Wednesday, October 22, 2014

More Bad News About Mountaintop Removal Mining

If it would help save a forest, would you be willing to use fewer light bulbs this evening, in your home? 



If it would help keep a stream clear instead of polluted with sludge and silt, would you be willing to hang out a load of clothes to dry today, instead of using an electric clothes dryer?  


The power to heal, or the power to destroy.
Collectively, this is the power you have.  

The issue at hand is 


If you use electricity in your home, in the USA, you are contributing to this.

I've blogged about Mountaintop Removal Mining (MRM) before, HERE

However, a recent article in the Washington Post brings the issue of MRM back to mind.

There is increasing, hard evidence of the terrible effects MRM has on both humans and on the environment. *   So much so that the EPA decided to clamp down on permitting.  

How did the politicians respond to this effort by the EPA to protect the health of citizens, the economies of small Appalachian towns, and the forests and streams that life depends upon?

Did they applaud efforts by the EPA to protect human health and the environment?

NO!

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed legislation 
to try and cut the ability of the EPA to regulate MRM!  

IT'S TIME TO SPEAK THE TRUTH TO POWER.

Ordinary people who seek to protect the health and welfare of individuals and communities are attacked by paid industrialists as "liberals" interested in nothing but "redistribution of wealth."  

STOP LISTENING TO LIES!  LOOK AT THE FACTS!  

Wealth is being redistributed, but not from the rich to the poor!  It's being redistributed from the common people to corporations that feed on the destruction of these mountains.  But MRM is not a resuable, sustainable environmental practice.  Once they've been blown up, flattened, with topsoil washed downstream to clog up fragile water systems, the mountains and their landscape are altered forever. The land, the ecosystem, and the local economy supporting local people --  it's all destroyed and cannot be replaced

Yes, industry with its big bucks is financing lots of campaigns with lovely pictures of families claiming to touting Mom and Apple Pie and "clean energy."  The corporations are spending lots of bucks to slander environmentalists, labeling them as outsiders and "liberals." The strategy is this:  if the facts are against you, pit people against other people and conquer by dividing the people against one another.  Yet, the facts are very different from the paid corporate advertising.  

For starters,  here's the Washington Post Article.  Read it! 



And, here's a slideshow.  

THIS ISSUE IS ABOUT REAL PEOPLE, REAL LIVES.  

HELP APPALACHIAN PEOPLE SAVE THEIR COMMUNITIES AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE. 




Sunday, October 12, 2014

Cheap Meat Comes at a Cost: Cheap Lives

If you eat meat from a standard grocery case, you need to know that what you see in this film is what you are supporting with your dollars. 

Can't bear to watch it?  Well, then, you shouldn't be eating the meat.

 WHY DO YOU THINK BIG CORPORATIONS WANT TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO FILM ON THEIR PROPERTY?? 

 (An equally important question is, why would a legislature enact laws making it illegal to film there? Why would they want to assist suppression of the truth?) The only way to stop inhumane practices is to take away the market for them. 

 SUPPORT SMALL FAMILY FARMERS AND SUSTAINABLE LOCAL FARMING!


Thursday, October 9, 2014

If We Cared About the Environment Like We Care About Sports ...