appalachian secret

[GTG97]

Mountain top removal has made my dad a honest salary and has put retirememt funds and health insurance in his pocket and this isnt even a problem anymore there is now coal slurrys that just set at the tipple filled with chemicals and are never moved or placed in streams so you all have it wrong

[alexcaulfield]

@GTG97

No offense intended, but your comment begs this question: Do you think good paying jobs justify poisoning the air and water of people living beneath mtr sites? If you can be open-minded enough to read the research you may have a change of mind.

I'm from a coal mining family myself, but mtr is different than underground and what we remember as strip mining.

[MaxamillianArturo]

@alexcaulfield Whats it to you carpet bagger?

[alexcaulfield]

@MaxamillianArturo carpet bagger? I am 6th generation Coal River Valley, WV resident. My great great great grandfather settled here first in 1820. Most of his land was stolen from him by the coal and land companies. Man! you are really a well indoctrinated back-slapping friend of the coal baron throwing you a few scraps while he poisons your famiy for high dollar proft for him an his rich bastard friends on Wall Street.

[246alive]

mountain top removal is a crime against nature and humanity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheAc2009ac]

It is a sure th!ing that those posting support for the damage and denial of the damage; are individuals that are 'posing' to be workers, when in fact, they are the recipients of the money that is being taken from the damage that is being done to the people getting sick & dying. It is ilogical that a father or a mother would make such stupid statement with disregard for the health of their family!

Too many politicians that are blatantly thieves & liars!

God Please Bless America, In Jesus' Name

[carnut476]

This ain't New York 9-11 ..

[carnut476]

The civil war is still going on, Americans outside Appalachia don't give a flying fuck if we all die today.

[alexcaulfield]

Perhaps if you understood that mtr is killing the people living beneath it and wiping out entire communities and eliminating real coal mining jobs, ruining your children's water and air in order to pad the pockets of wall street greed, all the while using you as the sucker to provide their lavish life style and spoon feeding their kids you may have a different perspective yourself.

[KMCKINNEY1000]

If you fed your kids through mining you"d have a different perspective.

[unitedcheerstar]

@KMCKINNEY1000 damn straight!

[jnewman74]

Im proud to be a underground miner. i work everyday so little people like you can get on the internet and post your hippy videos. you want to be green? i suggest you really go green, no more supermarket, or commuting to work or school for you. go out and eat bark off a tree in the woods somewhere.

[alexcaulfield]

Typical misinformation slurred by the coal industry. I, and most everyone I know that is working to end mtr has no problem at all with real coal mining underground. My Father Grandfather and most of my family have been coal miners, underground. Mountaintop removal is totally unnecessary but totally devastating to the health and welfare of those that live beneath it. I don't understand why a underground coal miner would supports mtr that robs real coal miners of their jobs. Can you explain?

[pikeasaurus15]

"this video is a response to beyonce single ladies dance"

[12345vjd]

Its a horrible thing.....it should not be allowed. I know they are trying to improve education in different parts of the Appalachia's so the people can do more than work in mines or die of starvation. The mining companies are like throw backs from the days of slavery. No workers rights, no nothing.

The people of Appalachia suffer in poverty, although billions are being spent on war efforts in other countries. It's a disgrace. The whole thing makes me weep.

[madecker]

alexcauifield I bet you still like to use the power it make for you computer don"t you.

[alexcaulfield]

@madecker Yes, I use electricity. All my light bulbs are energy savers. My tv runs only when I'm actually watching it. My small laptop computer recharges from a small solar cell, (cheap to buy). We need to give the planet a rest. We're killing entire ecosystems for our greed and comfort at the expense of our children and grandchildren's comfort. we need to get a grip. 1000kh per month is more than enough for a family of 4. We should ration and wise up to renewables as quick as possible.

[camaroracer454]

@alexcaulfield Your wasting more coming on the internet.....If humans are warming the earth, can you explain to me how we came out of an ice age?

Burnt coal comes down in the rain and will settle in the ground over the next billion years, its a big cycle don't worry about it...thats life get over it.

Go live in the woods with nothing if you want to change it.

[alexcaulfield]

@camaroracer454

It's not easy to open someones eyes when their paycheck requires them to keep their eyes closed.

Your rambling makes little sense.

[camaroracer454]

@alexcaulfield My paycheck comes from a Hardware Store? So are you speaking on behalf of the coal workers? I'm not exactly sure how to take your statement.

[wyndeely]

@alexcaulfield - My family of five uses less than 400 kwh/month of electricity. We don't generate any of our own electricity, yet. It's possible to live, happily and well, with a lot less than people think ;). If everyone used the amount of electricity my family uses, we could give the Earth that much needed rest you mention. I don't know if you're from Appalachia - I am. I have nothing good to say about coal or the coal mining industry.

[BLUEMOONGRASS]

I wrote the song (CLEAN WATER) back in the early 90's and peformed it at all the ralley's to clean up the Pigeon river there in East Tennessee. I found out you can still keep the jobs and' clean up the water at the same time. Its a known fact the three most important thing to life is AIR FOOD and' CLEAN WATER.

[jaypatterson6197]

911

[SuperCurdog]

It is so sad when people poison their own kids for a pay check. They feed their family and neighbors poison for a new truck and 4 wheeler-- and a tan and clothes for their wives.

Our children need clean water in order to live and some thugs are selling their children's feet to by them selves fancy shoes. They don't care about their kids- ti is that bass boat and truck that matters to them.

