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Fighting to End Mountaintop Removal in West Virginia - Patchwork Films
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4 comments:
kThis is in tribute to the brave miners who enter the bowels of the earth to provide us coal to give us the comforts of electricity......
Quite frankly, your web site tribute is hypocritical.....you blast mountain top mining, but are paying tribute to miners....
You people, enjoy having youe electricity to power your computers, televisions, and movie projectors to express your cause.....how do you think it gets there?
I'm not for or against mountain top removal.....but I'm asking..instead of criticism....what are your solutions.....solutions are the only answer.....not uprising!!!!!!!!!!
Anonymous:
Saying, "your web site tribute is hypocritical" is akin to saying mourning for soldiers is hypocritical because you disagree with government policy. That is ridiculous. It is apparent that people need jobs, and your comment rides roughshod over the issue of putting food on the table. The method in mountaintop removal is the problem, not necessarily mining. The issue with mining, more generally, is the coal industry's willingness to put lives at risk by ignoring safety codes in the name of profit just as they ignore environmental and social concerns in the name of profit. I do not know exactly who you mean by "You people," but clumping any group of people together reeks of the most foul prejudice. Appalachians, if that's who "You people" refers to, are aware where their energy comes from, and it seems you know little about the myriad of political and social issues in the area. Furthermore, solutions have been stated again and again and again: The most notable among them is wind energy. Of course, when that proposition is made, critics immediately point to the costs and difficulties of establishing an infrastructure for sustainable resources without attempting to brainstorm for better solutions themselves. Lastly, if my family, home, and land were being systematically destroyed by the effects of mountaintop removal, I would be on the front line of the uprising.
That said,I must ask: Do you have any solutions that you would like to propose?
Anonymous:
You talk about coal, being the producer of our electricity needs. Once coal did supply over 50%, of our electrical needs, right now it stands at 43%, is produced by coal. Another thing is that only 5% of mountaintop removal coal, goes to producing electricity, That can be very easy to replace. The fact is, that 50% of coal mined in WV, is shipped over seas, to China, Asia, India, and ect. You speak about solutions, coal is a finite resource, which is depleting rapidly, so with that said, alternatives is the solutions, and they are really not alternatives. they are the next thing. Excellent post B.J. God bless you, and all that you are doing for all Appalachians.
Louanna and Chuck
Thanks for responding to this. I just didn't have it in me. All of us in WV have been in a grieving mood this entire week. As for me, I've been thinking a lot - not only about the pain in the coal fields, but also about our friend Jim Foster and many other retired miners that we've known. Things were different when they were on the job. They at least had the union there to stand up for them.
While pondering the events of the week I mowed my lawn with a rotary push mower and trimmed with the hand clippers. There was a bit of gratification in not plugging in or gassing up.
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