Mountaintop Removal Mining: Why There’s No Such Thing as ‘Clean Coal’

3 by Becky Striepe on February 18, 2010

Clean Coal. CC photo by Flickr user carolinenyc

Today, bloggers all over the internet are pulling together for a Social Media Day of Action. Here are the deets, according to the organizers at the Rainforest Action Network:

JP Morgan Chase is the largest US financier of mountaintop removal coal mining, investing hundreds of millions of dollars into a real American tragedy.
Instead of bankrolling this brutal, toxic and irreversibly destructive practice of destroying mountains for climate-killing coal, Chase should put their money on the right side of history.
It's time for Chase to stop making millions from destroying Appalachia's mountains.
Please join us for a social media day of action. On Feb. 18, we'll use our Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and blogs to hold JP Morgan Chase accountable for financing this despicable practice.

To raise awareness about the issue, folks are writing, tweeting, and doing whatever else they can today to raise awareness of the truth about coal.

Clean coal is a term that gets thrown around a lot, and it's one that coal lobby groups like the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy have (quite successfully) made the cornerstone of their marketing and PR campaigns.

Even President Obama has been talking about clean coal lately, touting it as part of the solution to our energy problem. Here's the thing about coal, though: you can capture all the carbon you want when you're burning the stuff. The CO2 emissions are just part of what makes coal a filthy energy option. The thing you don't see so often in the news or hear politicians mention is the way that coal gets to the power plant that's burning it.

There's a facet of coal power that doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves: mountaintop removal mining.

As our demand for energy grows, we need more and more coal to feed our habit, and that means mining more and more. We've gotten most of the easy coal out of the ground. In order to keep meeting our energy demands, mining companies are blowing the tops off of mountains. Yep. They set explosives and detonate mountaintops to get at the stuff.

The aftermath of mountaintop removal mining in the Appalachians.

We're changing the landscape, literally, just to keep pulling coal out of the ground. The devastation isn't even the end of what's so awful about mountaintop removal mining. It disrupts the surrounding ecosystems, pollutes waterways, and displaces wildlife. Scientists across the U.S. have called for a ban on the practice.

The Sierra Club put together a really informative video, giving a first-hand look at mountaintop removal mining and its effects:

To see even more on the negative side effects of mountaintop removal mining, check out these videos that Zachary posted over on CleanTechnica.

We can't let companies like JP Morgan Chase fly under the radar while financing such devastating practices! If you're interested in spreading the word, I urge you to sign up today with the Rainforest Action Network to show your support. You can also share information on mountaintop removal mining and JP Morgan Chase's involvement on your favorite social media sites - Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Digg. The more folks reading about dirty coal and JP Morgan Chase's link to mountaintop removal mining, the better!

Image Credits:
Clean Coal. Creative Commons photo by carolinenyc
Mountaintop Removal Mining. Creative Commons photo by The Sierra Club

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http://www.iwalkiwrite.com/ Alex
I know I am not qualified in economics or energy production/management, but it has always astounded me that we chose to destroy and burn up the very planet we live on instead of harnessing the renewable sources of energy that have moved the earth since…well, I’m not cosmologist/historian either, so, I’ll stick with….way back!
Thanks for this informative piece!
Uncle B
America! Land of corporatist ravage and rape! Why should coal be any different? You can’t have your cake and eat it too? Why the Hell not? It is the “American Way” – we will destroy our land and Iraq and Afghanistan and anything we want to – we have the ‘Bomb”: license to flex our muscle and destroy the world. It is our God given right! We are so superior in race and breed as to have domain over all! We are a “Super Power” and we consume over 80% of the worlds resources just to maintain our status quo! Even among our own ranks, some fall away, out of the light of privilege, and we disdain them and the American Medical Cartel destroys them for sins such as unemployment by refusing them humane medical care! This “Cleansing” of our population , and the genetically selective nature of our armed forces enlistment process has made us a select elite. We are the survivors of the process, the winners! the “Chosen Ones” and we deserve, Hell, no; Demand the spoils! We promise to all who come to us: to join us, all one has to do is jump through the same, fair and just, mire of hoops, and we will grant you privilege! Fair? I think so! Coal, clean or not, is the fuel of our power, along with oil and nuclear fission. We require energy to thrive and will take it any way we can get it, and kill all who oppose us with brutal Military efficiency, justified by knowing we have the right to survive as we are, unchanged, forever, on earth, God said so! We are the new “Chosen Ones”!Even great mountains bow down before us!