The Impact of Mountaintop Removal Surface Coal Mining on Appalachian Communities

Abstract

The Appalachian area is a major coal producer in the United States of America. Due to the radical methods of extracting the coal, like mountaintop removal, the quality of life in Appalachia has degraded in time and the environment and people’s health are deeply affected. The coal industry in Appalachia is notorious for its ignorance of social and environmental justice and people from the affected areas have to start activist work in order to fight them and regain their rights. In my paper I am going to present the negative effects of mountaintop removal, the activists’ struggles for social and environmental justice, the psychological implications and the Appalachians’ attachment to land.