By Tim Saunders on February 18, 2009
Actress Ashley Judd joined a rally outside Kentucky’s state Capitol yesterday, February 10, to protest the abhorrent practice known as mountaintop removal.
The Kentucky native joined over 500 people at the rally to raise awareness of the practice in which pristine mountain peaks are blasted to unearth coal.
“Mountaintop removal mining is a tragedy,” she told reporters. “Mountaintop removal mining is a scourge on our land and our people. It’s killing our mountains – the very thing that produced us.”
She went on to say how shocked she was to witness the effects of mountaintop removal when she flew over Appalachian sites last year.
“Mountaintop removal coal mining is devouring vast acreages of irreplaceable hardwood forests,” she said. “Nothing, absolutely nothing could have prepared me for the sheer trauma of seeing mountaintop removal coal mining sites. I flew over barren moonscapes. Where once were ancient, verdant hills, or the most biodiverse forests in the whole of North America, I saw nothingness.”
Kathy Stein, a Democratic state senator from Lexington, is sponsoring legislation that hopes to stop coal companies from filling valleys with the debris from the mountaintops.
10 months ago
LOLZ....I live in Eastern Kentucky, not far from where Ms.Judd was born and grew up. There are no hardwood forests that haven't been taken down before. Trees do grow back after the land is reclaimed.The "scourge of our mountains" is not destroying our land and she has no right to speak out against the coal industry or it's practices. The company I work for has taken great measures to ensure that our impact on the environment has been minimal, and in doing so we have made water quality 90% better in the water ways surrounding our job sites than it was before the first piece of Earth was moved. Thus providing better water for trees and other vegatation to thrive upon. So, with all due respect, anyone that has a problem with mining and mountain-top-removal needs to do a little more research before spouting negative rhetoric about mant peoples means of making a living.
Add your comment →