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TechnoratiDaring Dragline Protest Launches 7 Days That Will Shake Mountaintop Removal Operations
Four daring protestors accomplished something today that no high ranking member in the Obama administration involved in the recent mountaintop removal mining policy decisions has ever bothered to do: These four American patriots made an actual visit to a mountaintop removal site.
![[(photo: mountainaction.org)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/Dragline_mountainaction.jpg "Dragline_mountainaction.jpg")
They also went beyond the call of duty.
Scaling a towering 20-story dragline (those behemoth stripmining machines that could rip up a Manhattan block in a New York minute) and then unfolding a 15 x 150 foot banner at the Twilight mountaintop removal strip mine in Boone County, West Virginia, they also unveiled a simple message on how the EPA, the Department of Interior and the Council on Environmental Quality can best enforce the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws:
JUST STOP MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL.
The action launches a dramatic weeklong series of protests at mountaintop removal sites in the West Virginia coalfields that will culminate on June 23rd with a special action in the Coal River Valley area with local coalfield residents, NASA climate scientist James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, and 94-year-old former US Representative Ken Hechler, and Rainforest Action Action executive director Michael Brune, among many others.
"It's way past time for civil disobedience to stop mountaintop removal and move quickly toward clean, renewable energy sources," said Judy Bonds, Goldman Environmental Prize winner and co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch of West Virginia. "For over a century, Appalachian communities have been crushed, flooded, and poisoned as a result of the country's dangerous and outdated reliance on coal. How could the country care so little about our American mountains, our culture and our lives?"
Aerial photos of the Massey Energy-owned Twilight mountaintop removal mine can be seen here: http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/mountaintop_removal/018/
During the day, updates and photos on today's action will be posted at:
http://mountainaction.org/wordpress/
Equipped with satellite phones and web cameras, the protestors plan to stay on the enormous dragline until they are arrested. Another group of protestors on the ground have already been reached by the police.
"I've written letters, attended hearings and called my congressman, so far they have done nothing to stop the disastrous and unnecessary practice of mountaintop removal," said Charles Suggs, a 25-year old of Rock Creek, WV, one of today's participants. "It has come to the point when we must take direct action to abolish this practice that is immorally robbing Appalachian communities of their culture, their health and their future."
Despite last week's best-laid-plans by the Obama administration to provide stronger reviews of mountaintop removal permits under current laws--notwithstanding the 42 out of the 48 mining permits cleared by the EPA last month--the protest today draws attention to the reality that over 3.5 million pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives are being detonated DAILY in mountaintop removal operations across the West Virginia mountains alone, while hundreds of mountaintop removal permits now stand ready to be reviewed and cleared.
In last week's announcement, CEQ chief Nancy Sutley declared that the Obama administration would do "all it can under existing laws and regulations to curb the most environmentally destructive impacts of mountaintop coal mining."
Read that line again: "Curb the most environmentally destructive impacts of mountaintop coal mining."
If Sutley joined the protestors at the Twilight site or any mountaintop
removal operation, she would witness firsthand, as well, that even the
LEAST "environmentally destructive impacts of mountaintop removal"
REQUIRE massive clear cutting of our nation's most diverse and oldest
deciduous forests on the continent, setting ANFO explosives and
blasting the mountains to bits, showering the neighboring communities
with silica dust and dangerous fly rock, and then dumping the mine
waste and heavy metals into the valleys and streams and watersheds.
Video updates of today's action will also be posted here:
http://mountainaction.org/wordpress/
25 Comments so far
Show AllContinuing from a previous comment below (or above) depending on your settings, the following was said:
"A quick Wikipedia look up of the AVE shows that even it's inventor does not consider it to be primary energy source, rather it is a possible way to use the heat that currently wasted in an existing power plants cooling towers.
But lets just consider the stand-alone version you are considering. Excluding all the potential engineering problems. This gadget would only be operable when:
1. There is strong sunshine.
2. Sufficient low-level atmospheric instability.
3. Light winds."
Before handling each one individually, first observe that the erzats debunker isn't quantitative in that he provides no numbers or even ratios that would allow one in any way, to assess the validity of what he claims.
