Stop the Blasting

Mountaintop removal is a common method of coal mining where the top of a mountain (up to 1000 ft) is blown up and placed in adjacent valleys and the coal is scraped out with large machinery. This process has destroyed over 1,000,000 acres of the Appalachian Mountains. Visit I Love Mountains to learn more. Mountaintop removal is a relatively new type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques. Primarily, mountaintop removal is occurring in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Coal companies in Appalachia are increasingly using this method because it allows for almost complete recovery of coal seams while reducing the number of workers required to a fraction of what conventional methods require. Read more here Coal River Wind and learn how we can harness clean wind power as an alternative energy source instead of dirty coal. We can all help in small ways - learn AND talk about it, sign a petition, vote responsibly - because together we stand, divided we fall. I know this sounds corny, but I believe it's true with a lot of things. For more information visit Coal River Mountain Watch. ... and if we can't manage to save the mountains, at least we'll have the movie videos to pass on to our future generations, right? along with the zoos and museums, so that they may see what our world used to look like. This is an especially pretty clip showing images of country roads - albeit not West Virginia's - with John Denver's voice singing about West Virginia and the Blue Ridge Mountains in his song called "Country Roads."