The Bowdoin Orient

"We speak for the mountains. Love them or leave them, but don't destroy them. If you dare to be one too, call (404) 542-1134, 522-0246."

Do not be surprised if this quote reminds you of Dr. Seuss's Lorax (who speaks for the trees, because the trees have no tongues). If you ever thought that Dr. Seuss's tale of the Once-ler, the Truffula trees and the Humming-Fish with their gummed gills was a bit on the hyperbolic side, look no further than the 21st-century coalfields of Appalachia. If you go there, you will see that the story of the Lorax is no fictional tale. There, not just the trees, but whole mountains are falling.

I went to the capital of West Virginia to visit my older brother. I was casually interested in something called the Mountain Justice Spring Break that I knew would be happening while I was there, but I was intending to spend most of the week with my brother. This would change after I stood on a mountain (what was left of it) and saw mountain top removal mining with my own eyes for the first time.

On March 16, the week culminated with an occupation of Gov. Joe Manchin's office lobby, the purpose of which was to ask the governor to build a new, safe elementary school for the children in the Marsh Fork community. Their current school is 400 yards from a 1,849-acre mountain top removal site, and several students have fallen ill from coal dust and chemical contamination. Two hours after the protest began, the governor responded that the decision would have to be put to a vote for the school district to decide. Protesters were arrested and taken to jail. Among those arrested was Larry Gibson.

Larry Gibson's stout stature, white moustache and rough, whispery voice give him an air reminiscent of the whiskered conscience embodied in the character of the Lorax. But unlike the Lorax, Larry is not going anywhere (he wore a shirt that had the quote above printed on it). Larry lives steadfastly on one of the last remaining peaks of Kayford Mountain in southern West Virginia. The rest of that mountain has literally been blasted and bulldozed away by the coal companies in a process called mountain top removal mining. From the edge of a plummeting cliff face, carved out by explosives that had shaken the pictures from the walls of Larry's cabin, and thrown car-sized boulders onto his property, I watched as coal trucks laden with coal drove across wide, muddy roads of coal-stained soil.

This rapacious form of mining buries headwater streams under tons of rock in a process referred to with the harmless-sounding euphemism, "valley fill." Over time, mountaintop removal surface mining increases sedimentation and heavy metals in streams, which damages aquatic ecosystems. It also puts miners out of work because surface mining requires far fewer workers than underground deep mining to remove the same amount of coal. The practice persists because the process is more profitable for the coal companies than conventional deep mining.

I am writing this op-ed because I believe that the injustice being inflicted upon the people and environment of Appalachia means something for all Americans. We as a nation are implicated. Our consumption of cheap energy demonstrates that we too possess the short-sightedness of the Once-ler and the coal companies that he represents. Coal will be an economically viable energy source for several more decades, but it has no long-term future in Appalachia, for our nation or for the world. The extreme ecological and social injustice currently being perpetrated in Appalachia must come to an end. It can begin with an immediate switch back to deep mining and a speedy transition to other forms of sustainable, employment-generating jobs in the coalfields of Appalachia.

We may be many miles distant from the coalfields of Appalachia, and we may not speak with our vowels stretched out, inflected with remnants of Elizabethan English?but we are Americans, and as such, we have the power to help our fellow citizens. Those are our mountains and our people. We have a duty to stand by them. May we find the time, the courage, and a way to do so.

Beckman is a member of the Class of 2007.

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