So what are you doing reading this blog right now? Or better to ask, what should you be doing right now instead of reading this blog?
Lets admit it: we spend a lot more time than we should reading stories on the internet or watching the ever hilarious videos (such as the all time classic Bear + Trampoline = Comdey) instead of doing work. I mean who are your bosses kidding giving you a computer with a connection to the vast world wide web and thinking that you are not going to read about a New Zealand man claiming that he got raped by a wombat. If you are like Peter from Office Space, in a given week you probably do about fifteen minutes of real actual work in a week. So I figured if you are just cruising around on the internet superhighway why not give you something a little better to read than the latest pop culture Spears/Hilton/Lohan trash. So early each week I will try to highlight some new cool science finding or show you a cool website that explains some environmental issue. Often many of these will involve a cause or a non-profit group that you can support. So hopefully it will give you something to talk about around the water cooler that makes you look a little smarter.
So to start off I want to share with you this cool website: ilovemountains.org .
This website has been designed to alert people to the horrors of mountaintop removal. This is an incredibly destructive way for coal companies to get coal out of the Appalachian Mountains. Alan Weisman in The World Without Us said coal companies – “discovered a trick cheaper than tunneling or even strip mining: just pulverize the entire top third of a mountain, sluice out the coal with a few million gallons of water, push what’s left over the side, and blast again.” Not only does this destroy the entire mountain, but the tailings are then pushed into the valleys filling them up and polluting the streams. The rich biodiversity of the region is not the only loss; many people are being displaced eroding the cultural diversity of Appalachia region.
I love to hike in the Appalachian Mountains. This is such a beautiful area with many streams, waterfalls, valleys, and ridges that contain great habitat for many unique plants and animals. To think that these companies are allowed to do this really upsets me. And I am sure that it upsets most people who see these things. Looking at Vivian Stockman’s aerial photos captures how destructive mountaintop removal is. I mean it looks like a moonscape. Yet people will say, “hey I don’t live in Kentucky or West Virginia so there is nothing I can really do about it and I am not responsible.” Well thats why the ilovemountains.org is a really cool website. Using a Google Earth interface they can show that power companies in your area buy coal from companies that practice mountaintop removal. Go to this site and type in your zip code and it will show you a direct connection between heating your home and destroying mountains. I think this is really a positive step forward showing that people all over the USA from LA to NYC are connected to this practice. When I type in my zip code in Ithaca it says that the New York State Electric Gas Corp. buys bad coal and that the closest power plant on my grid connected to mountaintop removal is AES Cayuga.
So now you have no excuse and after seeing this ilovemountains.org helps you become an activist. There are many things that you can do. First, you can register with me at this group to help stop this destructive practice. Then you can call or write your local power supplier and tell them that you do not want them to purchase coal from companies that practice mountaintop removal. And third you can always contact your local representative in Congress and tell them to stop mountaintop removal.
ilovemountains.org is a slick website that does a great job of not only educating people about an environmental catastrophe but showing the connection to our everyday life. With videos, photos, and Google Earth they make a strong argument that we must end mountaintop removal. I hope it motivates you to act!
