Combating Mountaintop Removal Analysis

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared an unconditional war on poverty in the United States and the most photographed area was the Appalachia region. Many of the photographs intentional or not, became a visual definition of the Appalachia region. The images have drawn from the poorest areas and people to gain support for the war on poverty, but came to represent the entirety of the region. The point of the Looking at Appalachia project is to explore the diversity of Appalachia and to establish a visual counter point. (Home - Looking at Appalachia.) The three images I am going to analyze are challenge some of the stereotypes put on the Appalachia region. I believe my images challenge the stereotype that all Appalachian people do is work hard, go to church, and don’t have time for anything besides those two things.

This essay is a case study analysis of the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), which was formed in 1876. The AMC was established to bring people together to conserve and enjoy the out-door wilderness. Volunteerism has been a major tradition of the AMC, which separates the club from other environmental organizations. AMC’s close group of volunteers gives the club a sense of community. AMC operated for years as a highly decentralized, highly voluntarily managed organization, but as memberships grew, and chapters formed, the organization would need to hire paid staff. By the late 1970s to late 80s, AMC was faced with financial deficits. Thus, by 1989 Harvard MBA graduate Andy Falender was employed as the new executive director of AMC. Falender would restructure the club, and fix its financial crisis.

Appalachia, a vast, beautiful panoply of lush green mountains. At least, most of the thin line of peaks that make up the Appalachian Mountains used to be that way. Currently, the continued spread of a method of coal extraction known as mountaintop removal mining has plagued areas of the eastern United States, mainly including the state of West Virginia. Throughout its increasing stages of implementation, mountaintop removal mining has caused numerous hampering effects, including causing serious harm to nearby residents, and polluting a once-pure environment. Because of this, mountaintop removal mining needs to be limited in order to preserve the natural state of the Appalachian Mountains.

In the world of Appalachia, stereotypes are abundant. There are stories told of mountaineers as lazy, bewildered, backward, and yet happy and complacent people. Mountain women are seen as diligent, strong, hard willed, and overall sturdy and weathered, bearing the burden of their male counterparts. These ideas of mountain life did not come out of thin air; they are the direct product of sensational nineteenth century media including print journalism and illustrative art that has continuously mislead and wrongfully represented the people of Appalachia. These stories, written and told by outsiders, served very little purpose to Appalachian natives other than means of humiliation and degradation. They served mostly to convince readers of the

In addition to environmental concerns, opponents argue that government regulation is too lax and as Bahr states, “It is all too easy to mine on public lands and the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have made it extremely easy to validate claims.” Although uranium miners recognize federal obligations to reclaim operation sites Roger Clark, Grand Canyon Program

Jobs and protecting the environment, important or not? George Will wrote his essay, “What Price Clean Air?” to convey the message that most of the Navajo Nation run and work at the power plants in Arizona, but as the growing change in protecting the environment, those Native Americans are forced to alter their livelihoods. George Will directs his essay to the American people, to persuade them to help find a change. Using the best equipment and spending billions of dollars on new technology may be affected by the uncertain environmental movement. With ethos, logos, and pathos, George Will effectively uses the rhetorical devices to convey his argument about the social and economic damage brought on by the federal government.

In the book, Stern details descriptions of his personal experiences in dealing with the political and legal culture of West Virginia. In the state for years there, the influence of large coal mining corporations is hugely significant to the local culture and communities that that the coal companies have built. The Buffalo Creek Flood occurred on February 26, 1972 after the Pittston Coal Company's coal slurry impoundment dam #3 burst four days after having been declared satisfactory by a federal mine inspector. After the disaster, the company declared the flood an "act of God" caused by rain and flood waters.

The “players” in our region consist of many people ranging from federal agencies to church organizations. Some of them would include Appalachian Volunteers (AV), President’s Appalachian Regional Commission (PARC), Council of the Southern Mountains (CSM), Appalachian Group to Save the Land and People (AGLSP), Appalachian Leadership and Community Outreach (ALCOR), Area Redevelopment Administration (ARA), Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), Appalachian Regional Development Act (ARDA), Black Lung Association (BLA), Community Action Agency (CAA), Christian Appalachian Project (CAP), and many more dedicated organizations and individuals contributing and fighting for rights and benefits in our region.

