How We Are Going to Save Appalachia

Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet at 10:32 AM on July 11, 2008.

Our partners at Appalachian Voices just announced a new initiative to help bring awareness to the devastation the coal industry is wreaking in Appalachia -- and to celebrate all the hard work activists are doing there to work for sustainable communities. They will be starting "Mountain Mondays" -- a weekly dispatch to help encourage activism and end mountaintop removal mining.

Here's what they say:

You see, in many ways, Appalachia isn't what it used to be. We have lost more than 1 million acres of land, along with 1000+ of miles of our once pristine streams, and 90% of our traditional coal jobs to mountaintop removal mining. This barbaric practice has reduced much of our home to rubble, and further damaged our perennially struggling local economies. The jobs are gone. The people are leaving. The water is toxic. And they are blowing up the mountains themselves.

But the face of Appalachian resistance to "Big Coal" is changing. Not only are we seeing unprecedented national and international media like NPR, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal run with stories about the Appalachian people's struggle to end mountaintop removal, but we are seeing 100s of online activists and bloggers participate in helping us spread the word through the iLoveMountains Bloggers Challenge.

Each week there will be featured blogs, activists, videos, facts, photos and more. And will bring it to you here at AlterNet too, so you can stay on top of the issue and find out how to participate.

Check out their site, as well, for more information.

Tagged as: coal, appalalachia

Tara Lohan is a managing editor at AlterNet.