Written by Dea Goblirsch and Kim Huynh. Photos by Ben Droz.

“President Obama, join me in my kitchen at 4 p.m. any day of the week and learn first-hand what you are allowing to happen in Appalachia and its mountain communities,” said Bo Webb, a ninth-generation resident of Naoma W.Va. in the Coal River Valley, “You’d hear and feel blasts coming from both sides of the valley, and if it rains, you might see water flowing black down river. The mountain behind my home is destroyed – gone forever – and across the valley Massey Energy is beginning mountaintop removal mining on Coal River Mountain. Will your administration continue to sanction the whole-sale destruction of our mountains and communities or will you respect the human rights and abolish mountaintop removal and strip mining?”

Webb is a central organizer for Appalachia Rising, the largest mobilization against mountaintop removal and surface mining in United States history. On September 25th-27th, 2010, thousands of Appalachians and their allies from across the nation will work together in the weekend movement summit, Voices from the Mountains, and on Monday we will march on the White House to demand an end to the flattening of Appalachia’s ancient peaks, the poisoning of its waters and the destruction of its communities. Organizers are committed to supporting people who choose to engage in non-violent civil disobedience.

It is time for the national climate and social justice movements to converge side by side with the movement for justice in Appalachia, join us at Appalachia Rising.

Mountaintop removal has already blown apart over 500 of the world’s oldest mountains and more than 2,000 miles of streams, although it provides only a paltry 5% of the nation’s electricity. Residents of West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia and East Tennessee, all places where mountaintop removal occurs, are speaking out and fighting for their land and heritage. They have already experienced the disastrous effects of mountaintop removal.

In 2000, 300 million gallons of toxic sludge flooded from a Massey Energy operated coal slurry impoundment in Inez, KY, taking family homes, plants and wildlife in its wake. The Exxon-Valdez oil spill, which was 1/20th of the size, pales in comparison. The impacts of the devastation are still unfolding, including skyrocketing rates of cancer in Martin County. Mickey and Nina McCoy, residents of Martin County, refused to sit by quietly.

“The democracy thing? It isn’t working. Here, our democracy is being held hostage by our capitalism,” said Nina McCoy in a 2004 article published by the Columbus Dispatch. The coal industry is a veritable mono-economy in Appalachia, and increased mechanization in mining over the past fifty years has led to a sharp drop-off in jobs. Little economic opportunity is paired with the environmental and health impacts of strip mining.

Just over the border in southwestern Virginia, residents are fighting strip mining on the slopes of Black Mountain. There are few places where the deadly effects of mountaintop removal have been more pronounced: in 2004, toddler Jeremy Davidson was killed in his bed in Appalachia, Va. when a boulder loosed from a mountaintop removal site flew through his bedroom window. Retired coal miner Bob Mullins is from the nearby community of Derby, Wise County VA, under Ison Rock Ridge. Ison Rock Ridge is the latest to fall into the sites of the coal industry, but Mullins and his neighbors are not taking it sitting down:

Over the past year, the Obama administration has vacillated on whether it would finally stand up for American residents on the front lines of the coal wars and all Americans everywhere fighting for a healthy and sustainable future. One thing’s for certain: there will be no justice, nor peace, in Appalachia as long as untold millions of pounds of explosives are detonated everyday across 24 states in the nation.

Make no mistake; Appalachia is rising to abolish mountaintop removal and surface mining, not to simply regulate this abominable, federally-sanctioned assault on Appalachia’s mountains and the health and welfare of its communities.

Now is the time to abolish mountaintop removal and surface mining. September 25th-27th will bring Appalachia’s cry to the nation’s capital, including two full days of strategizing workshops, learning, featured speaker panels and discussions, cultural events, and entertainment. And on Monday, September 27, we will march, rally, and take part in dignified non-violent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal mining.

Register today, and stand with thousands of Appalachians, concerned citizens, activists, mountain groups, environmental justice organizations, and Americans from coast to coast for this momentous movement-building summit, gathering, and day of action. See you in DC!

All the information you need to participate in Appalachia Rising is on www.appalachiarising.org

Filed under: global warming