For example, what does he mean by "strong sunshine", or "sufficient stability", "low-level" instability--how low (or high)? Light winds--how fast? For example, a 10 mph crosswind might be considered high for a 25 m AVE vortex with a rise velocity of 15 m/s , however it would be trivial for a 100 m diameter vortex with a rise velocity of 50 m/s, to refute the third statement first.
Furthermore, he is unaware that under a constant "prevailing wind" condition, there could be alterations in the AVE design which would result in a more close alignment of the wind vector with the angular momentum vector of the vortex--or that "wind dams" could be employed to funnel even more harvestable kinetic energy available in the wind into the device.
Reverting back to criticism #1 which is the easiest to refute of them all--since CAPE is stored solar energy, it DOESN'T REQUIRE ANY (CURRENT) SUNLIGHT AT ALL, AND CAN, IN FACT, FUNCTION WELL INTO THE EVENING WITHOUT SUPPLEMENTAL ENERGY--just as thunderstorms can fire off well into the evening. True, it's at it's strongest during the summer when there is LIKELY to be strong sunlight, it doesn't DEPEND on it like PV technology does.
With respect to the statement that (sufficient) low-level is "required"--this is again, an unsubstantiated statement. Obviously, without any CAPE at all in the atmosphere, the AVE would require an external source of energy to function. One source could be the "industrial cooling tower heat" which was the "prime focus" initially because such a facility would be equipped with not only the heat, but the water pumping and electrical facilities to accommodate the additional needs and product export.
The idea that the AVE doesn't operate on a primary source of energy is, on its face, a ludicrous notion, since it has been calculated that by cycling 1% water content in the bottom KM of the troposphere, that it would contain more than 20 times the energy in ALL of the remaining reserves of petroleum in the ground, and would be replenished in just 10 days. Even more than this is contained in the top 100 m of sea water.
In addition to these, low-grade geothermal resources would suddenly become practical for producing electricity, which also represents a huge "primary" reserve.
Even when there is no "natural" instability in the troposphere, the AVE can be made to work as long as heat can be supplied to it that is at least 5 C wormer than the atmosphere at the surface, like that which could be available from a seasonably warm lake (e.g. Michigan, Superior, Huron, Erie, Ontario). That means "free lake energy" from October to February. In other months, there should be considerable amounts of CAPE to operate the device.
Finally, its energy content is far more than that of a simple "dust-devil" since no water condensation occurs in dust-devils, whereas it predominates in an Atmospheric Vortex Engine for most applications.
So, while I cannot prove that the current "doubter" (to use a polite term), represents anything but his own beliefs, don't be surprise if a host of additional "flying monkeys" alight on the subject, since the emergence of the AVE would represent "death" to the many other competing or polluting technologies it would replace, in relatively short order.
May the AVE_Force be with you, Earthlings. Expect a "crop-circle" depiction of the technology relatively soon.
Thank-you for sharing this information with us earthlings who are still wallowing in our technological adolescence. Please be patient and allow us to mature. It may take a few more decades to grow up.
I look forward to seeing pics of the crop circle.
Mayber we should ask the marching Iranians to add a few posters concerned with mountain top coal.
Harriet Nahanee and Betty Krawczyk were two women who were among those protesting against the destruction of the 'Eagleridge Bluffs' that was slated for development for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. (I've been reading about the environmental damage due to hosting of the Olympics). Both were arrested. Harriet was sent to jail for 2 weeks - to a prison housing mostly men. Betty Krawczyk has been jailed many times, and the last time, it was for 10 months in 2007.
Harriet Nahanee was a Pacheedaht First Nation ("Indian") elder and she was 71 when she was jailed (and soon after she was released, she died of pneumonia.)
Betty Krawczyk was 79 when she was jailed for 10 months in 2007.
obama's in the pocket has been since his early days in chicago politics. he taught at the
university of chicago- remember alumni include milton friedman and other lunatics
who destroyed the financial foundation of the WORLD.
I most devoutly hope that the passions of the protesters do not lead them to damage valuable industrial equipment. That would set an unfortunate precedent, to be sure.
