Liam Johnson ‘22 “Sand”

CH 114 with Dr. Dahl

The piece discusses the negative impacts of the sand mining industry on the environment told through a stop motion video.

Gail Carlson ‘22 “Mountain Top Removal: An Open Letter”,

CHII1 with Dr. Dahl

To those profiting off of MTR:

I assume you don’t understand the damage you’re causing: How else could you continue to perpetuate this harm? Surely, you’re not justifying birth defects and elevated rates of cancer for individual monetary gain. This can’t align with the morals your parents taught you. But if it lines your heavy pockets…

Let’s talk about the devastation you’re causing: Over 500 Appalachian Mountains, 1.2 million acres, have been blown up in the quest for surface coal. You’re quite literally destroying the beauty of nature. But it’s more than the mountains’ beauty you explode. You’re shattering entire ecosystems. Every mountain you’ve ravaged to dust had insects and birds, plants and trees, predators and prey. Every intricately balanced life that called one of those beautiful mountains home is now obliterated. When you blow up these mountains, you kill a mountain full of life. But if destruction lines your heavy pockets…

It’s not just ecosystems and beauty you destroy. The coal you blast into particles infiltrates your workers lungs. It’s breathed into the lungs of their spouses and children, at home, 10 miles away from the explosion. Rates of birth defects, asthma, lung disease and cancer in surrounding communities are elevated. Coal seeps into stream, polluting the water that local communities and wildlife drink. The people who work for you will most likely die prematurely. But if death lines your heavy pockets…

You damage more than just the health of nearby communities: you infiltrate the local economy until you’re the only source of livable income. No other company looks at the coal-polluted towns with elevated risks of cancer and disease and decides that’s where their business will thrive. It leaves local communities—often times high school graduates who cannot afford college degrees—with the choice between a below-the-poverty-line wage at the local gas convenience store or a livable wage that comes with the risk of an early death. But if poverty lines your heavy pockets…

If Mountain Top Removal lines your heavy pockets, you and your morals are directly responsible for destruction, poverty, and death. How can you justify your perpetuation of this atrocious harm?

Please: Reevaluate, rethink, and reconstruct your morals and goals. Ecosystems are at stake. Communities are at stake. Human lives are at stake. Heavy pockets can’t be worth the guilt.

Critically,

Gail Carlson