End MountainTop Removal: Philanthropic Travelers in Appalachia

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ASK YOUR SENATORS TO STOP BIG COAL FROM DUMPING TOXIC MINING WASTE INTO OUR STREAMS

Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travelers experienced the acute environmental and humanitarian crisis that has been taking place in Appalachia for over 100 years.

The philanthropic experience (probono) raised $12,000 for AMI, Appalachia Media Institute, a nonprofit arm of Appalshop.org in Whitesburg, Kentucky.

Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel continues its solidarity in supporting the critical missions of our Non-Profit Partners in Appalachia: Appalshop, Appalachian Media Institute, SouthWings.org, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, AppVoices.org, and West Virginia native activist photojournalist Paul Corbit Brown.

Hi-Res Slideshow by David Chamberlain

"I always knew things didn't add up around here, though. I saw people working hard every day and then going home with nothing. When I was 17, I learned the phrase 'the working poor' -I'm not sure anything else has made me feel as small as those three words." -Machlyn Blair, 21 Whitesburg, Kentucky

"I was completely overwhelmed with the idea that this kind of destruction was happening here in the United States and that our government had approved of it. We speak of "saving the environment" and yet what we witnessed was something we will never get back. I don't know what my role will be in helping save the mountains in the eastern mountains of our land but I do know that I need to be part of the solution." -Susan Chritton, Make it Real Advisory Board Member, on Mountain Top Removal

"While I have traveled many places, I had never visited the Southern U.S. I was thrilled to find genuinely nice people who were happy to share stories about their small towns and families. Dr. Bill Turner of Berea College gave us insight into what it was like to grow up in a small Kentucky coal town, which was a stark contrast to the lifestyle of the Vanderbilt family whose home (Biltmore Estate) we visited in Asheville, NC." -Angela Aboujaoude, Make it Real Philanthropist

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MountainTop Removal, which provides a mere 7 percent of US coal, is done by clear-cutting forests, blowing the tops off of mountains, and then dumping the debris into stream beds -an undeniably catastrophic way of mining.

This technique has buried more than 800 miles of Appalachian streams in mining debris and by 2012 will have serious damaged or destroyed an area larger than Delaware. Mountaintop removal also poisons water supplies and pollutes the air with coal and rock dust.

Coal ash piles are so toxic and unstable that the Department of Homeland Security has declared that the location of the nation's 44 most hazardous coal ash sites must be kept secret.

They fear terrorists will find ways to spill the toxic substances. But storms and heavy rain can do the same. A recent collapse in Tennessee released 100 times more hazardous material than the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. -Dr. James Hansen

UPDATE: YOUR PARTICIPATION INVITED
We encourage critical public inquiry regarding Mountain Top Removal's environmental and humanitarian impact.

We support the civil non-violent awareness efforts of Climate Ground Zero, Paul Corbit Brown, Daryl Hannah, Robert Kennedy Jr., Dr. James Hansen and 94-year-old former US Representative Ken Hechler bringing the issue to the American people.

Reaching for Higher Ground, produced by AMI youth, tells the story of a group of young people who are fighting to save their communities water:

Learn More:
Appalshop
Appalachia Media Institute
Video Documentaries on Mountain Top Removal in Appalachia
South Wings
Paul Corbit Brown
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge

The Myth of Clean Coal and Reality of Mountain Top Removal
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