scholarly journals Mountaintop removal mining alters stream salamander population dynamics

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (9) ◽  
pp. 1242-1251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Price ◽  
Sara Beth Freytag ◽  
Simon J. Bonner ◽  
Andrea N. Drayer ◽  
Brenee' L. Muncy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
Mountaintop Removal Mining

The Role of Drones in Anti-Mountaintop Removal Activism

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67
Author(s):  
Aron Douglas Massey
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Environmental Activism ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
Appalachian Mountain ◽  
Mountaintop Removal Mining

This research project examines the usefulness of drones in environmental activism, especially within the fight against mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. The paper examines the tactics of Coal River Mountain Watch and the Appalachian Mountain Patrol, anti-MTR activists that use drone surveillance to enhance their fight against this destructive practice. The use of drones increases the complexity of strategies employed by Appalachian activists and challenges many of the traditionally held, but continually critiqued, stereotypes present in Appalachian research. Beyond a deeper understanding of Appalachian activism, this paper investigates the ways in which knowledge production and epistemological assumptions are challenged by less costly and more accessible technologies such as drones.

scholarly journals Increased Dementia Mortality in West Virginia Counties with Mountaintop Removal Mining?

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (21) ◽  
pp. 4278 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Salm ◽  
Michael J. Benson
Keyword(s):  
West Virginia ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Atmospheric Particulate Matter ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
Satellite Imaging ◽  
Mining Sites ◽  
Mountaintop Removal Mining ◽  
Causative Factors ◽  
Type Studies

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is elevated in areas of mountaintop removal mining (MTM), a practice that has been ongoing in some counties of West Virginia (WV) USA since the 1970s. PM inhalation has been linked to central nervous system pathophysiology, including cognitive decline and dementia. Here we compared county dementia mortality statistics in MTM vs. non-MTM WV counties over a period spanning 2001–2015. We found significantly elevated age-adjusted vascular or unspecified dementia mortality/100,000 population in WV MTM counties where, after adjusting for socioeconomic variables, dementia mortality was 15.60 (±3.14 Standard Error of the Mean (S.E.M.)) times higher than that of non-MTM counties. Further analyses with satellite imaging data revealed a highly significant positive correlation between the number of distinct mining sites vs. both mean and cumulative vascular and unspecified dementia mortality over the 15 year period. This was in contrast to finding only a weak relationship between dementia mortality rates and the overall square kilometers mined. No effect of living in an MTM county was found for the rate of Alzheimer’s type dementia and possible reasons for this are considered. Based on these results, and the current literature, we hypothesize that inhalation of PM associated with MTM contributes to dementia mortality of the vascular or unspecified types. However, limitations inherent in ecological-type studies such as this, preclude definitive extrapolation to individuals in MTM-counties at this time. We hope these findings will inspire follow-up cohort and case-controlled type studies to determine if specific causative factors associated with living near MTM can be identified. Given the need for caregiving and medical support, increased dementia mortality of the magnitude seen here could, unfortunately, place great demands upon MTM county public health resources in the future.

scholarly journals Mountaintop Removal Mining and Catchment Hydrology

Water ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 472-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Miller ◽  
Nicolas Zégre
Keyword(s):  
Catchment Hydrology ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
Mountaintop Removal Mining

What Are We Fighting For?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan T. McNeil
Keyword(s):  
Coal Mining ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
Mountaintop Removal Mining ◽  
First Time

This chapter discusses how knowledge of the mountains and getting along in them has taken on renewed importance with the advance of mountaintop removal coal mining and restructuring in the coal industry. For generations, living in the mountains and mining the coal beneath them combined to become the distinctive markers of life in the Appalachian coalfields. The relentless expansion of mountaintop removal mining across the landscape since the late 1980s disrupted this symbiotic relationship between life inside and outside the mines. The spread of mountaintop removal brought a dilemma to dinner tables and living rooms across the region: are they coal people or mountain people? For the first time, many people felt compelled to choose because the two sources of identity, intertwined for so long, now seemed to be in stark opposition.

Earth–world–planet: Rural ecologies of horror and dark green criminology

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill McClanahan
Keyword(s):  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Green Criminology ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Cultural Criminology ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
Mountaintop Removal Mining ◽  
Linguistic Categories ◽  
Dark Green ◽  
Dark Ecology

This article responds to green criminology. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of the coal-producing region of Appalachia and the processes of mountaintop removal mining, the article engages contemporary philosophy, ecocriticism, and “dark ecology” to suggest that green criminology rethink its linguistic categories and epistemological assumptions. The article employs an analysis of some examples of horror cinema to suggest criminological engagement with “ecologies of horror” and the “horrors of ecology” that condition life in the shadow of harmful modes of resource extraction. It concludes with some thoughts on the potential of a “dark” green and green-cultural criminology.

scholarly journals Systematic review of community health impacts of mountaintop removal mining

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 163-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abee L. Boyles ◽  
Robyn B. Blain ◽  
Johanna R. Rochester ◽  
Raghavendhran Avanasi ◽  
Susan B. Goldhaber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Health Impacts ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
Mountaintop Removal Mining
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