Plea To Obama: End Mountaintop Coal Mining.
Plea To Obama: End Mountaintop Coal Mining. By James Hansen, YaleEnviro360, June 22, 2009. “The president and the brilliant people he appointed in energy and science know that we must move rapidly to carbon-free energy to avoid handing our children a planet that has passed climate tipping points… The Obama administration is being forced into a political compromise. It has sacrificed a strong position on mountaintop removal in order to ensure the support of coal-state legislators for a climate bill… Mountaintop removal, which provides a mere 7% of the nation’s coal, is… undeniably a catastrophic way of mining… If the Obama administration is unwilling or unable to stop the massive environmental destruction of historic mountain ranges and essential drinking water for a relatively tiny amount of coal, can we honestly believe they will be able to phase out coal emissions at the level necessary to stop climate change? The issue of mountaintop removal is so important that I and others concerned about this problem will engage in an act of civil disobedience [today] on June 23rd at a mountaintop removal site in Coal River Valley, West Virginia… Politicians may have to make concessions on what is right for what is winnable. But as a scientist and a citizen, I believe the right course is very clear: The climate crisis demands a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants that do not capture and safely dispose of all emissions. And mountaintop removal… should be permanently prohibited… If the president uses his influence, his eloquence, and his bully pulpit, he could be the agent of real change. But he does need our help to overcome the political realities of compromise.”
NO new coal plants period…and begin phasing out the ones we have. Carbon capture of emissions (and injection into
the earth) will create more problems.
Wind, solar, geothermal, & conservation!
Plea to Obama, and your congress people all you want.
What is vastly more effective is getting on the ballot in every race as Green Party candidates.
That’s real political will, on the ballot as a candidate.
Noble intentions are applauded. Advocate them on the ballot as a Green Party candidate.
I have started to publicize Jesse Johnson and the West Virginia Mountain Party on every article I see about mountaintop removal mining. As the bought-and-paid-for Democrats continue to turn a blind eye to mountaintop removal, more and more will begin to realize that the only way to stop this practice is to vote for candidates who pledge to stop it.