Those huge machines are worth very large sums of money, and so make inviting targets for activists to whom the word 'sabotage' is not always taken as invective. Unless high standards of self-imposed discipline can be maintained, table salt (sodium chloride) from a local market might find its way into the crankcase of a large diesel engine, which would not damage it permanently, but would require a complete disassembly and cleaning that could make the equipment unusable for many days.
An engine that has been vandalized in this manner runs normally the first time it is operated, but after it cools it cannot be turned by any human agency. I once knew a VW Beetle to whom this prank happened. It cost me a bundle to get it going again.
What if marching, yelling, display banners, signs or writing your representatives in the state house or in Congress do nothing to stop MTR?
Then what do you intend to do??
Even "Chicken George" had a "Plan B"
What if a way to produce electricity that was far cheaper than coal could quickly be developed?
What if that technology could produce additional electricity without burning a single additional Btu of fossil fuel?
What if the units for this technology were small enough to produce electricity in a "distributed" fashion, and didn't require any "specialty items".
What if the components where far less complicated than todays windmills?
Wouldn't a utility that could be paid for in 5 years instead of 30 years using this technology have a huge advantage over coal?
Wouldn't such a utility accrue "carbon credits" at a fantastic rate?
The people of West Virginia could form their own utility based on this and "blow-away" their coal and nuclear competitors.
Wouldn't this stop virtually "all" coal mining in just a few years?
http://vortexengine.ca --- meet Plan "B"
OK vortex dude, what about the heat going up into the environment from your controlled tornadoes? I've been wondering about that.
"Every little action, there is a reaction" -Bob Marley
What a fantastic question, moon-dog-type-guy,
It is an excellent opportunity for what you Earthlings call a Teachable Moment--something that is relatively rare here on Earth.
What Earthlings call global warming actually happens and is sensed almost entirely at the surface or the first mile or so into the atmosphere, or the first 100 m of ocean. It is here that it mostly affects the physics and biology of the planet. What happens higher up doesn't matter quite as much.
The sun shines on the earth, which means it is sending high frequency radiation, corresponding to its 10,000 degree F surface temperature, to your upper atmosphere. About 30% is reflected by clouds back into space and ~ 10% is actually absorbed by the clouds. But, since the air is transparent to this type of radiation, much of the remaining amount passes through and is absorbed by the earth's surface or lower troposphere. This is what is referred to as solar heating.
To maintain constant temperature, the earth must re-radiate an equal amount of heat back into outer space, which occurs mostly above the clouds where the average temperature is around 0 F (255 K). But since the surface temperature here is much lower than the surface of the sun, the surface can only manage to emit long-wave radiation that is much weaker, and to which the atmosphere is not fully transparent. Less than 10% of what it emits manages to get through and pass directly into outer space.
Before it can get back to outer space, the "rest" is intercepted at various levels by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere--by water vapor somewhat more than by CO2. However, over the past 150 years, water vapor has only increased in concentration by a few percent. Carbon dioxide has increased by over 35% causing an increase in the "absorbing" properties of the lower troposphere, much as a "fog" increases diffusion of visible light, making the air "less transparent".
To radiate to outer space, more heat must somehow get from the surface up to the 2-3 mile level where it can do this much more readily that it can below, sort of like the Hubble Telescope is able to take clearer pictures than earth-based telescopes.
The balance of the movement of heat from the surface layer to the upper layer is accomplished by Convection--you know--warm air rises...
The AVE actually ENHANCES air flow, and thereby convection of heat from the surface, cooling it, while HEATING the atmosphere above and thereby INCREASing the possibilities for radiation to space, completing the balance. It is a FANTASTIC mitigation tool for greenhouse warming--if they are large enough and there are enough of them. Look for an energy balance graphic at http://vortexengine.ca in the introduction.
Very informative reply my space cousin. But another question arises (no pun intended), how would this affect our fair feathered avian fellow earthlings? Oh, and how about aircraft?
Thanks in advance for the future teachable moment that I am now anticipating.
