30 days to save the mountains
Appalachian Coal: the faucet is almost dry
Submitted by jwrandolph on Tue, 10/30/2007 - 10:20am.The issues with coal-fired power plant emissions are well chronicled - increased lung and cardiovascular disease, loss of visibility, and (somewhat importantly) the complete shattering of our global climactic patterns.
Many are also seeing for the first time that extracting coal is as destructive (and socially expensive) as emitting coal. Mountaintop removal and strip mining are decimating the majestic Appalachian Mountains – the oldest mountains on this continent. More than 1 million acres have been blasted away, and shoved recklessly into creek-beds and hollows. 1200+ miles of headwater streams have been buried, poisoning the water for us and those who live down stream.
The ancient hardwood forests of Appalachia (themselves an important carbon sink in our war on CO2) are often shoved aside with the mountain, left to rot and clog our streams without even being commercially harvested. The “rape” of Appalachia, as Senator Webb has called it.
How much coal would be “worth it?”
100 years?
250 years?
500 years?
Hows about a dozen?
