This post is mainly inspired by Ron and a great article on the Rasch Outdoor Chronicles blog by Albert.
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I can’t stop thinking about trespassing in the Appalachian Mountains on such a grand scale. I hear all the time the State of WV promoting tourism. Part of that tourism comes from hiking and four wheeling in the mountains. People come to West Virginia to be in the mountains, plain and simple. That is, as long as the State can keep them out of the southern part of the state. How can you ever promote tourism in the southern part of WV if you are trespassing in the mountains? I’ve been accused of trespassing on finished valley fills. They are finished aren’t they? They have been reclaimed haven’t they? Does the reclamation of these mine sites not include restoring them to the local residents? You know - the people who have hiked and enjoyed the mountains for generations.
Not only are we losing the mountains in a literal sense we are also losing the ability to even be in the mountains. I can’t even begin to tell you how much that pisses me off. I’ve hunted and gensenged these mountains since first strolling through them with both my grandfathers way back when. We are mountaineers, we always have been and we always will be. Montani Semper Liberi, mountaineers are always free. In the coalfields of southern West Virginia we have already taken the free out of our State Motto and we are in the process of taking out the mountain and all who reside on and around it. As far as I am concerned, I am still a mountaineer and the coal industry is in my house. I will denounce mountaintop removal and the way the coal industry treats residents with my last dying breath if need be.
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I read a really good article over on Albert’s blog and it got me thinking about a couple of things, global warming and clean coal. They don’t really have anything to do with Albert’s article directly. It was just that his article was very thought provoking and my mind went to the two topics by itself.
I don’t really know what I believe about global warming. With myself, what I believe is a mute point. If I have even a reasonable doubt one way or the other, that is enough for concern. I’ve got scientists in one hand telling me global warming is real and I have politicians and lobbyist in the other telling me global warming is not real. Who is the logical group to believe? I personally won’t have to worry too much about global warming because I’ll most likely be gone from here before it is believed and or evident. But, I have children and grandchildren living in the Coal River Valley that will not only have to adjust severely to a changing climate, in their lifetime, but will also have to deal with the remnants of the coal industry, the bullshit left behind when the industry leaves and have the mountains destroyed in the process. I think if you live in the coalfields and you have a child or grandchild you should look them in the eyes right now and apologize for letting the nonsense continue then go out and do something about it.
Clean coal, it makes my stomach turn just putting those two words together.
If you believe in clean coal I have a few suggestions for you. Visit a mountaintop removal site, or a slurry impoundment / slurry injection site, or a community ravaged by mountaintop removal, or an ash dump, or a coal-fired power plant. Please, when you visit these places in person or via the internet I would love for you to point out all of the clean in coal. Personally, I just can’t see it.
There is no such thing as clean coal.
amen
’round here we have yankees (maybe you call em flatlanders, others call them the bourgeoise) buying up the land and putting posted signs on it. things is, they are only here a few weeks out of the year so you can go do whatever you need to do after they are back in atlanta or florida or what have ye. Up there where y’all are, after something gets posted, there ain’t nothing left.
Seems like to me that if I had folks like Ron posting bullshit on my blog, I’d let them. Because they just dig the hole deeper. There is no valid justification for the things that he supports, and he shore does look like a fool quibbling about ticks as if they were an indicator of a healthy system.
Denny You Da Man
Thanks Folk, I just wanted to point out that so far I’m not stopping Ron from commenting. Bottom line is I won’t be threatened in my house by anybody. I’ll kick them out every time one way or another.
I agree with you, people like that commenting proves a lot of what I say without me having to respond. I would just once love to hear a good argument in favor of the destruction wrought by mountaintop removal coal mining.