Yes, Earthling acquaintance of the moon-dog-type--I shall endeavor to answer the second question first...for large aircraft with modern avionics and Doppler radar, an AVE, or an array of them would not present a problem. That said, such devices should probably should not be positioned within 15 miles of an airport, or their approaches. That still leaves plenty of places to put them. The AVEs could carry a tiny stream of dust or similarly detectable agent aloft in the vortex, in order to make the presence of any such vortices easier to detect by an appropriate type of "radar".
General aviation will be declining significantly in the near future as the effects of Peak Oil take hold and the cost of aviation gasoline approaches 10 US dollars per gallon. Private airplane manufacturers such as Beechcraft, will soon be going to go, as you say, "out-of-business".
Only the rich (those with excessive claims on goods held by other Earthlings, or the fruits of their labor, enduring into the future) will be able to afford this luxury.
To discourage this activity, is recommended that a "death tax" be imposed on anyone so arrogant to use liquid fuels so extravagantly, solely for private purposes or pleasure. This means their entire estate be forfeited to the state should they die in a private plane crash. It is further recommended that they not be informed of any danger, and that those who are caught informing the Rich of any of said danger, potentially presented by AVEs, be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
With respect to the "naturally flying Earthlings", this Extra-Terrestrial Being is authorized to, and can categorically state that the AVE presents no danger to them whatsoever, since, as a result of the presence of centrifugally directed forces, which would fling them radially outward, they could not closely approach the center of the vortex, which, under certain circumstances might otherwise present to them an element of danger.
Next Question(s)!
Greetings from (down to) earth. I am familiar with the concept behind your AVE devise as I am a participant in our unfortunately dwindling and media-ignored and maligned sport of hang gliding. Basically, your AVE machine is just a man-made thermal dust devil generator.
A quick Wikipedia look up of the AVE shows that even it's inventor does not consider it to be primary energy source, rather it is a possible way to use the heat that currently wasted in an existing power plants cooling towers.
But lets just consider the stand-alone version you are considering. Excluding all the potential engineering problems. This gadget would only be operable when:
1. There is strong sunshine.
2. Sufficient low-level atmospheric instability.
3. Light winds.
So, even at the conceptual level these three things would so limit its useability compared to other renewables that it isnt really worth further consideration.
Hmm, it seems that an Earthling who fancies himself as a "Nemisis" to the AVE Concept has surfaced. His understanding of the AVE may be compared to that of a blind man who only feels the tail of an Elephant, and describes it as being "similar to a rope."
I will respond to his baseless assertions, characteristic of Earthlings and their "inside-the-sphere" thinking -- in due course here in a separate thread where there is more "bandwidth"--stay tuned.
contact obama, and your senators and congresspeople. then contact them again, and again, and again. turn everything off that doesn't need to be on. and way less needs to be on than we pretend. pressure those whose salaries we pay, and don't use the lousy product, and donate money to the groups. coal mountain wind is one.
it's easy to contact people now. google your rep or senator by putting in "contact" and then the name.
I guess this isn't a sexy issue, because nobody is biting the hook.
We should all be outraged! As the article states, "over 3.5 million pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives are being detonated DAILY in mountaintop removal operations across the West Virginia mountains alone". And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
How can this heinous practice be good for the energy security of America? How can Obama, or anyone for that matter say the term "clean coal" with a straight face?
I can guarantee this practice will come to a grinding halt when solar power becomes cheep and widely available and applied. Even wind generators will become archaic.
For decades people have been in a fog concerning the utility of renewables.
It is here and it is cost effective.
It is only the fossil fuel industries blocking more investment in it that is hindering its use.
Lets put it this way the majority of people I know generate their own electricity.
Looking at the big picture, what is going to become of these lands where the mining is taking place? What kind of reclamation are these mining companies required to do, if any, after they remove all the coal?
OK, well, it looks like I need to answer my own questions.
In my research I found that at least one MTR mine has been "reclaimed" to a golf course. Wonderful! Then I got to thinking, couldn't they make em into ski resorts? Then immediately rescinded that thought because they need a mountain for that. Which lead to another bright idea: Turn 'em into landfills!
