I’ve written about the truly heinous practice of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia a number of times, most recently here and here. An amazing activist, Maria Gunnoe, is featured in both the superb documentary, Burning the Future, and in the magisterial book Big Coal. Now Gunnoe has garnered international recognition for her work by winning the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize. Read this interview with her and this profile of her in the indispensable Gristmill.
Photo: Tom Dusenbery
It is fitting that another champion of the forest who has had to fight against mining interests, Marc Ona Essangui of Gabon, has been similarly honored.
There’s a scene near the end of Burning the Future when Gunnoe and some of her colleagues are in New York for the Sustainable Development Commission meetings at the UN, and they visit Times Square at night. She starts howling that all these gaudy signs and flashing lights are killing her community. You can make the connection quite well by this point in the film and it’s a pretty bone-chilling moment. I can’t go by Times Square anymore without thinking of her and the 500+ mountains they’ve destroyed. We can do better – a lot – and because of folks like Gunnoe and Essangui, we will. You can take that to the bank.