IN THE NEWS

Activists Shout It from the Mountaintop OneWold 7/2/09 U.N. to Study Potential Threat to Canada-U.S. World Heritage Site Epoch Times 7/2/09 Daryl Hannah: Why I Was Arrested in Coal River, West Virginia Rainforest Action Network 7/1/09 Mining costs outweigh benefits, study says WV Public Broadcasting 7/1/09 Bloggers to Obama: Visit mountaintop removal site Charleston Gazette 7/1/09 MTR: Destroyer of Mountains, Streams, Wildlife, and Communities Common Dreams 6/30/09 Mr. President, go and see for yourself Daily Kos 6/30/09 Critics of Coal: Outside Interests Plunder Region, Source of Economic Woes Bristol Herald Courier 6/30/09 Help President Obama See the Truth About Mountaintop Removal Rainforest Action Network 6/29/09 Activists Drape 25-Foot Banner On EPA Building, Call on EPA to Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining Rising Tide NA 6/29/09 [PHOTOS] Senate Hearings on Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining and Water Quality in Appalachia Climate Ground Zero 6/29/09 Congress Takes on Mountaintop Mining Washington Independent 6/29/09 TVA dikes on ‘verge of failure’ pre-spill NBC 6/28/09 The story of our civil disobedience against mountaintop-removal coal mining Grist 6/28/09 'Mountaintop removal is a human rights issue' Institute for Southern Studies 6/27/09 Exclusive: Blockbuster studies describe MTR impacts Charleston Gazette 6/26/09 Mountaintop Mining Debate Reaches Capitol Hill WOWK - 13 6/26/09 Mountaintop removal damage 'irreversible,' US Senate hears Charleston Gazette 6/26/09 Huffman, Gunnoe testify to Congress about mountaintop removal WV Public Broadcasting 6/26/09 Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife hearing: Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia U.S. Senate 6/25/09 [REPORT] The Impact of Coal on the Kentucky State Budget MACED 6/25/09 Historic Senate Hearings on Clean Water Protection Act Today: We All Live Downstream Huffington Post 6/25/09 Actress Daryl Hannah, Climate Scientist James Hansen Among 30+ Arrested Protesting Mountaintop Removal in West Virginia Democracy Now! 6/25/09 Hell Yeah, We Want Windmills Orion 6/25/09 More news...

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July 2, 2009: Anti-mountaintop removal arrestees need your help!
posted July 2, 2009

We desperately need your donations to help out some climate heroes in need. As you probably know, 30 people -- including NASA Scientist James Hansen, Actress Daryl Hannah and former Congressman Ken Hechler -- were arrested last Tuesday opposing mountaintop removal and a second coal silo at Marsh Fork Elementary school in southern West Virginia.

You may also know that the brave citizens were charged with block traffic and obstructing an officer. We were forced to block traffic by the Fiends of Coal who had blocked our access to the road -- but no one came near obstructing an officer. We are trying to get the outrageous charges dropped, but as it stands, these trumped up charges may cost each person $500-600!

Most of the 30 were average citizens -- including students, grandmas and grandpas, teachers, and many, many local heroes to the movement...

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July 4-5, 2009: Mountain Keepers Festival, Stanley Heirs Park, Kayford Mountain, WV
posted July 1, 2009

It'll be great to have everyone up at Larry's Kayford Mountain in West Va. this weekend - This will be an important recharge time for all of us who are putting our hearts into this work for environmental and social justice to take a weekend to celebrate mountain life with some fine music and stories.

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June 29, 2009: Activists Drape 25-Foot Banner On EPA Building, Call on EPA to Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining
posted June 29, 2009

BOSTON, MA – Activists with Rising Tide draped a 25-foot banner reading, "Mountain Top Removal Kills Communities: EPA No New Permits. MountainJustice.org" at the downtown offices of the Environmental Protection Agency this morning. The group is urging the agency to block over 150 pending permits for mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Virginia.

"Mountaintop removal is destroying our nation's most diverse forests and historic communities," said Alex Johnston, a Rising Tide activist. "President Obama and the EPA need to take immediate action to stop the bulldozers from destroying America's oldest mountains and Appalachians homes."

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July 26, 2009, 12 PM: Justice in July
posted June 29, 2009

Locations: TVA Towers in Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN

TVA pollutes our environment and we respond with Civil Disobedience.

Wear your Sunday Best Clothes!

June 26, 27, 28, 2009: National Day of Action
posted June 25, 2009

WE NEED YOUR HELP! We need people in or near any one of the ten EPA regional offices to commit to an action of any sort - signs, rallies, call-ins or just handing out material. Action planning is already under way at a few of the offices. If you are from or near any of these cities and can give a few hours of your time, please contact us at christopherscottirwin {at} yahoo.com or on Facebook.

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More recent events...

“Voices for Appalachia”
Written and Narrated by Hundreds
An Appalachia Portrait-Story Project

Artist Francesco di Santis joined us at our 2008 Mountain Justice training camp in Kentucky to continue work on his latest project “Voices for Appalachia”. Francesco is working with other regional organizations throughout Appalachia and the project has traveled to Mountain Justice Spring Break, the mountains of eastern Tennnessee, the Appalachian Studies Association conference and the Heartwood Forest Council.

There is a manmade ecological disaster of geologic proportions occurring in the rolling mountains of the southern Appalachians; its called mountain range -- or Mountain Top Removal (MTR) mining. It is the ultimate in theft of a people's heritage -- the destruction of watersheds -- and the annihilation of one of the most diverse places on earth.

Mission Statement

Mountain Justice seeks to add to the growing anti-MTR citizens movement. Specifically Mountain Justice demands an abolition of MTR, steep slope strip mining and all other forms of surface mining for coal. We work to protect the cultural and natural heritage of the Appalachia coal fields. We work to contribute with grassroots organizing, public education, nonviolent civil disobedience and other forms of citizen action.

Historically coal companies have engaged in violence and property destruction when faced with citizen opposition to their activities. Mountain Justice is committed to nonviolence and will not be engaged in property destruction.

We work together to create diverse and sustainable economies in Appalachian regions traditionally dominated by the coal industry by supporting businesses, jobs and ways of living that are not environmentally or culturally destructive and are nourishing to the social and biological fabric of healthy communities.