Google Is Getting Fired Up Over Mountaintop Removal

Google has partnered up with Appalachian Voices to show just how damaging the process of mountaintop removal mining really is.

The first time I flew over southern West Virginia and saw mountaintop removal coal mining from the air, I knew that if everyone could see what I had seen—mountain after mountain blown up and then dumped into streams in the neighboring valleys—they would think twice about where their electricity came from the next time they flipped a light switch.

That's why we at Appalachian Voices, and our partner groups, created the National Memorial for the Mountains, using Google Earth to tell the stories of more than 470 mountains that have been lost, as the centerpiece of our website www.iLoveMountains.org. We never imagined that those stories would now be available to over 200 million people as part of the latest release of featured content in Google Earth.

If you have Google Earth (or want to download it) I'd highly recommend checking out this feature (find out how by clicking the source link). Not only do they show you the current state of the mountains but they have image overlays from before the mining started.

I've heard a few horror stories from friends and family in southern West Virginia caused by mountaintop removal. There are all sorts of side-effects to this type of mining that really don't make it worthwhile.

Source: Official Google Blog: A bird's eye view of mountaintop destruction with Google Earth