Mountain Mourning - Look What They've Done

[JPAWV35]

born and raised in clinton camp 15 minutes from bob white wv...... you tell em try looking at google earth its sad what has been done to our home

[KeyLimePiee14]

It's a sad day when one of the oldest and most beautiful mountain ranges on this Earth are being destroyed for the selfishness of humans. A sad, sad day.

[PennyPenny1990]

Underground mining method may be considered to be used when the stripping ratio costs exceeds the cost of going underground. The reason why they chose not to mine underground is because underground mining has a low production rate compared to surface mining , size of equipment is limited, higher capital costs, and safety issues. I'm a mining engineer.

[LeftyAintright]

Who has the right to destroy a mountain? No man I say, men are only upon this earth for but a moment.

[Zoth77]

And when the coal is gone or made obsolete either constructively by legislation, or inherently by innovation, and WV is left as nothing but a mountainless area riddled with toxic pools of shit, and the coal companies go elsewhere to rape other states' lands, we will be a ghost town anyway. . . . But at least the coal companies are makin' money!!

[grandmachristine42]

Jobs jobs. Selling crack is a sort of job and so is kidnapping children and selling them into slavery. What's needed is DECENT JOBS that don't destroy the soil, the water, the air, and the people.Mountaintop removal is an indecent sort of job that guarantees that the future will be even uglier and sicker than today. I understand that desperate people will do horrible things when they see no choice. Its tragic that they're in that position.

[BreannaMichellex3]

i think underground coal minning is fine,but not surface minning.

[diesel9331]

I support your fight! Awesome video!

[simplygoodwoman]

Yes, tourism is big. Apparently people forgot about northeastern part of West VA that is accessible to Washington DC.

This is the first video I put in favs when I joined youtube and I continue to spread it around and use it for my reports.

[blasterswife]

Prove you don't like Surface Mining

Turn off you lights!!

[agustgudmundsson]

Henceforth I will assume anyone who makes such comments and like the one below is inviting the rest of us to dump our garbage and sewage in your living room because it is good for the jobs provided by the dumpers. Your logic is ill. Try this. If you like money - fine. You don't steal. You work. Spoiling the entire state's water supply for your pocket change is stealing. It has nothing to do with turning off the lights. If you want the coal, go underground and get it!

[blasterswife]

Everyone wants to complain about coal destroying the earth. What about the Loggers they make more of a mess that what the surface miners do. Surface Mines are reclaimed. Your logic is ill surface mining is NOT pocket change it is our life. It is our support. I don't know what you are talking about because let me tell you what I live under several surface mines and My water is fine.

[carlosantenna]

Not that I care for loggers any more than I do the coal industry, but trees can actually grow back... mountains can not.

[ResidentGerm]

Im not for the coal companies or anything,but your wrong,mountains do form again but it would take thousands of years for it to do so which is sad

[GreensongOakheart]

I done turned off me lights. The loss of jobs due to mountaintop removal has been great.

[blasterswife]

what loss of jobs has mtr been responsible for?

[zappamannn]

Underground mining provides many more jobs than MTR. The mining industry lost hundreds, even thousands of jobs when it went topside.

Green energy such as wind would provide SUSTAINABLE jobs for many years to come.

What do you have against providing jobs for WV?

[blasterswife]

I don't have nothing against providing jobs for WV what i have a problem with is you all are trying to take my husband's job. That is where my problem is. He has been a blaster for 14 years, this is his profession. And for your further information MTR is becoming a thing of the past my husbands company just had a major layoff at several sites and when it does we will sit back and draw his unemployment mooch off all you "working men"

[GreensongOakheart]

Dear blasters wife. The MTR not only destroys the mountain and creates toxic waste water it also causes the loss of jobs considering how many fewer miners it takes to get the job done. You might see it as transferring the jobs from traditional miners to heavy equipment operators. Your husband is a blaster? Which is a very specialized skill and a well paid one. Could his skills be transferred to a more traditional mining or another type of work such as demolition or road construction?

[blasterswife]

He does do road construction as well as MTR but they only build so many roads.

[eng1225]

Tourism, yea right. I was born at Kayford in 1968 and now work near there. Cabin Creek is an ugly drug ridden live off the government disgrace to WV. Why not get something out of an area that no one sees fit for anything anyway. I still travel to Kayford 4 - 5 times a year to visit the town I grew up in, but have yet to see a tourist.

[youtert]

Those maniacs! They blew it up! God damn them all to hell!

[WV24985]

What do all of you think the economic state of WV would be without coal? Let's face it...it's the only "good" job WV has. Thousands of West Virginians make their living with coal, not to mention the hundreds of businesses that depend on coal miners' paychecks buying their products.

[PatchWork304]

You are not very well informed. Tourism is the number one employer in the state. Mountaintop removal kills tourist attractions. Would you like your daughter to say: "I live in a state that is as pretty as Disney World. Or would you have her tell her friends that she came from a state that used to have clean water and around 10 heavy equipment workers put 200,000 tourism workers out of work because they hauled off the the state to China.

[trfilm]

What does this do to the water we drink downstream?

