ENVS 4950: Integrative Seminar in Environmental Studies, ETSU Spring 2012
Taking High Ground: The Grassroots Effort to End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in Southern Appalachia
Tanner West – Customized Syllabus
Updated May 1, 2012
Statement of Purpose:
I am interested in devoting my career to non-profit work focused on efforts to promote environmental and social justice. One of the greatest ecological injustices in America today is being carried out near my own home in the mountains of Southern Appalachia. Mountaintop removal coal mining causes irreversible damage to the environment and also endangers communities in the areas surrounding it, and needs to be stopped.
Additional Texts:
ñ Bringing Down the Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal on Southern West Virginia Communities. Shirley Stewart Burns. West Virginia University Press, 2007. 248 pages.
ñ Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness Radical Strip Mining and the Devestation of Appalachia. Erik Reece. Riverhead Trade, 2007. 288 pages.
Service Placement:
ñ Mountain Justice Spring Break
ñ Appalachia, VA
Mountain Justice is an organization devoted to uniting people in the effort to stop the surface mining of coal, particularly mountaintop removal. The group was formed through the combined efforts of Environmental organizations across southern Appalachia in order to create a unified front in the battle against MTR mining. The group occasionally organizes 'action camps' for educating interested parties. I spent most of spring break at such a camp in Appalachia, Virginia. The goal of Mountain Justice Spring Break was to educate those interested in environmental activism (mostly students like myself) about the issues surrounding mountaintop removal, what is being done to stop it, and how to get communities involved. Organizers of the event held workshops ranging from basic introductions to mountaintop removal to broader topics such as organizing communities to direct action in general. Participants also took the opportunity to do service work in Appalachia and the surrounding communities and the week culminated in a public protest against mountaintop removal.