We have a huge garbage problem in the US, so why not bury all our trash where the coal seams once were, then bring the detritus back up from the valleys below and put the mountain back on top of the garbage. Then turn 'em into ski resorts where they can employ the poor, displaced and underemployed workers of Appalachia.
Someday, when we begin to wake up to the fact that all the garbage we bury actually contains a wealth of resources, we can then blow the mountains back up again. Job security!
Any other bright ideas?
Read an artice in alternet that talks of hemp and it looks like that stuff can do everything but kiss you although I take it for cholestorol,it works,just could hardly believe what can be done.Tony
Help save the earth by D Colwell and posted on 6/18/2009
Just bing or google it.
Yes, I am reading it now. It's called, Help Save the Earth, Time to Subsitute Hemp for Oil. Here's the link:
http://www.alternet.org/environment/140739/help_save_the_earth%2C_time_to_subsitute_hemp_for_oil/?page...
It's full of excellent information. Jennifer Beddingfield told me about it in another post. Cool. Hemp is the grooviest plant on the planet!
It is a shame that the American people have to learn at least some of what it is like to be Native American---in America. This is an excellent example. The desires of the few ('big business'= 'money guys')have more power than the needs of the majority. In this case people who voted for the politicians that the 'money guys' seem to be able to buy---sometimes at 'bargain prices'---on a regular bases---are the losers, not the people who made treaties. The results are the same.
Sooner or later the American people will either decide not to tolerate the "sale" of their 'political process' to the highest bidder; or start bidding higher than the 'others'---or take direct actions.
In the case of the "mountain top removal process"--------you either 'walk free' or live with the 'foot of the oppressor on your neck' ---in this case big business.
As for me. If I were in direct line of one of these companies and their actions; their best advise ---from me----would be to either go somewhere else----or 'put your head down between your knees and kiss your ass good bye'---
'Your choice asshole'.
There is one major problem that Americans need to consider.
With the blatant lawlessness of the last administration, and the illegal wars and destruction that those people delivered to so many others--'far far away from American soil'---- the world will tolerate 'only so much'. As with individuals so goes nations and the world. What they can't 'stand anymore'---- they will stop---.
There are millions of Americans who think that the USA is too big to fail; but they are delusional and foolish. The 'world' would not need to even 'invade' the USA---they only need to 'cut off the credit lines' and "good Americans, everywhere" would soon turn on "other good Americans everywhere"----and the world would be rid of yet one more threat to 'world peace'----the United States of America.
Good Luck America, you really need it.
America too big to fail? Nah, I think America is too big to exist.
I am posting this on my blog.
We must not give up fighting. We must not give up writing letters, posting about this topic on our blogs, encouraging people to do what they feel is the morally right thing to do in stopping this evil practice.
Most important we have to continue to be part of the political system. Both Republican and Democratic parties are not going to do the morally right thing and stand up to the coal companies. They have corrupted both parties. I believe we must be willing to join a third party and to find candidates who believe as we do and won't cave in. I wish there were more men and women like Bernie Sanders(I) from VT. If we could elect Green party members and more Independents who will not cave in, but will fight to end this practice, than I believe we can really change things.
Look at the people in Iran who are willing to stand up to their government because they want their voice heard. Our voice is being denied in America. How many of us are willing to stand up and make our voice heard? I wish these brave men and women who are protesting against this evil practice of mountaintop removal mining the best and I may not be there with them in person because I am in AZ, but I am with them in my heart.
The West Virginia Mountain Party, an affiliate of Green Party US, is the only party in West Virginia that opposes mountaintop removal mining. In 2008, Jesse Johnson, the Mountain Party candidate for governor of WV, received 4.5% of the vote despite being shut out of the largest debate. The way to stop mountaintop removal mining is simply to show the politicians that unless they stop MTR, they will lose votes to the Mountain Party.
Check out mtparty.org and gp.org for more on the Mountain Party and Green Party.
"I've written letters, attended hearings and called my congressman, so far they have done nothing..."
We have to get the money out for congress to be able to hear us. Maybe CCNFOX can take a day off from Iranian politics and focus on the building outrage in our citizens here at home.