NewsTrust - Mining - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Appalachia rises as mining razes mountains

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Beth Wellington - Oct. 07 (Opinion) - It's time government woke up and stopped Big Coal trashing our land with its obscene mountaintop-removal mining I've always loved the song Peter and Gordon recorded in the 60s, " Land of Oden ", about a mountain 10,000 miles high and square: Once every million years A little bird comes winging, Sharpens his beak And quickly disappears. And when that mountain, it wears away Then, to eternity will be one single day. On 25 September in Washington, DC, I read to folks preparing to rally, march and sit in during the Appalachia Rising protest the following Monday. My poem " Looking Out Over An Abyss in Boone County " includes the line "mountains should abide." Big Coal has decided against almost-eternity for Central Appalachia. Ours is a war zone. To get at thin seams of coal, Massey and others detonate fertiliser and diesel fuel – the same materials used to build truck bombs. They destroy up to 1,000 vertical feet , dump the resulting rubble into valleys: hauling it away ...

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Justifying war as way to protect — or exploit — a nation's resources

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By David Sirota, - Jun. 19 (Opinion) - The real question about the Pentagon announcing vast mineral deposits in Afghanistan is this: What would prompt the government to portray well-known geology as some sort of blockbuster revelation?

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The Truth About Don Blankenship

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Michael Shnayerson - Apr. 16 (Opinion) - Last week, Diane Sawyer and other national reporters discovered what West Virginians have known for years: Don Blankenship is the Snidely Whiplash of coal, a larger-than-life figure so swaggering and creepy that his each next outrageous claim as chairman and C.E.O. of Massey Energy makes wonderful copy. But in the aftermath of the explosion that killed 29 at his Upper Big Branch mine an hour or so south of Charleston, they weren’t sure how to react when Don, in that soft Appalachian twang of his, declared Massey’s safety record better than the industry average, and said, in effect, that coal mining is a dangerous business and that accidents happen. Soon enough, they realized Don’s claim was flat wrong:

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An old, sad story at a West Virginia mine

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By E.J. Dionne Jr. - Apr. 08 (Opinion) - Blankenship is also a poster child for why we need campaign finance laws and why recent moves by the U.S. Supreme Court to weaken them are so dangerous. Blankenship spent $3 million to help elect a justice to the West Virginia Supreme Court who then twice provided the key vote that set aside a $50 million jury verdict against Massey Energy.

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Funding terror

Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The News International (PK) - May. 11 (Editorial) - Scant attention has thus far been paid to how the Taliban and some other extremist groups fund their operations. The ‘traditional’ picture is that there is a global network of informal funders and sympathizers, as well as at least two large state players in the Muslim world. Yet a picture is now emerging which tells a very different story as to how these groups get their money and sustain themselves – with three natural resources namely gemstones, timber and marble featuring strongly. The Afghan Taliban have long made their money in the opium trade, and to a small extent they do that in Pakistan; but Pakistan has always been a small-scale opium producer and the Taliban and others need bigger bucks. Necessity, goes the saying, is the mother of invention, and income diversity is now the name of the game.

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