Mountain top removal is an ongoing crisis that has devastated much of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. Instead of digging shafts and galleries to extract coal and other mineral resources, mining companies have lately taken to literally shaving off the top of mountains to get at even small seams of the stuff. The visual impact on the landscape is devastating, to say the least, but far more danger lies in the destructive aftermath of removal. Entire forests are clear cut from the area, and the wood is often simply burned or used to fill holes left behind in the process. Storms and existing streams are thus able to erode the land faster, bringing the by-products of this wasteful method of coal extraction with the run-off. Entire watersheds are poisoned, and dramatic, unnatural flooding finishes off whatever has managed to survive thus far, including people. This is destructive, disgusting, and economically damaging to all but the pocketbooks of the interests behind faster mineral extraction. Think this is media hokum? Take a look at this map below, or if you do not trust Google, any other satellite image:
The wider circle is where most of the removal takes place, with concentrations of wasteland found within the small the circles. The area from about Hazard, Kentucky, to Webster Springs, West Virginia, is rapidly being turned into a landscape of desolation, with watersheds being impacted on both the Atlantic and Mississippi sides of the Appalachian crest. So what can be done about this? Well, for one, a national park could eliminate much of the problem, though questions have arisen about hunting, trapping, and fishing rights within park lands. As a result, legislation that would have proposed a new park unit in the area has been put on hold, especially with elections on the line. I suspect that political intimidation has been coming from the coal industry, however.
As usual, decide for yourself. The story can be found here:
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