Mountain-top removal is an issue Kentuckians should know about

Column by Emily Foerster

I saw two things the other day that dealt directly or indirectly with America’s consumer-obsessed culture that greatly concerned me. The first was a disturbing Tylenol commercial that just showed a puffy reclining chair while a voiceover said (and I’m paraphrasing) “sitting for long periods of time can cause headaches.” Then, after I waited in vain for it to suggest getting up and moving around a little, it said, “That’s why there’s Tylenol.” Just to be clear, this commercial was suggesting that I should never be so inconvenienced as to get up from my chair, even if moving around might alleviate my headache without medicine.

The second thing I saw was a bumper sticker that said, very simply, “Question consumption,” and although it was stuck to a non-hybrid motor vehicle that had a McDonald’s cup in the console, I thought it concisely captured the fundamental issue underlying three more widely publicized issues in the U.S.: the Iraq War, the energy crisis and what I call the environmental crisis (as opposed to the feeble and blameless label “climate change.”)

One major problem is that few Americans living outside of coal country have any idea what our nation’s consumption addiction looks like. (Type in “mountain-top removal” in the Google Images search box, and you’ll start to get an idea.) While Americans consume a myriad of things, I am using the term “consumption” here in terms of coal.  It is my opinion that when any American uses electricity without considering its source, it is an act of extreme irresponsibility. But if you live in Kentucky (or any other coal state), and you know nothing about mountain-top removal, you should feel ashamed of your ignorance every time you flip on a light switch.

While I cannot fully explain the complexity of this problem in one column, here is an analogy that I think sums up my ideas about mountain-top removal and the coal industry’s presence in Kentucky. Our land is engaged in an abusive relationship with the proverbial King Coal. He beats it up, takes from it without ever giving back and the thing he always says to keep it from breaking off the relationship is, “You can’t survive without my money.” Most people, if a friend confessed to being in an abusive relationship, would try to help that friend leave his or her partner; so why do we let Kentucky stay with King Coal?

Don’t take my opinion at face value—it’s one person’s opinion. Here are some basic things you can do to educate yourself about mountain-top removal, which, far from being boring, are interesting and are not very time-consuming activities: Watch the Appalshop documentary film “Sludge” by Robert Salyer; read “Lost Mountain” by (UK’s own) Erik Reece; if you’re in the mood for a good work of fiction, read “Strange as This Weather Has Been,” by Ann Pancake (yes, Pancake); read and compare pro-coal and anti-coal Web sites; and finally—this will take a little more time—go to Eastern Kentucky and visit an actual mountain-top removal site.

If you feel that these suggested activities require too much effort for your busy schedules, do yourself a favor and wake up at 9 a.m. this Saturday, put on some clothes, walk (or bike) to the Newman Center (located off of Rose Street across from the Fine Arts Building) at a time that allows you to arrive by 9:30 a.m., stay until 2:30 p.m., and absorb both lunch and mountain-top removal information from Lexington’s mountain-top removal guru Dave Cooper.  And if sitting for a couple of hours gives you a headache, begin questioning your consumption by taking a walk around the block before you pop any pain relievers.