Links about Mountain Top Removal

Looking into the culture of Appalachia - Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia incorporates 718 excerpts from original sound recordings, 1,256 photographs, and 10 manuscripts from the American Folklife Center's Coal River Folklife Project (1992-99) documenting traditional uses of the mountains in Southern West Virginia's Big Coal River Valley. Functioning as a de facto commons, the mountains have supported a way of life that for many generations has entailed hunting, gathering, and subsistence gardening, as well as coal mining and timbering. The online collection includes extensive interviews on native forest species and the seasonal round of traditional harvesting (including spring greens; summer berries and fish; and fall nuts, roots such as ginseng, fruits, and game) and documents community cultural events such as storytelling, baptisms in the river, cemetery customs, and the spring "ramp" feasts using the wild leek native to the region. Interpretive texts outline the social, historical, economic, environmental, and cultural contexts of community life, while a series of maps and a diagram depicting the seasonal round of community activities provide special access to collection materials.

MJS stands in solidarity with Black Mesa Indigenous Support - Dine residents living near Black Mesa in Arizona are actively opposing the destructive mining practices of Peabody coal company at the Black Mesa Mine.

www.ILoveMountains.org is a resource and action center in the fight against surface mining in Appalachia. This website has lots of great Google Earth maps and videos.

Coal Swarm is a wiki-style shared information tool for groups and individuals on issues of coal mining, coal-fired electrical generation, coal-based synthetic fuels, and more.

West Virginia photo gallery with mountain top removal descriptions.

Books about mountaintop removal mining

Coal River, by Michael Shnayerson. Coal River is Shnayerson’s account of the dramatic struggle unfolding in southern West Virginia. From courtroom to boardroom, forest clearing to factory floor, Shnayerson gives us a novelistic and compelling portrait of the people who risked their reputations and livelihoods in the fight against King Coal.
To Save the Land and People: A History of Opposition to Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia, by Chad Montrie
Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness, Radical Strip Mining and the Devestation of Appalachia, By Erik Reece. Lost Mountain is a groundbreaking work of literary nonfiction that exposes how radical strip mining is destroying one of America's most precious natural resources and the communities that depend on it.
Moving Mountains: How One Woman and Her Community Won Justice from Big Coal, By Penny Loeb. Moving Mountains recounts the struggle of Trish Bragg and other ordinary West Virginians for fair treatment by the coal companies that dominate the local economies of southern West Virginia.

See these films

Mountaintop Removal, a film by Michael C. O’Connell.

Starting with Mountain Justice Summer activists and Coal River valley residents Ed Wiley, Maria Gunnoe, and Larry Gibson. The feature documentary film also includes Judy Bonds, Big Coal author Jeff Goodell, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, President George W Bush and West Virgina coal association spokesman Bill Raney. Mingo county resident Carmilita Brown's twenty year battle for clean water is also explored in the film. Mountain Top Removal was produced and directed by Michael C O'Connell, executive producers are Gill Holland and Maura O'Connell.
Music from Donna the Buffalo, Sarah Hawker, Jim Lauderdale and John Specker is featured in the film.

The Indiegrits Film Festival, Second place winner for best feature
Charlotte Film Festival, Best Documentary 2007, Indie Spirit award winner
Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival, Winner, Jury Award
Nashville Film Festival, Winner, Reel Current Award, award presented by Al Gore.
http://hawriverfilms.com/
http://www.myspace.com/hawriverfilms
Burning the Future: Coal in America
In Burning the Future: Coal in America, writer/director David Novack examines the explosive forces that have set in motion a groundswell of conflict between the coal industry and residents of West Virginia. Confronted by an emerging coal-based US energy policy, local activists watch the nation praise coal without regard to the devastation caused by its extraction. Faced with toxic ground water, the obliteration of 1.4 million acres of mountains, and a government that appeases industry, our heroes demonstrate a strength of purpose and character in their improbable fight to arouse the nation's help in protecting their mountains, saving their families, and preserving their way of life.
Black Diamonds Movie, A documentary by Catherine Pancake.
Black Diamonds, the Fight for Coalfield Justice covers strip mining from the 1960's to present day mountaintop removal.
Raising Appalachia, a film by Sasha Waters, explores the potential for environmental and economic justice in the coalfields and communities of southern West Virginia by chronicling a grassroots fight against the expansion of the nation's fourth-largest mountaintop mine.
Coal Bucket Outlaw, an appalshop film by Tom Hansell. Coal Bucket Outlaw examines the connection between coal haulers and the larger system that produces America's electricity.

"We're all outlaw truckers... I don't know of one that don't break the law on a daily basis, on an hourly basis, most of us on an every load basis." - Herb Adams owner/operator of a coal truck in Letcher County, KY
Sludge is a documentary that investigates a recent Kentucky coal waste disaster and examines the role of federal regulatory agencies in the coalfields. Filmed over four years, the documentary chronicles the aftermath of the spill, the “whistleblower” case of Jack Spadaro, and the looming threat of coal sludge ponds throughout the region.
Other Appalachian video documentaries from Appalshop
Kilowatt Ours (2004), a film by Jeff Barrie. The message of this sincere and personal documentary, filmed during an 18-month journey around the southeastern region of the United States in search of answers to the most urgent environmental issues of our day: global warming, air pollution, childhood asthma, and mountaintop removal coal mining in Southern Appalachia. The film encourages all of us to make changes in our use of energy.

Partners and ally groups in Appalachia

Groups fighting extractive industries worldwide

Click here for a list of coal barons.