End mountaintop removal mining

I confess I knew nothing about this issue before reading this essay. But it is convincing, and may actually be something we can accomplish (which, given how huge all the issues are that we’re working on, is a gift!)

Because MTR takes place in the mountains of Appalachia, rather than in one of the areas where national media is based, the destructive nature of the practice gets little examination. However, the numbers involved in the practice are enormous. Every day, MTR mines use more explosive power than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Over 1,000 miles of wild Appalachian streams were covered over by valley fills by 2001 -- since then, MTR has greatly increased. By next year, mountaintop removal will have leveled an area of the Appalachians equal in size to the state of Delaware.

Yet, for all those huge numbers, mountaintop removal accounts for only 5% of the coal mined in the United States. And here's where we get that opportunity. As the demand for coal has dropped, companies have been closing underground mines and other surface operations in favor of mountaintop removal. The reason: those mines represent the best bang for the buck in a low-margin / low demand market. Because MTR mines have little reclamation and high automation, they're "high productivity." Meaning that, among eastern mines at least, they have high tons/worker ratios.

If MTR were removed from the scene, the market would support more underground or return-to-contour surface operations, both of which would demand more workers than MTR.</blockquote>

There are lots of things you can do, starting with signing this pledge.