[alexcaulfield]

xdawg51 I was going to take your moronic comment off, but I realize that keeping it up is a great way to demonstrate the mindset of those that are willing to destroy mountains, clean air, clean water and their children's future for a short term paycheck. For your information my life IS threatened everyday by what you are doing. I live directly beneath a mountaintop removal site and know all to well the danger you put me in. I won't call it a job because what you are doing is not a job.

[shemottogottabe]

i cry to see parts of ky today

[nicholasbhicks]

my great grandma and all her family she grew up with died of cancer and they all grey up in coal camp drinking and using the water from the river

[adigital1]

O K here, ......Any place;.... schools costs to much, maybe not crazy prices like here, almost a hundred million every year for school taxes yet those approx 1000 students can have $1000 home computer = zeros added = 1 million dollars. Tons cheaper too, and get better grades to get much better jobs. & free downloaded lessons, unlimited free books and even read aloud with free "text to speech" do any word related search, free search offers of "CNET " downloads" for a lot of free stuff too .

[adigital1]

What were they thinking . Isn't it time to get the school in a different place? ( Like at home computers with absolutely no distractions or any types of threats where any age students average much better exam scores anyway to get better jobs. This is really well known for years) Seeing we know all this toxic stuff is dangerous even just in the air certainly in the water. Even Steven Segal made a movie on this kind of real coal concerns, saying "what is it going to take to change your thinking"

[AlNouveau]

This is a great video, The president should take a look at this then talk from an informed position on clean coal.

[coasterfreak100]

You can have clean coal, but you need requirements back in place in which Bush undid in his term.

[AlNouveau]

My parents were from coal mining towns in Pa. My father worked in the mines when he was 12 years old. I've seen the destruction of coal mining first hand. Coal pollutes the land and water when you mine it. It pollutes the air when you burn it and the residual ash contains toxins that leach into the environment when its stored. Or 2 billion tons of waste ash is stored at plants in the US, like in Tennessee. Not a secret anymore, clean coal is total madeup bullshit.

[coasterfreak100]

Oh I totally agree and it didn't help what bush did.

[390merc65]

what town did they live in ?...i'm in schuylkill county [ashland pa] ...you are so right what you say here man..i was born and raised in shenandoah pa and just moved to ashland about 8 miles from shenandoah .....from shamokin to scranton the area is ruined from coal, but we need it so what can we do ?..jack rich has a billboard on interstate 81 southbound by frackville talking about clean coal , but so far i dont think anything has been done about it yet

[soylentgreenb]

You can have "clean coal" in the sense that you do not kill ~30 000 americans per year from heart and lung disease with coal particulates(that's many times worse than chernobyl, every year, not even an accident).

What you can't have is clean coal in the sense not recreating lunar landscapes on Earth, dumping piles of toxic garbage near rivers and streams.

[lisalacy]

very important video. Coal gives jobs and heat but the strip mines cannot replace what they destroy just by putting in some picnic tables and planting a few trees. So much destruction of our natural resources. Please somebody Anybody invest in alternative fuels-- what a mess.

[1200hd1742]

I am so happy that someone has brought this out. I do not live in the mountains but my Mother does. Just this Christmas we went down and my step father wanted to show us the Elk up on the stip mine. I was sick to my stomach when I seen it. Beautiful country gone. This one is so big that the state has made a "park" out of it. The mineing company was supposed to plant trees as part of the deal and they couldn't even do that. This needs to stop. Now everywhere you look another mountain is gone.

[eggtick]

these people are poor but they are happy and very friendly.you could offer them a new house in the city for free they would say no thanks.

[123456789mischief]

@eggtick we have lots of water up here in canada and we'll be happy to sell it to you. (actually we can't legislation was passed saying no) we have kicked our industries into line for the most part. I understand we need coal and lumber but there is better ways. As for the nice big house in the city? their just a little smarter knowing it aint worth it. thumbs up!

[torray99]

Oh my god how they just devour a mountain. The end result looks like shit. How can you fix that ?

[SWDavis0104]

There is no fix. It takes hundreds of millions of years for mountains to form. It takes a day for a greedy and corrupt alliance of corporations and politicians to destroy them. I live in WV, the worst of all coal mining states and I have a love/hate relationship with my home. I love the land, the beauty, I love the people, the food, the music. I hate the power of the coal companies who destroy our beauty, ruin our homes, make our people ill, and have our politicians by the balls.

[sandyjo55]

I couldn't have said it better my self! Coal companies are money grubbing bastards that treat us people from Appalachia like dirt.They push us off our land so they can blow up a mountain for some coal and line their pockets with cash.Maybe the coal companies will finally stop when all of our beautiful mountains are gone :( I feel powerless to help change this onging situation because the coal companies have the big money to keep it going.I cry over this almost everyday.

[theposs40]

The practice is called strip mining...if you are from that area. Coal, even being mined underground, needs alot of water to produce for saftey reasons to keep the dust to a minimum. The stinch of run off is a stinch of sulfer that can be "enjoyed" for miles.

[rogerallistar]

Hey Poss, I live with it every day. I live at the bottom of a mountain top removal site. They're destroying everything.

[HornTalkHost]

Great work! It's a reality America needs to learn.

Actions have consequences, even little ones, like leaving the lights on in an empty room.

[soylentgreenb]

Down that road lies all sorts of crazy. Small actions tend to have small consequences. If you have to pick and chose your battles you go after the big ones first.

A car burns what, 30 kW or so? That half-hour trip to the farmers market just to pick up a bag of fresh groceries is like leaving a 20 W fluorescent light on for thirty days straight.