The citizens were conned and exposed to the fractured ethics in a small southern town. It is not difficult to argue about the key roles of Ray Covington and James Womack had in Lee County. This thesis will show that greed and power are their ultimate goal and hope. By the end of the essay, it will illustrate how particularly corrupted and mendacious these men are. How Lee County citizens will suffer the negative effects due to a corrupt county commissioner and oil company owner, are instrumental creating fracking rules. It will clearly demonstrate how heinous these men are.

In Jan. 2011, the EPA decided to veto the dumping of waste from the Spruce No. 1 Mine. But the agency’s efforts have so far been rebuffed by the courts as an overreach: Under the weird legal regime that governs mining, it’s the Army Corps of Engineers, not the EPA, which has the ultimate say-so over those permits. In 2012, the D.C. district court ruled that EPA lacked authority to veto the permit after the Corps had issued it. However, in fact EPA's decision is based on evidence from scientific research on serious environmental harm from mining. In May 2013, a coalition of Appalachian and environmental groups petitioned the EPA to set a numeric water quality standard under the Clean Water Act to protect streams from pollution caused by mountaintop removal mining . They claimed that “State politics and industry pressure have so far failed to end this pollution without such a standard and more and more streams and communities who rely on those waters are left vulnerable. We need EPA to act now.” The EPA’s authority over the Clean Water Act in respect to Spruce Mine No. 1 was finally affirmed by the Supreme Court in March 2014.

Activism, culture and value have always had a tremendous influence in society. When it comes to the Appalachian region of the United States, people tend to see our culture and values differently. The individuals of the Appalachian region have been stereotyped for far too long, people forget that West Virginia has played a huge role in building this country. Our coal miners have put their lives in danger time and time again, some losing them, for worker’s rights. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor rebellion in the history of the United States. This was the foundation of the movement for eight hour work days and minimum wages. The novel Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina is a fictionalized tale of the conflict that took place in these coal fields of West Virginia. The novel brings to light the stereotypes, race and religion of the Appalachian people.

Under the “canon of invention”, King wanted “Mountaintop” to focus attention on the plight of 1300 sanitation workers whose grievances were blatantly ignored by the city of Memphis. Indeed, King’s purpose was to motivate his audience of strikers and supporters to immediate action. King wanted all to realize that the public should know their presence, their grievances addressed by the city of the Memphis, their rights as America citizens not infringed, and their need for self-actualization not denied. To support his arguments, King provided his extensive personal experience with social injustice and methods of effective and nonviolent protest.

Today, the extraction of natural resources takes on many different forms. Mountaintop removal (MTR) is one approach applied in the Appalachian region of the United States for the extraction of the resource coal. MTR approaches the coal from the top of the mountain by blasting away the layers of rock above the coal seams and scraping away the layers of coal. This process leaves behind effects to the surrounding environment including flooding, contamination to water and air, health impacts, and ecological impacts. In response to these effects the community members most affected have taken it upon themselves to raise their voices in protest. This form of environmental justice challenges the existing legal permits and policies by

Thesis: Politicians are proposing sweeping changes in bills, which have caused great controversy, in efforts to correct the problems that the Forest Service has

I am writing to you in regard to the Bridger -Teton National Forest. I write to you as someone who believes in preservation. I believe that the forest should be preserved and not conserved. The Bridger -Teton National Forest is a landmark and should be kept that way. “It is a place where locals find solitude in huge tracts of forest backcountry when nearby wilderness areas and national parks are crowded with out-of-state visitors. It’s also a place that supports traditional, sustainable activities such as outfitting, guiding, ranching, and recreation” (“Wyoming Outdoor Council” 2009-2013). All of these values are being threatened because the forest is being considered for oil and gas development. While oil and gas may be useful to us, I do not think that the forest should suffer the consequences. The natural resources should be left alone for everyone to enjoy in its natural state. To upset this would be environmentally incorrect.