You’re reading a story from Sidelines 100, a project showcasing a century of student storytelling at Middle Tennessee State University. Sidelines 100 plans to highlight 100 stories from the newspaper archives this fall and spring.
This story originally ran in the April 21, 1987, edition of Sidelines. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay on top of all things Sidelines 100.
The Appalachian Mountains are being destroyed by the coal industry’s practice of mountaintop removal, said Larry Gibson, a well-known environmental activist, on Tuesday during a lecture in the State Farm Room of the Business and Aerospace Building.
Gibson said he has lived in Kayford Mountains, W.VA., “all 65 years of his life,” and he refuses to sell his land to any coal company. He said he continues to fight not just for his home, but also for the home of others despite threats and occasional physical abuse from mine workers.
“My mother gave me birth – the land gave me life,” Gibson said.
He said the clear water system of Appalachia has been replaced with poison because of coal mining.
“For every ton of coal taken out of this land, about 95 gallons of water is used to clean it,” Gibson said, adding that clean natural resources are taken for granted by other states.
Amber Whittington, an environmental activist who is training to be a speaker for the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation, lives in Appalachia and has witnessed the effects of coal mining.
Whittington said “water is precious” and that she is amazed by how clean the water in Tennessee is because where she is from, the water is the color of tea or darker.
She said there are people with cancer and gallbladder problems, and the only thing that these people have in common is the water that they drink.
“People in their 80s shouldn’t have to fight for clean air,” she said, adding she has visited some senior citizens in West Virginia, and the dust buildup in their homes caused by coal mining is more than 2 inches thick.
Gibson said 300 to 400 people, including those who have never stepped foot in a mine, die a year from coal-related diseases, He said coal emissions have caused about 640,000 birth defects.
“If you don’t fight back for the environment, if you just stand by, then you are just as bad as those people,” Gibson said, adding that he hopes people will begin a revolution.
Kayla Connelly, a sophomore majoring in studio art, screamed “hell yeah” when Gibson mentioned starting an environmental revolution.
“I love the environment and want to protect it, and I want to inspire my peers to do the same,” Connelly said, who is a member of Students for Environmental Action.
Gibson said although activists have been able to save some homes, ti was not enough to celebrate just yet.
“I’m not looking for a short-term victory,” Gibson said. “I want to celebrate the end of the war.”
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