Senior Citizens March 25 Miles to End Mountaintop Removal

Fifteen individuals between the ages of 50 and 83 set off on a March to End Mountaintop Removal at 10 a.m. on October 8th, 2009. The march was preceded by a rally and press conference in front of the State Capitol building in Charleston, Virginia, and is sponsored by a coalition that includes Climate Ground Zero, Mountain Justice, Intergenerational Justice and Christians for the Mountains. It is part of an ongoing civil disobedience campaign against mountaintop removal in West Virginia.

The seniors are walking five miles each day for five days, ending at Massey subsidiary Mammoth Coal on Monday, Oct. 12. In a statement issued by the US Mine Safety & Health Administration yesterday, Mammoth Coal was named as one of ten mining operators that need to improve performance or face tougher enforcement.

The mountaintop removal mine and processing plant, formerly operated by Cannelton Coal, was bought out by Massey in 2004. Massey cut the United Mine Workers of America contract and reopened the site, located east of Charleston on Route 60, as the non-union Mammoth Coal Company. The decision was met with a UMWA-organized picket and lawsuits.

“Mountaintop removal is closing in on our home place in Coal River, destroying the ridge up and down the river,” said Julian Martin, 73, a coal miner’s son and Vice President of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, “I see mountaintop removal as probably the world’s worst environmental disaster.” Martin’s grandfather fought in the largest organized labor uprising in United States history, the Battle of Blair Mountain.

March organizers Roland Micklem, 81, and Andrew Munn, 23, are planning activities and speaking events each evening, including talks by Larry Gibson of the Keepers of the Mountain Foundation and Jesse Johnson, 2004 and 2008 Green Party gubernatorial candidate at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charleston on Friday and Saturday night.

This action is monumental in demonstrating the way that mountaintop removal mining affects the lives of all humans, regardless of age, occupation, religion or political orientation. In a movement that is characterized by the actions of the “young and the restless” these seniors are taking a stand against the unneccessary destruction of West Virginia’s mountains.

“We seniors need to make a statement with our own actions and share the risks that are part of this ongoing effort to stop the obliteration of West Virginia’s mountains,” said Micklem, a Korean War veteran and former environmental journalist. His organizing philosophy is rooted in Ghandian principles of nonviolent civil disobedience and dialogue with opposition; the energetic senior invited Massey Energy officials to speak with him at the gates of Mammoth Coal Company on Monday. Micklem has not yet received a response.

These seniors are setting an incredible example for young activists, who sometimes have difficulty channeling their passion into peaceful, productive protests.

“As a young person, it is inspiring to see the strength with which senior citizens are stepping forward to meet the task at hand,” said Munn, “Climate justice and the preservation of ecological and cultural heritage are issues for all generations, so I think it is fitting that we see this coalition emerging at the forefront of the movement to stop mountaintop removal.”

Updates and multimedia can be found on www.climategroundzero.org

Image Credit: climategroundzero.net

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Saju G.

12:15AM PDT on Oct 11, 2009

These peaceful proactive protests should be an eye opener for the
high governmental authorities.We should not forget the basic principle of nature.We look after mother nature,and we are protected by the World ecological system.China did deep digging in Tibet to extract industrial metals,and she had a series of major natural calamities.Therefore let us protect the environment.

send a green star

Edith B.

9:02PM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

According to the 11pm news from Huntington, W.V. station WSAZ, several of these protestors were arrested. So much for peaceful demonstrations.Ju

Christine R.

1:14PM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

I applaud the actions of this dedicated group of people. It takes great courage to stand up and fight for what you believe in regardless of the consequences.

Naomi T.

12:17PM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

What a wonderful thing to do to save the environment, I'm in Canada and the seniors suffer greatly with the health system and poverty as many do down the there. We all need to take a stand to save our environment...

Barbara V.

11:40AM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

Wow! Now, that's what I call an endeavor, considering few seniors ever walk that far in a day. I think they ought to do it again, and this time invite the younger set to join them. Anything to thwart the profiteers, who could care less about beauty and the envionment, much less the planet they live on.

11:21AM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

As far as the land environment goes, there's not much more a destructive event than removing mountaintops. It also carries with it health issues as well from suceptible heavy metal storage ponds through dust pollutants to ground and surface water contamination.

Thank goodness for these elderly gents and ladies briging focus and attention to the negative aspects of coal company ethics.

My question is though, where are the more abled bodied people to help promote their just and true cause...

Cate R.

9:24AM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

The obscene practice of mountaintop removal is not only devastating to the environment; it is devastating to the way of life for the people who live in these areas. The massive destruction of valley bottoms caused by dumping of material from the mines, destroys watersheds, fish habitat, animal habitat and puts rare species at risk.
The sooner this type of mining is completely eradicated the better. I highly applaud all efforts to do so.

Clive & June H.

7:50AM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

Quote.."We must join with ths group of Seniors and let our Government know we are tired of this carnage and are not going to allow these people to destroy our beautiful land".

I am an active opponent of the Great Canadian Seal Slaughter and of the decision of the Canadian Government decision to support the Chinese cruelty in their obscenely cruel fur trade. Most Canadians are. But guess what? If your government is anything like our government, they don't give a damn what we think. All that matters is money.

Still, having said that "GO SENIORS". Maybe the US government is more responsive to the concept of responsible custodianship than our Canadian one is. I urge all citizens wherever they may be to boycott Canadian fish products until the "Great Canadian Seal Slaughter" is a sorry figment of Canada's past history.

Genevieve H.

6:59AM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

Well done, but don't forget that if you reduced your energy needs, there would be less incentive for those companies to destroy your beautiful country to mine the coal to supply energy for your air conditioners, your dryers, your huge fridges and freezers, the making of those aluminum cans to hold your useless and unhealthy soft drinks, the plastic bottles for all your other drinks, including water. If you really want to save the environment, then don't buy canned drinks and campaign against them, and use as little electricity as possible or make your own with solar panels. No double standards please.
And if they don't destroy that hill top, they will go and destroy another one somewhere else.
What about the beautiful mountains of the Dongria Khong aboriginal tribe in the Eastern state of Orissa in India, who live in the Niyamgiri hills and who face having their sacred mountain, which they worship as a God because they have always lived there and it provides all their livelihood, entirely destroyed to mine for bauxite to make aluminum for your kitchen foil and your soft drink cans ?
Please watch the beautiful documentary about it at
http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/mine
And please take action for them too, by writing a letter or signing a petition. Thank you.

Ingrid S.

6:20AM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

I'm 65, live in beautiful and so far relatively unspoiled Maine, and if I had the money, I'd drive down there and join the march. If we do not protect our unspoiled areas, we won't have any of them anymore, and once gone, they are very difficult to get back. (Yes, "reclamation" exists, but as nice as it may be by comparison to the damage, it will not equal nature's original.)