(Cross-posted at the Appalachian Voices blog)
Reading Jerome a Paris' diary on the YKos energy panel, as well as the Energize America page really got me fired up this mornin. Great stuff!
The Center for American Progress recently did a broad survey about "faith, values, and "the common good" in America, and I thought it had a lot to say in regards to energy production. There is a slideshow of the results here.
Some interesting things...
Firstly, out of the four major regions, the South made up 35% of the total sample of participants. So we were definitely well represented, if not even a bit overly so.
When Americans were asked if it was their moral and social responsibility to be good stewards of land, air, water, and to leave the environment better than we found it, a whopping 80% said yes. It was the most agreed upon of all the issue statements in the survey.
Asked to name the most serious moral crisis in America today, 28% of Americans cite "kids not raised with the right values"; followed by 22% saying "corruption in government/business"; 17% saying "greed and materialism" or "people too focused on themselves.""
I've always been a believer in people.
This survey proves that Americans...
1) Want to leave the land better than they found it.
2) Believe that one of the most serious moral crises in our country is rampant corruption in government business, and greed/materialism.
That's why we don't have to lie or exaggerate the way the government or the coal companies have to. We just have to show them what is happening to our mountains.
Welcome to the 500,000 acres of Appalachia that have been destroyed.Thats half-a-million acres of the oldest mountain chain in the Americas. Once as big as the alps, the Appalachians have lost 6 kilometers in height through millions of years of natural erosion and weathering. Now mountains are being taken down in less than a year. For coal.
Check out Appalachian Voice's new MTR Photo Gallery for more sobering evidence of the destruction.
You can also ask your representative to co-sponsor the "Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2719)" which would end mountaintop removal. Just let them know that, since 4 out of every 5 Americans think we should leave the environment better than we found it, stopping mountaintop removal would be both beneficial to our country, and extremely popular.