Mountain top blasted off for coal

Are mountain tops environmentally friendly? I have no idea, but just because something is old does not mean it has to be saved.

But then again, I am old, Please protect me.

Who came up with that bright idea?

They are going to change the whole climate of the Appalachians, and everything behind it to the west by blowing the tops off the mountains. There are much better ways to get electricity without turning the Appalachian Mountain Range into flatter land. they have no clue what they are doing...other than lining the pockets of the coal companies.

It's reminiscent of desalination. It doesn't do what is promised and causes HORRIBLE ecological damage. Of course, it's the corporation who rule in the US.

dorothy

Mines are environmentally devastating whether open pit or tunnel - safer open pit for everyone and all other life, too. But how many mountains are they going to do this to? If mines were all open pit they could be refilled and planted very easily - but I have to agree with Dot - might not be as harmless as they tell us in the long run. I think it would depend on the altitude of what's going on. If it's above timberline it might not do much in the way of changing plant or animal life - but it could change wind patterns in the area.
As long as people keep repopulating at increase levels, we have to do SOMETHING, that is for sure.

I have to rethink my position after reading Sal's and Sam's post.

Now, flatter mountains mean populatable, farmable, land....a place that didn't exist before for a growing national population. A VERY good point. Also, you don't have the danger of mine collapse, so there is the safety factor for the workers. Another very good point. It's an efficient means of getting to the coal within the mountain. It can be mined for decades from the top down instead of tunneling. In my neck of the woods, we have hills that have been mined this way for concrete. They are almost completely leveled after 60 years of hauling it away to build the Inland Empire. However, mining the Appalachians is about like mining the San Bernardino Range.

On the flip side, there are alternatives to coal for electricity. We have solar, wind and harnessing rivers. We don't have to blast the tops off the mountains. We can keep the mountain peaks, and put wind turbines and solar panels on them and make the view look funky. With this approach, you will be preserving the geographic integrity of the landscape. Wind turbines and solar can later be removed and replaced with TREES and shrubbery. Once the mountain tops are blasted.....there is no growing new ones.

The coal industry goes back over 150 years and is a powerful political force in this country, and I highly doubt they would be willing to shift gears into "green" technologies. Also, with their long-standing political pull, new emerging technologies for this time have our fight ahead of us to gain the political clout needed get people to consider new technologies.

Dorothy

Sam,

Thank you. When you take away the mountains, the storms crossing the plains from the west aren't "stopped" or delayed. The mountains act as a barrier making the storms stay over an area a little longer before crossing the range. The area on one side of the range gets TONS of rain, and has a bit of a forest, or / and grassland. Then when the storm tops the mountain, it dumps snow. When it crosses the mountain, it dumps more rain. Without the mountain to slow the thing down, cause it to "lift" over the range, it just passes over without the ground temperature change to make it precipitate. That is why I believe ( maybe I'm wrong ) that removing the tops of the mountains will change the climate.

On the wind turbines. Yes, I've heard things like that too. In Palm Springs area, they have a wind turbine farm. Wind turbines as far as the eye can see.....and NO houses within about five miles. I found a website backing what you were saying about the health hazards of these things.

Don't throw out the baby with the bath water, though! All technology has it's drawbacks. It's just acknowledging them and working around the shortcomings.

www.windaction.org | Wind turbines impact health, quality of life

Dorothy

I think we have to realize is that we are getting "there" slowly.

What's "there"?

"There" is the more renewable, lesser impact way of living on the world around us.

The very fact that we can start posing these questions shows that there is progress being made. It's easy to point fingers and say, "Look at this or that industry and how 'bad' they are." But we have progressed enough as a society that we are at the point where we can pose those questions.

Give it some time. So far it's been lots of talk about energy and little action in my opinion. But it will happen.

But to be fair, I'm sure someone at some point in time has pointed out these cities that build buildings and roads completely messing up the natural landscape at one point in time.