(3/3)- Toxic West Virginia

FOR PART 4 VISIT:
http://www.vbs.tv/player.php?bccl=NDEzMjk4MjU0X19ORVdT=

Meredith Danluck is a New York artist, director, and all-around amazing person who has a killer collection of power tools. VBS bumped into her a few months ago and discovered that she has been working on a film in West Virginia, a sort of impressionistic account of the current environmental catastrophe in the Appalachian Mountains. Mining companies are destroying entire mountains in order to get at the coal inside them. Quickly and efficiently, the oldest mountain range in the world is being systematically obliterated. We sent Meredith and VBS correspondent Derrick Beckles to the hills and hollers of West Virginia to show us what the end of the world looks like.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• www.VBS.tv
• VBS
• VBStv
• VICE
• Greenpeace
• toxic
• west
• virginia
• mountain
• top
• removal

[pattywolford]

People who make their livings in MTR are militant about protecting their paychecks. That's all they care about really...making a living. On one level, it's understandable, but on a higher level, they care nothing for the environment in which they live. The history of coal mining is one of subjugation of the people of Appalachia for over a century, and MTR is the final devastation icing on the cake and no amount of protests will stop it, unfortunately.

[ohhhhhallibaba]

Don't even attempt to talk sense into people that aren't from West Virginia. They're too ignorant to realize that some of the very foundations of America were built here. Not to mention they take everything for granted, and don't realize how much coal does for them. If it's not coal, it's foreign energy, and nobody likes either of them. Just ignore them, and be proud to have been born in West Virginia. I am.

[esca8652]

@pattywolford Unless if alternative jobs were created and offered in place of them.

[SereneiBE]

We arn't against mining, even renewables like solar and wind, to get the rare earths to build these solar and wind turbines, we will need to mine.

What we are against however is 'BLOWING UP MOUNTAINS"

there has been much more eco-friendly way to mine things. its called "Underground"

[SandyzSerious]

Doesn't this cause a large amount of flooding? Any way you look at it..........my famous last words are "Don't ya think we have about PROGRESSED ourseleves......TO THE END?"

[glhshelby]

all of these mountaintop areas could be places for windmills to help for power stations,so it could be a win

[MusicOfAdam]

"We sent Meredith and VBS correspondent Derrick Beckles to the hills and hollers of West Virginia to show us what the end of the world looks like."

Are you implying that West Virginia is a hellhole? If so, New York is not much better. Their cities are nastier than ours.

[dirtymodevils]

@ohhhhhallibaba unfortunately being from west virginia doesn't justify destroying our world for a cheap nonrenewable dirty energy source. Sure it's been a "tradition" for years but its a tradition that is stuck in a continual cycle of hopelessness. It's time to make a change.

[Jemalacane]

@FranklinAyers16 Look, we people who are against mountain top removal are not against mining. Nor are we against miners. We are against a practice which is fucking things up. People have died due to mountain top removal. When the "overburden" is dumped into headwater streams, it dams the streams which causes terrible problems with flooding. Also, there is no more vegetation to prevent landslides and floods. MTR also hurts the logging industry.

[Rubenleesims]

Coal kills when and where it is mined, when and where it is burned, and when and where its waste is disposed of. The destruction of public housing is in large a result of coal ash waste used as fill dirt, dumps, and landfills from coal-gasification plants that operated throughout this country between 1880s and 1960s until natural gas put them out of business. Now coal-gasification plants are resurfacing as "clean coal."  MY video shows coal waste in public housing.

[flyingpigstuff]

How big are the coal fired power stations?

How many wind turbines would it take to replace them?

How much is the mined land worth?

Miners should buy the land and build wind turbines they own, sell the energy and never did another hole again. Just buy the land first then form a Co Op. Job Done!