the sites and do what you can. Jessica and I have donated money to Larry Gibson one of the leading activist so that he can have a security system at his home to protect his family (wife Carol and two dogs: dog and katie). You can read about Larry and see some of his videos on the I LOVE MOUNTAINS.ORG  website. There are so many things you can do to get involved. One does not have to drive to WV and chain him or herself to a large piece of mining equipment and get arrested to fight mountain top removal. You just do what you do best - be you and be involved.


Thanks
Matt and Jessica Kirby