Saturday, May 7, 2011

Damage Control!

The show that I mentioned that was supposed to be a great package about mountaintop removal coal mining turned out to be a debacle when it was time to go live.  Everything that could go wrong with the technology did go wrong and I sincerely apologize to anyone out there who was watching.  We'll redeem ourselves, though, by editing all of the material that we'd originally brought with us into a nice package that we'll upload to YouTube, share on this blog, and send to cable access TV stations around the country.  Thanks so much for bearing with us.

Show Episode Announcement and Short Project Update

Hot Topic on Exist Kind Tonight: Appalachian Treasures and Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

Saturday, May 7th, at 6 pm MST/PDT

Broadcasting live from Access Tucson on Cox channel 120, Comcast 72; and streaming live at http://www.accesstucson.org/.

From the Appalachian organization ILoveMountains.org:

"One of America's most heartbreaking environmental and human rights tragedies, mountaintop removal coal mining is destroying [Appalachia's] rich culture and heritage, as well as the ancient, beautiful mountains and diverse forests of the Appalachian range."

This isn't just another radical environmentalist movement to preserve scenery and impede progress.  This is a matter of ordinary citizens in coal country dealing with illness, contaminated water and air, and the risk of disastrous and disgusting flooding and avalanches when tailings impoundments break loose.  This process also hurts the local economy because of its efficiency, which costs jobs, and the out-of-town employees that the companies bring in to do the jobs that locals could do.  Not to mention, this process takes a toll on citizens' emotional ties to the cultural and historical values of the mountains.

MTR, as it's abbreviated, is no longer limited to Appalachia, either.  Take a look at this picture from British Columbia that appeared on the National Geographic website at the end of 2009:

Photo by Garth Lenz, ILCP.

And we think we have problems with mining out here in Arizona.  I have to keep it brief today, so tune in if you like and acquaint yourself with this incredible environmental injustice happening to ordinary, down-to-earth citizens who just want to live on the land they've always known and not have it poison them.

I also promised a short project update: The bicycle project is coming along nicely and I've been documenting each step with my video camera.  I apologize for not having more follow-up, but that's just because I want to be sure that there's some substantial footage worth showing.  I expect to get some material online this week.  Thanks for reading!