I mean, I was drinking distilled water because of all the cancer downstream where I spend much of my time, but with all the ecological cost of the plastic containers I have gone back to creek water. Is coal waste healthy for us who are not making money hauling coal or blasting it?

[simplygoodwoman]

Really? Odd,I have seen hundreds of acres of "reclaimed" land, it most definately does NOT replace the REAL mountains you are destroying. It is our HERITAGE and that of our CHILDREN to PREVENT this destruction. If WV goes back to underground mining, then MORE jobs will be created.

Answer, why are the mountains being destroyed hidden from public view? The only one shown are the pseudo mountains that do NOT sustain the life our mountains took eons to form. Hmmm.

[WV24985]

Coal Miner and proud of it...If not for coal mining jobs, many West Virginians would have to go to other states to work...I know...untill I got into strip mining 3 years ago, I spent all my adult life working in several different states, because of lack of work in West Virginia. WV coal powers 2/3rds of the country...it's our heritage...and if you would take pictures of reclaimed land, it would look a lot different than the working mine pictures shown in this video.

[NothingSerious]

Reclaimed. Yeah I've seen tons of those idiots who lay down some grass seed and say the put the mountain back. But there is no mountain top removal sight they is able to sustain live more than an amoeba who can live in trash heaps of waste. You're destroying the only thing our state has left, and killing innocent people and animals in the process!

[NothingSerious]

Strip mining doesn't create jobs, it destroys them. Go look at the statistics! Thousands of jobs have been lost due to strip mining, not to mention the fact that you poluted the water and dropped coal dust on children and senior citizens and everyone else for that matter.

[usistheromanempire]

I make millions off of the land. I'm for the exploitation of mother earth. God said man shall have dominion over all the animals on the earth. I think god also meant that men like me can do what we want to the world. Think about it? Did god stop the mining from happening? Look at the world, it needs to be taken over. I got to keep my pockets full of money.

[Joshuapwnzu1516]

Yeah yeah! Go coal companies!

[cowbubbles]

mine that coal boys cuz my buddys hual it

[luathbreacadh]

What wilfull distruction this is the first time i have heard of this. The damage is shamfull I am so shocked im lost for words

[valfulford]

strip mining is not the answer, wind farming on the top of mountains is one answer. Not everything on this earth is there for us to destroy and exploit. If so, we'd be using our own corpses to fuel our electrical needs.

[valfulford]

Thank you for standing up for our earth.

[shellda4q2]

Just give our Governor, Senators, and Representatives a big THANK YOU for what they are allowing these companys to do here, because they don't give a damn as long as they keep getting monetary support from them. That's why they changed the signs from "WILD and WONDERFUL" to "OPEN FOR BUISNESS" more like OPEN FOR RAPING !!! such assholes!!

[agustgudmundsson]

Shella you are so right. The new permit in Anstead will kill tourism. That's like killing the chicken that lays your eggs. Get a few bucks now from coal extraction taxes and end.. Well, just go to google and type in Anstead Hiking. (no quotes) and you will see that this area is a multi-million dollar tourist area that will be destroyed if the mountains are removed. It don't get it but I am working on how to get people to get the politicians who make the rules to get it. Can you help?

[shelldawv]

The reason that the politicians don't give a damn about tourism,is because it is LONG term, and not a lump sum in their pockets TODAY, as is with these mining practices. They could care less about longevity since their time in office is limited, and they have to make hay while they are in the position to do so.I live in the northern part of WV, and this area was Strip Mined in the 60's. Almost every watershed in these areas has been virtually destroyed.

[shellda4q2]

It all goes along with the way that West Virginia has always been treated by Out of state big buisnesses...The Carnegies, Rockefellers, etc. Move in, offer a pittence,destroy, make MILLIONS, and leave!! If WV actually recieved the total amount for what has been, and still is being removed from here, (minerals,coal,oil,natural gas,and timber) We would be one of the richest states in the country!!!!

[sccoast1700]

Mountaintop removal is an outrage. It should be outlawed. They can mine the coal in some less destructive fashion.

[meatw4d]

I live in West Virginia as well, and I completely agree with her on the subject of surface mining. It makes an incredible amount of waste. However, in response to "formermountainboy19", we're not one of the poorest places in America, we just don't have debts to other states and companies. We haven't outsourced everything possible in the state, therefore, we aren't taking in any new income from outside institutions.

[gooberpea007]

You are creating the demand by your use of electricity

[dagda16]

dear gooberpea007

you're right, but there are other ways of obtaining coal than blasting away the mountains. furthermore, there are other ways of deriving electricity than through burning coal.

[camerontech]

coal companies leave poverty behind...? duh, coal companies hire hundreds and give them jobs, a city and a life. if the coal is there, it has to be mined

[formermountainboy19]

IF coal companies give us so many jobs, then why is appalachia one of the POOREST places in america??? why are people looking the other way, why are we letting MY HOME be destroyed

[Dutch31]

Not by destroying everything in it's wake....do some research on the slurry pools and spills. This type of mining is sickening.

[n8chaos]

great, great work. mountaintop / valley fill maining is a travesty upon the land.