1. Why are we killing Mother Nature by Mining and
Removal of Mountain Tops for Coal? 1|Page
Why are we killing Mother Nature by Mining and Removal Mountain Tops for Coal?
Larry A. Triplett
Grantham University
3/10/2012

2. Why are we killing Mother Nature by Mining and
Removal of Mountain Tops for Coal? 2|Page
Should we strip the coal from mother earth and from the beautiful Appalachian
Mountains so we can have coal to bring us heat and electricity in to our homes and the place
where we work? As a child growing up in the Appalachians there were fish in the rivers around
my home town of Pound, VA you could swim in clean fresh water and see the deer and other
animals drinking from the rivers, ponds, and lakes. From the time I was a child I have seen the
people that own the big coal companies dig ditches to route the waste water from the coal mines
in to the lakes, streams, rivers, ponds, and in to our drinking water. Then we wonder why the
people from the south are sick all the time and why are the children of the south born with birth
defects and are deformed. Have you ever seen a full moon over the top of the Appalachians
Mountain with the blue haze in between the mountain and the moon it’s a sight to behold. The
first coal mines was started just after the Civil War there was not much use for coal back then it
was only used by the Black Smith. After the Civil War there was a need to feed coal to the
factories and to run the trains and this is where Mother Nature starts to get raped by Gods
children. The Industrialization age has hit the Appalachian Mountains and now the force feeding
of coal to factories and railroads and death comes to set up shop in the Mountains of Virginia,
Kentucky,
Do we really want to trade in the Mountains, the fish and wildlife just to make the
American dollar is it truly worth the life’s of fathers, sons, daughters, and the people we love to
die a horrible death from black lung and the cave ins that kill from 10 to 100 miners. Look at
cons of deep mining and strip mining that is also called Mountain Top Removal this is where
they take layers of dirt and rock to get to the good coal to sell. That mountain is flattened down
to where it can never be restored and lot strip mining owners would rather pay the fines than to

3. Why are we killing Mother Nature by Mining and
Removal of Mountain Tops for Coal? 3|Page
reclaim the land. It takes a lot of money and time to reclaim that land it’s just not worth the time
to the owners the bad thing is because of this the wildlife lose their habitat and when the heavy
rains appear 9 times out of 10 a town gets flooded with water and mud. Yes they are regulations
to protect the land and its people of the coal fields in Central Appalachians but our leaders are in
bed with the Big Coal Mines Owners and give them big money to get reelected and help pass
laws to help the Big Coal Business. The Extraction abuse by the coal industry destroyed more
than 1,000,000 acres of forest, 500 mountains, and buried over 1,000 miles of streams in the
Appalachian region. I will never be able to see the places where I hunted and fished as a boy and
worst of all I will never be able to take my grandkids there at all is this price were want to pay
for killing the environment and mother nature.
I will show some other things on why we should not mine or do mountain top removal
that’s killing of the oldest mountain range in North America the coal and of course other
resources generate revenues into the billions of dollars. Yes were are not the only ones with this
problem it is going on all over the world today when the mountain top is removed that hive to
take the rock and dirt some were so dump it all in the valleys and this covers up the water supply
for the people. By doing this they put chemicals in to the air and water when you drink water
from a stream, spring well, or from the tap in your kitchen you can tastes the sulfur in the water.
You do not get a clear glass of water, so the miner must put a filtering system in the house to
filter the water and most of the entire homes belong to the coal boss. The year 2010 was the
worst year for coal mining there were over in the years 2006 to 2007 there were 69 deaths due to
the coal mines. The coal mines produce silt after they wash the coal, this silt or sludge we call it,
there is no way to get rid of it so they store in manmade ponds, but if the ponds break this silt can
damage the land, water ways, homes, and harm mother nature. This is just another way to kill

4. Why are we killing Mother Nature by Mining and
Removal of Mountain Tops for Coal? 4|Page
Mother Nature and then the people that live near a mine have to put up with the dust coming
from blasting and coal truck speeding by their homes that makes it hard to breathe. This affects
the children and they get sick and contract breathing problems, the dust kills the plants, gets in to
everything in your house. This does not include the problem it cause the fish and wildlife in the
area mining and blasting drive the wildlife away to other places. They have been children and
adults killed from boulders being accidently pushed down a mountain that have killed people in
their bedrooms at night and the coal company get fined $15,000.00 for the accident is that what a
Childs life is worth. I can go on and on with details and stories but with all this mining and earth
top removal there will be nothing left of the mountains or Hillbilly life in the Appalachian
Mountains we need to band together to ban this type of mining coal accounts for less than 50%
of electricity produced in the United States. Think about it when you see the mountains would
you want this in your back yard.
References

5. Why are we killing Mother Nature by Mining and
Removal of Mountain Tops for Coal? 5|Page